The Kevin Sheehan Show - Skins Changes Coming

Episode Date: December 27, 2019

Kevin opens with some thoughts and information on potential Redskins' changes with the season ending. Now that Dwayne Haskins' season is over, Kevin recapped his seven starts and talked about his future. Kevin had 7 weekend Smell Test picks and talked about the NFL's biggest games on the final Sunday of the season. Some college football semifinal and Kirk Cousins talk too. <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. Corbyn is in for Aaron, who is traveling on this holiday week and next week as well. Hope everybody had a great holiday. I did, but nobody cares about what we had going on. I did say, and I mentioned this earlier on radio, I did really check out for the most part when it came to social media. for a few days. I got word late Monday maybe the night before Christmas Eve. That was Monday night, right? Monday was the 23rd. That there weren't going to be any major Redskins announcements in the next few days anyway. So I was able to sort of, you know, confidently check out a little bit. I watch sports. I watch the Monday night game. I've got some thoughts on that coming up. And certainly a little bit of the NBA, not a lot of the NBA on Christmas Day, right, Corvin? I mean, we used

to watch a lot of the NBA. We barely watched any of it this year. So we didn't do much of that. But I really last night, late yesterday afternoon and last night, started to get caught up on a lot of things. I wanted to listen to some of the Callahan press conferences. I had heard the news that Dwayne wasn't going to start this week, that he wasn't going to play, that he'd been ruled out, tweeted something on that, which got a lot of response, which I will get to as well. And then last night, people started sending me a couple of reports that were out there. A report from at the sports groove on Twitter. I've since this morning learned that this is a guy that was in media for a while, may still be in media to a certain degree. He had a report that the Redskins

were going to fire their entire coaching staff on Monday named Urban Meyer head coach. And he also tweeted out, expect a front office shakeup too with a change in director of player with a promotion from within. He also tweeted out Alex Smith moving to the front office. Decision was made by Snyder in the Bahamas. So people wanted my response to that. And then Albert Breer earlier this week said that the Redskins had kicked around the idea of having an executive vice president of football operations to oversee everything. And then Benjamin Albright, the guy out in Colorado that's, you know, had the news about Eric B. Enemy being a target for the Redskins and various other things.

He basically said the Urban Meyer thing wasn't true. So there's been some reporting over the last 24 hours. And then since early this morning, even more reporting. This from Albert Breer Sports Illustrated. He wrote this morning that the Redskins are going to move fast. More changes could be coming on the football side as soon as Monday. He wrote, obviously the big question is going to relate to the status of team president Bruce Allen. Owner Dan Snyder has led the process over the last couple of months. He's

been alone for parts of it. I'm talking about Snyder's process over the last couple of months. And by design has kept the vast majority of those in the organization in the dark on where it stands as he looks to remake his team. But there's a belief he's pretty far along at this point. And then Breer wrote ex-Panthers coach Ron Rivera could be one to watch there. Monday is going to be a day in which there's going to be, there's going to be some, you know, it's going to be some answers. We're going to have some news.

Now, I basically mentioned this morning on my radio show what I'll mention right now. I, based on some conversations that I've had over the last 24 hours, Bill Callahan's not coming back as the head coach here next year. Greg Minnusky's not going to be the defensive coordinator here next year. This I am very confident in. Now, that's hardly a revelation, although some of you thought that it was still a possibility that they could be back. They're not going to be back. Not as head coach and defensive coordinator, certainly not Minusky in any capacity.

I do believe that Callahan is respected and his work's been appreciated by Dan in particular, Bruce for sure. But Dan wants to need something new. I also, in response to the Urban Meyer report, I don't have anything new than what I told you a week ago today. And that is that I wouldn't be surprised anymore if Urban Meyer was, you know, if we get to Monday, December 30th, and Urban Meyer is a part of this organization. I don't know if it's as a head coach or a front office guy, GM, team president. I don't know. But a week and a half ago, I told you I would be absolutely shocked and I would guarantee.

that it doesn't happen. And then last Friday, Adam Schaefter had a report about Urban Meyer wanting to pursue an NFL gig and, you know, is interested in the NFL. And a couple of follow-up conversations I had said, don't be super shocked if Meyer, you know, ends up in Washington. So I'd, look, I'd still be surprised. I just wouldn't hit the floor with surprise if it happens. But I can't tell you anything than that. That's what I knew a week ago. is that it wouldn't be the biggest shocker to a lot of people in the know if it did happen, but I don't know anything else on Urban Meyer. What I did learn in a couple of my conversations over the last 24 hours is that Marvin Lewis is a legitimate candidate for the head coaching job here next year.

I don't know if he'll be the head coach here next year, but that he is someone who Dan Snyder's familiar with, that he trusts from just that one year that he was here with Steve Sprier in 2012. too is the defensive coordinator. Marvin Lewis obviously has had a long career as a head coach. I don't know how in demand Marvin Lewis is going to be. I would also suggest to you that if Marvin Lewis, that Marvin Lewis has interest in the Washington job and that the Redskins have legitimate interest in Marvin Lewis,

whether or not that's the direction they choose to go in, I'm just telling you that that is a name that now has popped up multiple times for me over the last 24 hours and is a candidate for the job here next year. Marvin Lewis is an example of someone who would not resist Bruce Allen being in the building. So understand that about Marvin Lewis. They're probably the Ron Rivera thing. My first gut instinct on Ron Rivera is Ron Rivera might not care that Bruce Allen is in the building anymore.

So all of that would be concerning. I still believe Bruce Allen's going to go. but I'm sure I'm going to be proven wrong on that. We'll see on Monday. I also do believe, based on some of the conversations that I've had with various people, that there will be potentially an out-of-the-box kind of higher. And Alex Smith, maybe. Maybe somebody else. Maybe somebody else that would be certainly perceived as out-of-the-box. Somebody who may not currently be employed in a... an organization as a front office person or as a coach or anywhere else. That's not going to shock me if there is some sort of an announcement next week of a hire that would be perceived as out of the box. And I think that's what Alex Smith would be. Somebody tweeted me a little while ago. The only out of the box move would be to fire Bruce Allen. That would be out of the box at this point. Yeah, I get it. I also said this morning, and already this is not going to happen, that I wouldn't

be surprised if Rahim Morris was mentioned with the Redskins in terms of their head coaching availability. And I said this morning, I don't know if that would be a Rooney Rule thing or whether it would be sincere interest. Rahim Morris is very respected around the league. He's done a very good job in Atlanta where now it's been reported by Albert Breer and others that Thomas Demetroff, Dan Quinn, Rahim Morris, they're all coming back to Atlanta. You know, the Falcons played pretty well over the last month and a half. They've won five of seven games. They've played like I think a lot of people felt they might play at the beginning of the year. Rahim Morris, most of you know him from here. Most of you remember him in brief in Tampa as the head coach.

He's older. He's respected. He's smart. He is a guy that players absolutely love. But he is staying in Atlanta. So anyway, that also tells me that Morris knew that he wasn't going to to be seriously considered here in Washington if he's already back on board as the defensive coordinator in Atlanta for next year. And maybe Raheem Morris is thinking to himself, you know what, if we live up to our potential next year in Atlanta, you know, with the way they're finishing, you probably look at the Falcons and say, you know, the Falcons could be a team next year to deal with that maybe this time next year, Rahim Morris has even better options and is more in demand potentially. So anyway, recapping.

based on conversations that I've had, Callahan's out, he's not going to be the head coach next year, Minoski's out, he's not coming back as the defensive coordinator. Again, none of that, you know, super revealing news. I think most people would have leaned heavily in that direction anyway. Marvin Lewis is a candidate for this job, someone that interests Dan Snyder and someone who would be interested in working here for Dan Snyder. And an out-of-the-box hire is very much in play as it relates to the front office. So keep an eye on all of that. On the Urban Meyer front, again, I wouldn't be shocked anymore. I wouldn't lean in that direction either, despite some of the reporting from last night.

But anyway, we're going to know. Monday, we're going to come in here, and at the very least, at the very least, I think we will know who was let go. We may not know who's going to be hired. In fact, usually you don't get that on the day. Usually it takes a few days, sometimes even longer than that. I do hope that on Monday we hear from the owner. I do hope on Monday we hear from Dan Snyder. I hope that if I, so here's what I would prefer. I would prefer a complete reboot as I wanted a year ago. It would have been smart now in hindsight, right, to have rebooted everything a year ago, to have, you know, said goodbye to Bruce in the front office, except for a couple of people in the front office that you really thought had talent, you know, like Kyle Smith, the coaching staff. You got rid of them after week five, your head coach.

It would have been smart to reboot the entire coaching staff last January. It would have been smart to take the Alex Smith cap hit in one year. It would have been smart to cut guys like Josh Norman and try to trade guys like Ryan Kerrigan, Josh Norman even, and certainly Trent Williams. even a guy like Jordan Reed early last year, you may have had a chance to get something back in return for Jordan Reed. They didn't do it. They're going to finish 3 and 13, maybe 4 and 12, hopefully 3 and 13. And they've got to start thinking about doing it now a year after the fact. They could have saved themselves a year in this process.

We'll see if it happens on Monday. You know, if Bruce is back and they hire and it's just a whole coaching staff, you know, change and maybe an elevation from Kyle Smith, you know, to a higher title, that's not going to fly with most of you. It's not going to fly with me either. The record is under Bruce Allen's reign as team president, 6298 in 1, or whatever it is at this point. I'm losing track. It's still stuck on 62 on the win column. And it's not good enough. And more importantly, the organization has chased away most of its fans, and those that are left are skeptical and don't trust completely most of those. And they're not going to be revitalized, if you will, until Bruce is gone. He is

enemy number one right now of the fan base or what's left of it, and doesn't seem to be capable of producing positive results. So anyway, I would like to see Dan speak on Monday. I think that you know, if they fire Bruce and Bill, what I'd like to see is, you know, a total reboot. Bruce gone, Bill gone. Dan speaks. He thanks Bruce and Bill, you know, for their service. I'd like to see him apologize to the fan base, acknowledge his part in the lack of organizational success. I think he needs to speak to and emphasize that he does, in fact, want to win because the process and the results would reflect the desire of someone who doesn't believe winning is very important. You know, we've heard over the years, oh, he wants to win. He'll spend anything to win.

He'll do anything to win. It's not that he doesn't want to win. I'll debate you on that. There isn't a process in place, and there's been many failures to have learned from that wrong process if he really, really wanted to win. He wants to win, but also wants to be involved. And the two cannot coexist. They can't. I hope he promises to do better and announces that a whole new reboot with a new front office and coaching staff will be announced as soon as possible that they're working on it. That's all he has to do on Monday, you know? It's all he has to do. He's got to say, thank you, Bruce. Thank you, Bill and staff for your service. I apologize to all of you for what's gone on here, for the lack of success. I acknowledge my role in it. I'm the root cause of this thing. I own the

team, the buck stops here. I want to win and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to win. And if that is finding the best football person and turning over the entire operation to that person, I'll do whatever it takes to win. I promise to do better. Stay in touch. We're going to be announcing a new front office and a new staff in the coming days. Thank you very much. If he doesn't want to take questions, that's fine. I think he should, but you got to be ultra, ultra prepared for that. Anyway, we'll see. I think the Monday podcast, the Monday radio show on 980, starting at 7 a.m. I think, you know, there may be less news at 7 a.m. than there is at 10.30 a.m.

when we start to record the podcast. So we'll see what happens. But I expect certainly something other than the status quo on Monday. If it's the status quo, God help us all. Because that would not be a good thing. All right, a quick word about mybooky.ag. If you're looking for a place to wager on all these bowl games, and there are lots of them,

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I mean, come on. I mean, do we really have to do that this week? You know, for all of those weeks during the course of the season, I would say we've got to stay in practice because, you know, eventually, hopefully one day it's going to mean something. The Redskins will beat the Cowboys if the Cowboys bail on the game because the Eagles are crushing the Giants simultaneously. Most of you understand what that means. The Cowboys have to win and the Eagles have to lose for them to get to the postseason,

and the games are going to be going on simultaneously. If the first score, one of the first scores you see from the Meadowlands, and the Cowboys see this, let's say it a halftime, jump to halftime. It's halftime and it's 1310 Cowboys over the Redskins, and the Eagles are up 21 to 3. Well, they're going to think it's over, and then at that point the Redskins might have a chance. Here's the one thing you know about the Redskins under Bill Callahan. They are going to try to win this game. They've got 15 new DBs off the scrap heap, again, doing everything they can,

not to play Josh Norman this week, but they are going to do everything they can with the players on the field and the coaches on the sideline to try to win the damn game. And winning the game could be catastrophic in terms of where it drops them in draft order next year. You can say all you want. It's the Cowboys. I can't imagine rooting for the Cowboys against the Redskins. Try it out this week. Okay?

Try it out. Because it's the best thing. The best thing for the organization is to lose to the Cowboys on Sunday to lock up the number two pick and have a chance to draft Chase Young. To have a chance if you don't want Chase Young to trade that pick for a haul of additional picks. You know, they traded their second rounder to move up into the first round to draft Montez Sweat. They don't have a second round pick this year. How about, you know, the possibility of adding another first, a second, maybe an additional second, maybe a third or a fourth, whatever it would be. Come on, beating the Cowboys on Sunday means nothing to next year or beyond.

Nothing. And now that Dwayne Haskins isn't starting the game, I want them to lose even more. Anyway, I don't know how they beat the Cowboys. Dak Prescott has hurt, you know, the Cowboys motivation, you know, losing to the Eagles, you wonder whether or not. they even want to go to the playoffs. They know that there's big changes coming in that organization. You know, the matchups, I don't even know who we're going to see on the field to try to assess matchups. I can tell you this, if the Redskins don't stop the run, which they've had difficulty doing,

all they've got to do is hand it off to Zeke Elliott, you know, first down, second down, third down, and Prescott can do that with one shoulder. I think that's his injury. I think it's a shoulder. Anyway, God, don't win that game. I mean, you could drop to fourth or fifth with a win. Disastrous. I can tell you this.

Front office people are absolutely hoping they lose this game. If you're the general man, if you're Kyle Smith or if you're, you know, Dan Snyder, or even if you're in another organization that's more stable in terms of the people knowing that they're coming back next year. You know, in Miami maybe, I don't know. Detroit, you know, already Matt Patricia's coming back. You think the front office wants them to go out and win a game and lose draft spots? No, they don't. They're privately rooting for a competitive loss, which the Redskins have done a great job

of doing the last two weeks. Two very competitive losses to the Eagles and the Giants back-to-back. All right, I wanted to get to Joanne Haskins, who has been ruled out with the ankle for Sunday. And I think it's, you know, now that his season's over, we have the ability to talk about his season and then project what he's going to be moving forward. I'm first of all thankful that we got to see him this year, that we got to see him for seven starts, six and a half games roughly, you know, since he took over the starting role against Buffalo, when Casey's Keenham got hurt in the Minnesota game the Thursday night prior to that, or a week and a half prior to that. And it gave him plenty of time to prepare for his first start.

And I actually thought in that first start, he showed some things that were really positive in that first start. And I'll get to all of that. But the bottom line with Haskins was this guy started seven games. He was fearless, never looked afraid for a moment, never looked overwhelmed to me at any point in time. He was fiercely competitive. You could see that going back to the preseason games. That is his makeup. That's his personality. He's a competitive, confident guy. Some of you might say too confident. Some of you might say overly cocky. He's competitive. He's confident. He wasn't overwhelmed.

And a lot of the anxiety over him playing at all this year, which came from a lot of the former players in particular. You know, this year should be a redshirt year. It'd be fine with me if he doesn't and play at all this year and just sits and learns from Case and Colt. Thank God that didn't happen. I mean, can you imagine sitting here and only having a couple of tweets to, and maybe a reserve appearance against the Giants to evaluate them on? I mean, seriously, of course a bad football team is going to play a first round quarterback. That's the way it happens.

It never, rarely doesn't happen. We went through all those examples. You know, he's the, he's only the fourth quarterback in the last 10 years picked in the top half of the draft to not start a game in his first five games as a rookie. We had to wait until week nine or week eight, no, week nine for him to start against Buffalo. He made steady progress during the course of this year. The last two starts were clearly his best. I mean, it's not even close. You know, you look at some of those starts there for a while, and I know I was positive.

about some of the things that he had done against Buffalo and the Lions. I remember a lot of you thought, you know, that lion game in which they won, and he engineered two short drives, but two had clutch throws on both of those drives, and I thought he had played a winning football. I had said that. I said, I think he had a winning performance. I don't care about his QBR. I don't care about what it says statistically.

And some of you thought that I was literally blind and had gone nuts. And it was just little things that I was. was picking up on, trying to focus in on some of the positive, because the positive to me is the stuff that you want to learn. You want to learn, you know, how does he manage the team? Well, you know, he wasn't overwhelmed. There weren't a lot of delay of game penalties. There weren't a lot of, you know, getting out of the huddle on time and getting the ball snapped. There weren't a lot of timeouts that had to be used because he didn't know what the F he was doing. We didn't see a lot of that. You know, I wanted to see that he could manage a game. I wanted to see what he looked like under

duress. You know, I wanted to see what he looked like against, you know, a defense that changed and he didn't read correctly. How is he going to compete? What kind of urgency is he going to have? Is he going to look down at the rush when he's under siege? Never did that. His eyes are always down the field. Those are the things you can see.

And whether it's the coaching staff that's going to coach him next year or whether it's, you know, decent talent or not good enough talent around him, who cares? A lot of those things you can measure. You can get a sense of. a lot of what I got a sense of watching him was much more positive than negative, even in some of those performances that statistically weren't very good. The first game against Buffalo, you know, it was not a good game statistically. He got sacked four or five times through for like 140 yards, you know,

but there were two third down conversions, one in particular on a third and six with the outside linebacker, Milano bearing down on him, never even looked at him, and threw in anticipation of, um, of Paul Richardson on an out route beyond the sticks for a first down. I said, wow, that's a big-time anticipation throw. He never flinched under pressure. You know, that jet game was a disaster from the start. Okay, the defense was terrible, the offense was terrible.

It was his worst game by far, even though he came back late in the game. He got bum rushed early. You know, the Jets took the opening kickoff, went right down the field and scored, and then a drive or two later. They went another, you know, 70-some yards for a score. The defense was terrible. You take that jet game out. That was the aberration.

You know, every other game, you can point to things that he did well in. I'm not going to point to the end of the jet game in garbage time. That was a true garbage-time touchdowns. Remember, they hadn't scored a touchdown in over a month at that point. The line game, the final two drives for two field goals to win the game. Yeah, he forgot to go out for the last play to take the knee because he was taking selfies with fans. That was not great.

It was not great. Hopefully a growing experience. The Panthers game, much more accurate. You know, statistically, again, not brilliant, but made some plays. You know, when they had to have plays. That was a big-time game from Darius Geis, if you recall, and Adrian Peterson. They rushed for 260 or whatever in that game, and they beat the Panthers. And then the Packer game, there were moments.

There were a couple of third and longs. He hit Kelvin Harmon on a third and long. and he got banged up in that game. That was the game, of course. Everybody said, get him out of there. He's going to, I mean, his life's at stake if you don't get him out. And Callahan's like, he's a competitor. He's fine.

He may be a little bit dramatic with the injuries, as we may have learned this year. They're keeping him out of this game Sunday because it's the season finale. You know, if it had been a couple of weeks ago, I bet there's a chance he may have played this Sunday. I don't know. I can be wrong. And then the Eagle and the Giant game, lights out. Lights out performances, both of them. You know, statistics.

and everything else from him was lights out. This is the kind of guy that, you know, looks the part. He's got the size. He's got the arm strength. What he has, surprisingly to me, is he's got much better mobility, much better extend the play ability inside the pocket and outside the pocket. What we learned about him this year is he doesn't fear pass rush. He's not a guy that, you know, all the sudden falls apart. Here comes the rush and he ducks and takes the hit. You know, he's a guy that hangs in there and makes throws. He tries. He tries to. He tries to. He tries to. He tries to. He tries to. He tries to. He tries to. He tries to. He tries to to get the hell out of there and make a play, you know, which he did the other day against the Giants on that opening drive in the red zone where he escaped the pocket and through to Sims Jr. statistically, clearly his best day is a 143.2 passer rating against the Giants, a 92.1 QBR against the Giants. These are just numbers. I use them, and I look at them. You know, most of you understand that I don't just make an evaluation based off box score reading. I don't like that I like to watch the game and sometimes the numbers match up. Sometimes they don't. The Detroit game, he had a very low passer rating and a very low QBR rating. But to me, he played

a winning performance at the end of the game when his team needed him the most. Jimmy Garoppolo's passer rating and that Saturday night win over the Rams and QBR rating was super low. But he delivered on two third and 16s with the game and the number one seed still on the line. Under siege the entire game from Aaron Donald, among others, and Dante Fowler Jr. He had his, in his last two games, he went 31 of 43 for 394 yards, four touchdowns, no picks. And he only got sacked in those games three times, you know? And, you know, he didn't have, in the giant game in particular, he didn't have the running game that he had at times, you know, since he started. You know, Peterson, there wasn't a lot of running room for him.

Thompson had a couple of decent runs. You know, it was not the same running attack that they had had and enjoyed to sort of make things easier for him. He had to do a lot of that with his arm. And they picked two defenses against Philly and the Giants to get him some good confidence going. And the Philadelphia defense in particular, their past defense has been awful, although it looked better last week against Prescott and the Cowboys. But netting it out on Dwayne Haskins, I didn't love him coming out. Most of you know that in the draft.

I did not think he was a first round pick. I did not think he would be an elite NFL quarterback. I was really skeptical about his bust. I was really skeptical about his future and thought his bust potential was high. Draft, you know, opinions are draft opinions. The experts get it wrong 60 to 70% of the time. All right, we as fans or analysts, you know, get it wrong more times than we get it right. So you have to wait, you know, you have to be open-minded.

I was open-minded on Dwayne. I said that from the jump. I'm like, I want to see it. I mean, I thought, you know, I thought Josh Doxon was a great pick by the Redskins. You know, I thought he was going to be a great receiver. There's a lot of shit you don't know. You're not in there conducting the due diligence interviews. You're not talking to coaches.

You're not talking to players and teammates. There's a lot we don't know. We just watch the games. I was not a fan of Dwayne Haskins. I am much more of a fan now. I saw in training camp a guy that competes. I saw in training camp a guy that looked like he was thinner. And as it turns out, I mean, he admitted to John Kime.

He lost a lot of body fat. He was quicker. He was more mobile. He had the sense in the pocket of where the pressure. was coming and it didn't bother him. He had good footwork in the pocket. Now, sometimes when he threw inaccurately, you could tell it was a footwork issue, something that can be worked on and can be improved. He threw with anticipation more times than he didn't. He, you know, would take off and try to get the extra yard. Sometimes probably not in not the right call to try to duck his head down

to get an extra yard or two, but it showed a lot of fight, a lot of urgency to me. To me, what I've learned about Dwayne Haskins after seven starts is that his bust potential is near zero for me. That's my belief. I just don't see him being a complete and utter bust. And there are lots of them in the draft at that position. I don't see Haskins being a bust. I also see Haskins, but let me just say at the same time, I don't think I'm convinced about him becoming an elite quarterback.

I am more encouraged about that being a possibility than I was before, but I'm not convinced that he's going to be elite. I'm not even convinced that he's going to be one of those guys in the 10 to 15 range, a guy that you would call, you know, franchise guy, you know, a guy that's, you know, good enough, you put a good team around him to win with. I'm not even totally convinced on that yet, although I would lean that he's at least that.

He's definitely a starter in the NFL for years to come. At what level? We'll have to find out. I don't see him as a bust after seven starts. Could be completely wrong. Could see a guy that had two great games and it goes to his head and he's not very mature and could fall apart in terms of his preparation. This is a big year, big offseason for him. He's got to learn how to work.

He's got to learn how to prepare. He's got to work on the – but you know what we heard here towards the end of the year? Some of the things that I heard early in the year, that he is coachable, that he is a good teammate. And I think some of the quotes that came out last week in that Kime column from Chris Thompson. And additional comments from guys like Chris Thompson, that they've been blown away by how much he's developed and how much he's learned and how much he's progressed. That's a sign of a guy that's coachable. You know, he's going to have a new staff. Maybe not a new offensive coordinator, though.

Maybe Kevin O'Connell stays on as the offensive coordinator with Marvin Lewis. Or if Albert Breers Wright with Ron Rivera. because both of those guys are defensive guys. Maybe Kevin O'Connell stays on, and he's got some consistency on the offensive side of the ball. I thought O'Connell called some good games down the stretch with Dwayne. I thought he did. I'm encouraged. I'm optimistic about Dwayne Haskins.

It was never going to be a situation with the owner where another quarterback was going to be a possibility in 2020 and beyond. But with us, you know, in our conversations about the team, it was always possible that he was going to look terrible and that we were all going to say, we got to consider Tua. We got to consider Burrough if he's there. We got to consider, you know, Jake Fromm or, you know, Justin Herbert or anybody else in the draft. Well, quarterback's not going to be on the list for the Redskins in the 2020 draft. Just will not happen. I also believe that that's one of the reasons that they will go. defensive head coach and leave O'Connell in place.

I think that that's becoming a better possibility because the defensive head coach is more likely than not going to go along with Haskins. And Haskins is shown enough to go along with. He has. Hope everything, you know, he gets, you know, somebody brought up on the phone lines this morning on the radio show that, you know, they don't like his smugness during these press conference. They consider him to be smug. And I know that some of these press conferences, I mean, everybody's got their own perspective on this thing, and it's based on everybody's

own life experience. There have been some of those press conferences that he's had and some of the things that he's tweeted, like, you know, hey, Black Friday sales for my clothing line and Cyber Monday take advantage of it. And I'd rather see him totally focused on football. I'd rather see him be come off as more likable and less cocky during a press conference. But here's what I've chalked it up to. I think there's a distrust. Dwayne with the media. I think that that stems from early in the year when there were leaks coming out of the building about how he wasn't prepared, how he wasn't working hard. And I think, you know, some of that has put him in a distrusting mode with the media. He's very careful about what he wants

to say. I also think that he's cocky and confident, you know, has a lot of confidence and that sometimes there is a default there that says, you know, I'm good and I can handle this. But I think the distrust and the dysfunctional environment that he came in to Washington with. A head coach that didn't want him, a head coach it more likely than not wasn't going to be here, a head coach it needed to win right away to have any chance of continuing to be here. The whole thing was set up for it to be dysfunctional for Duane. You know, it's not hard for us to see that. Clearly it was difficult for them to see it. But sometimes, as we know, from following this team over the years, The easiest stuff is the stuff they miss.

It's just not something that, you know, again, we're not talking about the brightest bulbs on the bush in Ashburn over the years. It was not a great situation that Dwayne came into. I feel sorry for him in many ways, but he got to a good situation, hopefully. I don't think that Callahan needs to be a part of it, and I don't think he will, as I mentioned before. But the more and more I think about it, I think a defensive head coach with Kevin O'Connor, and hopefully a new front office is the way to go. We'll see.

We'll see starting on Monday. If you didn't know, we have an app now. If you have an iPhone, you can get it in the App Store, the Kevin Sheehan's show app. If you're on an Android, you can get it in the Google Store. Let us know what you think. It works. It's got all of our, it's got my personal Twitter account attached to it. Also, the show's Twitter account, Facebook page, all of that.

Just another way to listen to the show if you're interested in that. All right, let's get to the smell test. Kevin looks where the John Q public is putting their cash and does the opposite. It's time for the smell test. All right, last week was 5, 5 and 1. It started off great on Saturday. It was 4.0 and 1 on Saturday and then 1 in 5 on the NFL Sunday. This is a really difficult NFL card.

The season ender. God, it flies by. This is it. The regular season's over after Sunday night this week. And then we get ready for the NFL playoffs. But it's a really hard. NFL card, in part because you don't know who's motivated and who isn't to play. And that goes for these bowl games as well.

A lot of times you get these games in which, you know, teams, especially the big name schools that are in a lesser bowl game, aren't motivated. And you have to take that into consideration as well. Here are the games that fit the smell test criteria, which is essentially anti-public sides, along with sides that potentially are generating some sharp action. Start with today. Southern Cal, who's bringing back Helton as the head coach, and I don't know if anybody saw this or not. USC, all right, this is Southern California football, ended up with the lowest rated class, recruiting class in the PAC 12 last week on signing day. that's unbelievable. Clay Hilton for SC fans is basically what Bruce Allen is for Redskins fans.

They don't want him back, and yet he's coming back. I actually think he did a pretty good job this year with SC. You know, they were down to their third quarterback in week two. They lost their two quarterbacks in the first two games of the season. And they ended up, you know, being a competitive team for much of the year. team that actually is pretty explosive offensively. They won their final three games. They led their last game against a really good team came against Oregon. And Oregon, and it was tight early, and then Oregon opened up a can of whoop-ass on them in the second half, and they lost 56 to 24.

Since then, they beat the team that beat Oregon, Arizona State. They beat Arizona State. They beat Cal, and they blew out UCLA, 52 to 33. and UCLA had been playing better. They had a chance against Notre Dame and South Bend. They lost a game early to BYU early in the year. They had the only regular season win over Utah this year. They're a good football team with talented players.

I don't know what their motivation will be. I think the players love Helton. I don't think that the big money people at SC wanted Helton back. They're playing Iowa. Iowa had a pretty good year. Iowa's 9 and 3 this year. Really good defensive team. I like SC.

The public likes Iowa to win this game. There's some sharp action initially on Iowa, and it's come back here late a little bit on Southern Cal. The numbers at 2.5 now, so buy that half point and take USC plus the three. I use the Friday lines on Covers.com, so I've got to stick here for smell test purposes with USC plus 2.5. Let's go to Saturday tomorrow. Notre Dame's a three and a half point favorite as a 10-and-2 team over 7 and 5 Iowa State.

Give me Iowa State plus the three and a half. Matt Campbell is such a good job. They're such a well-coached team. This is the Camping World Bowl. I don't even know where that is. Somewhere in Florida more likely than not. I like Iowa State to win outright, but take them plus the three and a half. They are actually this weekend the biggest anti-public play on the board, including in the NFL.

Memphis is playing Penn State in the Cotton Bowl. tomorrow. You know, we're many years removed from the Cotton Bowl and the Rose Bowl and the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, all being on New Year's Day. They get scattered all around as we know, and they have been for 10 years now. The Cotton Bowl tomorrow kicks off a big day of bowls, which concludes with the two semi-final games in the Peach Bowl and in the Fiesta Bowl. So Penn State's laying seven to Memphis. The public loves Penn State against Memphis. is going to be motivated, watch. Penn State has struggled at times offensively. They're pretty good defensive team. They're laying seven. Public thinks it's short. I'll take Memphis

plus the seven in the Cotton Bowl. And then I like Ohio State. The public is on Clemson, not overwhelmingly on Clemson. But man, if you listen to a lot of the experts talk about it, they think Clemson's gotten a bad rap as an underrated team playing in the ACC, not good. And they're really building up the fact that Clemson is just as good and maybe better than last year's national championship team. Well, to me, it's like all the talk is Clemson. I'll take Ohio State with points plus two. These two teams played a few years ago in a semifinal that Clemson blew Ohio State out. And I gave it out pretty much as my lock of the year, Clemson over Ohio State. There are certain games I remember, especially end of year where I feel so confident.

and a few years ago I felt really confident that Clemson was just flat out better than Ohio State, and they were. I don't feel that way about this Ohio State Clemson game. Now, Justin Fields has to be healthy. You know, if somehow Justin Fields got scratched from the game, clearly the line will change, and this game gets taken off the board. But right now I like Ohio State plus the two in that second semifinal game, the game tomorrow night at 8 o'clock. All right, let's go to the NFL board where it's a tough, it's a tough board the final week. I typically look for teams that have nothing to play for against teams that have something to play for and play the team that has nothing to play for, especially if they're getting a short number,

like the Giants are against the Eagles. The Giants are getting four against the Eagles. The public likes Philadelphia because all they got to do is win the game. It would be four in a row. They would finish nine and seven. They would be NFC's champs. Give me the Giants who have also been playing well, plus the four tomorrow against the Eagles. In a game that means nothing to either team, but to me, Cleveland has checked out.

Cincinnati actually tried to win that game last week. They scored 23 points in the final six and a half minutes to force overtime. They eventually lost to the Dolphins, but they have the number one pick, locked, etched in stone. Andy Dalton's going to go out there and he's going to try to play hard. It's going to try to win a game. They're getting two and a half at home against Cleveland. I like the Bengals. I'm sorry, it's three.

On covers right now, it's three. Take the Bengals plus the three against the Browns. And then the team that I probably had in the smell test more than any other this year in the NFL, the Denver Broncos, against the Raiders who still have an outside shot to make the postseason, and the Raiders are underdogs at Denver. Denver's laying three in this game. I'll take Denver laying the three. Denver's a good team right now.

man. I picked them at the beginning of the year, if you recall, to be my surprise team in the AFC, to get to the AFC championship game, to win a lot of games and be a playoff team. You know, I go back through their season because defensively they were the real deal this year. They were the real deal start to finish defensively. It's a really good football team defensively all year long. Early in the year, they had multiple games that they should have one and without bad officiating would have one. The game they lost by two on a walk-off field goal to the Bears in week two, and in week four to the Jags, they lost a game on a walk-off field goal as well. Both of those games, they had long drives that scored touchdowns

for the go-ahead lead with under two minutes to go, and then on terrible calls gave up field goal position and lost games. You turn those two games around. You turn those two games around. And Denver would be eight and seven and very much in the playoff race going into this final season rather than six and nine. They had other games that they had chances in. They blew a game against the Colts. That was the game where Flacco ripped the coaching staff for being super conservative at the end. They had that game won. They had a game against the Packers in week three at Lambo that they were definitely in that game.

Great defense. They probably have their quarterback of the future in Drew Locke. I think they finish off the season with a blowout win of the Raiders laying the three. That would also on a futures bet that I made early in the year on Denver over seven wins on the season. It really looked like I was dead in the water on that play. When they fell to, I think they were four and eight. Four and eight, they were three and eight. They were three and eight at one point, and they've won three out of their last four games to get to six and nine.

and a chance for me to push that wager, which I would gladly, gladly take. All right, so there you go. The smell test for the weekend. Southern Cal today, by the half point, it's two and a half, get it to three. Then tomorrow, Iowa State plus three and a half, Memphis plus seven, Ohio State plus two. And then on Sunday, Bengals, plus three, the Giants, plus four, and Denver minus three. There were a couple of other games that I don't. have a feeling one way or the other in the game of the day, which is the Sunday night finale

for the NFC West title between San Francisco and Seattle. I really don't have a feel for that game. San Francisco is favored by three in part because Seattle's really banged up. You know, they signed Marshaun Lynch this week because they've lost Rashad Penny, they've lost Chris Carson, they've lost CJ Pro Seis. They've lost all their running backs. If you told me I had to wager on that game, I'd really resist, but I'd probably play the Niners. I kind of think the Niners are a better team, but that's at Seattle. It's tough to go in there with the division on the line, with seating on the line, and beat the Seahawks.

The 49ers are favored by three. Tennessee's got an interesting game to get into the postseason on the road against the Texans. They're laying three and a half. I would lean Tennessee a little bit in that game. The Titans are a good team. I think they're a good team. They lost that game two weeks ago to Houston, which really derailed. their situation and they lost last week to New Orleans in a shootout. Houston's got nothing to play for.

They're locked into the four seed. Deshawn Watson was on one ankle at the end of that game last week against Tampa. Why would Houston play their starters very long in that game? It doesn't seem like that would make much sense at all. So anyway, a lot of games that are meaningless. A lot of games for seating, you know, but you know, the big game, obviously, San Francisco, Seattle, and then what happens in the NFC East with Dallas-Washington Giants Eagles, and then that last spot in the AFC, which really looks to be Tennessee's for the taking. And actually, out of the three teams, Tennessee,

and then Pittsburgh and Oakland, who have long shots, Tennessee's the team that is going to be the most difficult opponent for, you know, if they get in as the sixth seed in the AFC, then they are more likely than not going to go to Arrowhead in week one of the NFL playoffs. And Tennessee at Arrowhead would, first of all, be an opportunity for some revenge, because remember Tennessee went in there a couple of years ago and won that game with Marcus Marriott against Alex Smith.

Kansas City would, I think, steamroll Oakland or Pittsburgh. And I wouldn't give Tennessee a great shot, but I'd give them much more of an opportunity to go to Arrowhead and keep the game close than I would either Pittsburgh or the Raiders. In the NFC, I really believe the Cowboys are the team most capable of a run, but clearly they're not because they can't be consistent week in and week out. The Eagles have the experience. If they win this game against the Giants and they get in, they're going to be sitting there locked into the four seat,

and they're going to host the San Francisco Seattle loser. That's the team they're going to host. You know, it's probably more likely than not, you know, I mean, how would you like to be, you know, the 49ers is a 12 and 4 team having to go to Philadelphia in the wild card round? Doesn't seem fair. I hope they'll fix that one of these days. Last thought before we go for the day. So during Monday night football, the Vikings got, you know, shillacked by the Packers.

And after the game, I watch the game, I'm openly rooting. There's nothing, you know, make no mistake about it. I am openly rooting for the Vikings here in the postseason. This is the team that I'm rooting for. This is the team that I want to do well because of one reason, because I'm a Kirk Cousins fan. He did not play well on Monday night. But either did his offensive line, either did his offensive team.

I didn't think the game was particularly well-called by Kevin Stefanski. You know who said the same thing? Mike Zimmer, the day after the game, said we probably could have helped the offense out a little bit by doing some different things. Anyway, after the game, I tweeted out the following. The Vikings' offense and Kirk not even close to good enough. No ability to run the ball or protect, and Kirk couldn't make any plays off schedule. Their defense was as good as it's been all year, second exceptional game in a row heading into the playoffs.

I hashtag the Vikings, which I don't think I've ever done before in a Kirk tweet. And it prompted responses that were really interesting to me. First of all, I knew by also throwing the rest of the offense into the explanation of why they lost, that that would get all the Redskin people, all the anti-Kirk people all riled up, which at this point I hope you know I enjoy thoroughly. Because to put it on the inability to run the ball or protect, in addition to Kirk not playing very well, was essentially taking Kirk off the hook, which drives most of you nuts.

But that's also the truth of Monday night. Kirk couldn't make any plays off schedule. He couldn't elevate his team. He didn't elevate his team. He has done it in the past. He's done it a lot this year. They were down 23 to nothing to Denver. He brought him back single-handedly without any run game.

And they won that game against, by the way, a better defense than the one they played Monday night. Anyway, I bring this up because typical of most of you people who love that love to just rip me for, being a Kirk fan, you came after me big time with, oh, you can't even put it solely on him when it was clearly him. But what was really interesting about my tweet is I hashtag Vikings, which brought Vikings fans into the conversation. And they thought my tweet was too critical of Kirk Cousins. Many of them did. So the people that know me, you guys, who know me, know that I love Kirk Cousins and that I make excuses for him all the time. Okay?

I still believe in him. I still believe that they have a chance to win with him. But you thought that I was taking him off the hook, but Vikings fans thought that I had put the hook squarely on him and nobody else. And so I was getting these reactions and I was like, this is interesting. That guy must be either a Cousins fan or a Vikings fan. But then I would click on and I'd find out these are Vikings fans. and several of them tweeted me very different things.

Like they responded in a way that I didn't really even anticipate. I was just anticipating opening up that tweet and seeing all of the responses being, dude, get over it. The guy stinks. He's 0 and 9 on Monday night football. He chokes against any team with a winning record. He was terribly. He does what he always does.

And instead, I got from Viking fans, it's always him. Did you see their lack of a running game? Did you see the protection they couldn't protect him? Vikings fans were coming to his defense. Hard to be good on your back, but whatever, dude. They refuse to call a bootleg, the play he does so well. Thielen can't catch anything.

Dalvin Cook stays hurt. O-line's a turnstile, but let's just keep slamming Kirk. So Vikings fans, came after me for thinking that I was one of these Kirk naysayers, anti-Kerkers. Just pretty funny that that was the reaction. It's funny because the Minnesota people who follow their team on a week and week basis, which, by the way, I've been doing this year, especially when the Redskins season got to like go in 3.0 and 4, I was looking for something else to grasp onto, to grab onto.

And the Minnesota fans and the coaching staff, they actually have a lot of respect for what Kirk's done for them this year. They think he's had a terrific year. Now, do they have some issues with him not winning the big game and not quarterbacking them in a big spot to a win? Yes. And do they think he may get a little tentative in some pressure spots? Yes. But they also recognize what a lot of people recognized last year, which is they had a turnstile for an offensive level. line that they had a major dysfunction in their play calling situation, which is why they ended up

firing Di Filippo and elevating Stefansky. And it's been a better mix this year. But without Dalvin Cook and without Alexander Madison, and they were on their third string running back, they were in a bit of trouble. They couldn't run the ball the other night, which was a big problem. And they were not running a lot of bootleg, which has been helpful to him. He's one of the best play action bootleg quarterbacks in the NFL. And it was an odd game. playing all the way around. Packers deserved it. They totally snuffed out the run. You know, the Vikings rushed, you know, essentially at the end, Abdullah had a couple of big runs, which increased the average to like 3.5 yards. But for much of the game, they were at 2.4 yards

per carry. They couldn't run the football. He got sacked five times, could have been sacked seven or eight times. But again, I say as I have many times about Kirk, he's not the guy more times than not, even though he's done it before, that you're going to say, hey, you don't have a running game tonight, you can't run a play action tonight, you can't run bootlegs, you're going to be a dropback quarterback that's going to have to move our football team, make it happen. More times than not, that's not him. It hasn't been him. I was encouraged by Minnesota's defense, and some of the Minnesota fans said, dude, what were you watching defensively? They gave up all these yards on the ground. Well, they turned Green Bay over three times in the first

half. They had seven turnovers a week ago against the Chargers. They have been a sieve defensively in their secondary for a lot of this year, and the secondary's actually stepped up and I think played a little bit better. But anyway, they're in the playoffs. They're going to play a road playoff game either at New Orleans or at Seattle. I'm pretty sure that's how it will go in the wild card round, and there'll be a significant underdog in either one of those two games, but I still think that he's a good quarterback. I don't think he's elite. Never said that, but I think he's somewhere in that, you know, 8 to 14 range, which if you put things around him, you can win with eventually. We'll see if it happens. It may not.

Anyway, that's it for the day. Have a great weekend. Back on Monday, I would expect a lot of news on Monday for the show and a lot to sort of review and evaluate. I would be surprised that the hirings are announced on Monday, but I think that. think, you know, certainly some firings are coming on Monday. Anyway, have a great weekend. And if I miss some of you on Monday, happy new year, because I'm going to take Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off next week as well, unless there's a lot of Redskin News and then I'll be in here as well. All right, enjoy the day.