The Kevin Sheehan Show - So Many QB Opinions

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Kevin and Thom today with a show that offers as much variety in topics as there are opinions on quarterbacks in the NFL Draft. The show's first segment started with Kevin talking about being at the Wizards-Lakers game last night and somehow ended with John Glenn's 1962 orbiting of the earth. The guys had plenty of NFL Draft talk in the 2nd segment which included the wide-ranging opinions on many of the top QBs. The guys finished with the Caps, DJ Burns Jr. saying no to football, and some follow-up on the Stephon Diggs' trade. Download the PrizePicks app today and use code Sheehan for a first deposit match up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, I'm really pleased to have a new sponsor to the podcast. Prize picks is the largest daily fantasy sports platform in North America. They're the easiest and the most exciting way to play DFS. It's just you against the numbers rather than you battling thousands of other players, including pros and sharks. Football season's over, but Hoops Action is heating up. Whether it's tournament season right through the end of this month or the fight for playoff home court advantage heading. into the postseason, there's no shortage of high-stakes basketball moments this time of year. Get in on the excitement with prize picks, America's number one fantasy sports app where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code Sheehan, S-H-E-E-H-A-N for a first deposit match of up to $100. You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. The show's presenting

sponsor is Windonation. Call them at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com. Mention my name. You'll get a free in-home, no obligation estimate. Tommy, how you doing today? I'm doing okay. I'm wishing for some nice weather. I'm getting tired of this cold, rainy miserable. Even when it's sunny.

It's cold. You know, I could have stayed in, I should have stayed in Destin for crying out loud. Well, that's actually kind of a segue into what I wanted to open with. And I will open by telling you that I went to the Wizards game last night to see LeBron and the Lakers. But the segue works this way. I Uber down to Capitol One Arena. I just have gotten sick of driving down there and then dealing with parking, even though they gave me parking, it takes a while to get out.

You know, if you're working. They gave you parking. Yes, they gave me parking, and I told them, you know, I said, it's okay, I don't need it. I know that you, that's right, I forgot. You don't get parking. For some reason, they don't give Tommy parking. I get parking for cats games. But let me just.

So if you go down and you're working as a medium, member and you leave long after everybody else has left, it's easy to get out of the parking lot. Yes, it is. It's very easy. If you're a fan and you're going down there not as a media member and you park underneath the Capital One arena where media parks and other people park, probably their highest end ticket holders, and you leave when the game ends, it can take a while to get out of there,

especially on a night when the arena is packed. And I knew it was sold out last night before I went down there. So back to why what you were talking about weather-wise was a good segue into this conversation. I get into the Uber. It's drizzling. It's dreary. And the driver, who was very nice, said, I think he was from, I think he was from Senegal. I think that's where he said he was from.

And he said, D.C. weather just very, very depressing. And I said, yeah, it really is. It's been depressing. Like the last couple of days, it's just been cloudy, rainy, dreary, cold. I agree. And I said to him, I go, you're right. We just, we need some sunshine. And he said, oh, please, sunshine.

He goes, I'm very depressed. And I said, well, not, not, you're not literally depressed, right? He said, no, no. I just, it's very, it makes me sad driving around in this weather, and I'm like, yeah, I'm with you. But, uh. Well, it could be worse. He could be going to see the Wizards. Well, like, I think most of the people that were there last night actually weren't there to see the Wizards.

They were there to see the freak show. They were there. The 39-year-old man who's tearing up the NBA. They were there to see the Lakers and LeBron James. James for sure. And he, you know, I was a little bit concerned because they had played the night before in Toronto and typically, you know, recently he hasn't gone back to back on the road, but they were able to rest in the fourth quarter because they blew Toronto out. And so he did play last night. And he played great. And after all, it was the Wizards, too, you know.

Yeah, it was the Wizards. It felt like it was a real NBA game. Right. Although Tommy, the Wizards do have some decent players. It's a long, way from being a team that will be a contending team. Well, not even a contending team. A playoff caliber team. There are three drafts, two drafts away from that. And then two years after the drafts, probably, at least. But it was, I'll tell you what, man, when the Lakers are in town, and I've seen the Lakers at least a half dozen times over the last maybe 15 years when they're in town, you know, whether it was actually with Kobe, because Corby, my son, has always been a massive Lakers fan, massive Kobe Bryant fan, and a big LeBron fan. So that's really why we went

last night, because I don't know that I would have gone had he not pushed me to get tickets and go. But I don't think it'll be his last trip to D.C. I think he's going to play another year or two. I think he wants to play with his son if he can somehow arrange that. But it is pretty cool to see these guys up close. I've said to people before

if you don't love the NBA, that's fine. If you don't really care for the way they play the game like you don't. That's fine. But go sit down near these guys and watch the

size and the athletic Up Close. Tremendous athlete. It's just... Arguably the best in the world. I think they are. Considering their size, I think they are.

Yeah. But anyway, nice night, packed house. I don't know how many packed houses they've had this year. I'm going to assume not many. You know,

this brings up something that I'd wanted, I wanted to talk about you with you for a while. That occurred to me. It was kind of a different take on something, about probably maybe your favorite with your Kyle Kuzma, right? Of the players they have right now, I think Abdi is the one that I'm really excited about

in terms of his future, but I do like Kyle Kuzma, in part because I've talked to people in the organization and they said he is one of the absolute favorite players that they've ever had in the organization in terms of the type of person he is. But go ahead. He may be a wonderful person, okay?

He may be a prince among men. But when you think about what he decided to do, this team was going to trade him if he wanted to go. They were going to trade him to Dallas. I've heard that that's not true now. That was reported. Oh, no, they've reported. They've quoted.

The quotes from winner said, you know, we went to him. Yeah, I don't know. I was told, because you and I talked about this, And I got a call from somebody who said that is very exaggerated. Well, both him and Kuzmo talked about it like it was a real thing. Yeah, no, you're right. So they're in on the joke. Yeah.

I'm going to find that report, though, because I, because it was supposedly for multiple first-round picks, right? Well, I don't remember what it was for. But the guy said, no, that's okay. I want to stay. Okay. Now, now, he wants to stay for the next cup,

because he's here for another two years, at least, I think, or three. Yeah. Okay. So he wants to see. He says, no, I don't want to go to a contender for a team that's owned

by the best owner in the NBA when it comes to treating players. No, I want to stay here for a team that potentially over the next three years it's going to lose

170 games. That's where I want to be. That says something very disturbing about him. Good guy, bad guy, I don't care. Anybody who says, no, I'm okay with a team that's going to lose

50, 60 games a year for the next three years. That's fine with me. Who does that? I'll tell you why he does that. Somebody who does that who's comfortable not being noticed, who's comfortable that nobody cares,

and who's comfortable that there's no pressure. Boy, that's a deep psycho analysis of why he didn't want to get trained. I mean, because nobody cares about the team he's playing for now. He goes to the Mavericks, it's going to be spotlight on him. It sounds like exactly like what you would have done. You know? But I'm okay.

Three years, 170 losses, sign me up. Sounds like exactly what you would have done. I don't want to be noticed. I'll just do my shows, right? My columns, nobody bother me. I'm over here on this island, and nobody can touch me. But don't worry, I will provide the work. Sounds like it.

Yeah, that's me. I don't like attention. Well, you do like the attention. So I did find, according to Josh Robbins of the Athletic, the Wizards were close to trading Kyle Kuzum to another team, likely the Dallas Mavericks. Ultimately, the Wizards didn't trade Kuzma to Dallas because they wanted two first-round picks for him,

something that pretty much no NBA team is willing to give up for him. At least Washington received one first round pick by trading Gafford. Gafford's playing well for Dallas, and Dallas is actually playing well. And then I found this. Kuzma told the athletic there was a point in time Dallas. They definitely did want me. Winger presented me with what the trade was, obviously didn't want to trade me and kind of left the decision up to me a little bit and asked me

what I wanted to do. I told him I wanted to stay and continue to build something, and that was kind of the end of it. Look, I collect a paycheck. Nobody cares what I do. Nobody's really paying attention to me. I'm an NBA player. I get to wear my crazy clothes around. Nobody cares. This is fine. I'm happy where I am. Well, maybe he sees a future that you and I just can't quite see yet. I'll tell you what, he's certainly working for an owner that sees the future. I mean, he's always right about the future. Did you see him on Squawk Box the other morning? I know you did because you sent it to me. Talking about how women's sports is a growth stock. We've, you know, we have already been at the

forefront of that. Of course they have with the double. WNBA and the Mystics, and he wants Washington to become the women's sports capital of the United States. And I wrote back to you when you texted me that. I just said, kiss of death. Now, I think women's sports is growing, too. I'm not knocking that part of it, but everything he touches is, I mean, he is the cooler. He's William Macy in the cooler. I mean, whether it's the arena football league or e-sports.

There's about 200 arena football players who would differ with his opinion. Right. But, yeah. That was funny. But, you know, he's a visionary. What are you going to do? And I think Kyle sees it. Okay.

You know, we don't have, we've taken enough shots at Ted here for the last week or so. Yeah, but if we're talking about the Wizards, nobody else is, nobody's going to listen if we don't talk about that. Honestly, like if somebody were to mention to me, man, you guys have been really hammering Ted, I would say yes, but we also talked about the Wizards for 15 minutes. So that's the quid pro quo. Like no one else is going to talk about the Wizards for 15 minutes. We just did. So that allows us a gratuitous shot or two at honestly the owner that owns the most irrelevant NBA franchise on the planet. All right, what did you want to talk about today?

Because I have something that I definitely would like to talk about with you here in the open to the show unless you have something more pressing. Well, I have one stupid little thing, so I'll get it out of the way now, okay? Yeah. And I can't believe I didn't notice it until recently. You know, there's been so much personnel change within the commanders, not just on staff, but players and stuff. It's hard to keep track of it.

Well, I noticed the other day that they hired an assistant special teams coach a while back by the name of John Glenn. It's like the astronaut. John Glenn. John Glenn was born in Scranton. So he's a Scranton boy. He played football at East Stroudsburg University. Really?

That sounds like a guy that you might want to reach out to. Yes, he was a stud, apparently. At ESU, he must have been a defense, it must have been a defensive end or something. He had 160 tackles, eight and a half sacks, five interceptions, maybe he was a linebacker, eight-pass breakups, three fumble recoveries. This guy was a player, and he also played basketball and varsity in college for two years. And they have a good basketball team. So I'm kind of curious about meeting this guy, John Glenn.

I'll have to give him the, no, I don't have to do that anymore. Okay, I'm not going to do that. Usually when I would talk to people from the commanders, I'd say, I'd just give you a fair warning. You know, I'm an enemy of the state. So you should know that while you're talking to me. Yeah, you certainly have to give him up front what he might be getting himself into. Here's one thing he didn't do. I doubt he seems like he did a lot, but did he.

orbit the earth? I don't think he did. No, he didn't. Okay. He didn't do that. That's one of the great days. I used to have an eight millimeter film. I mean, when people had projectors at home.

Right. And they had eight millimeter film of John Glenn. And, you know, the whole orbiting the earth. But I was fascinated, as most kids were back then, with astronauts. And the day he came to New York for his ticker. tape parade because they held ticker tape parades for these guys back then. I bet. I was getting my consuls out. I was very upset that we couldn't go to the ticker tape parade. So my dad brought me this eight millimeter film of John Glenn. I was a big John Glenn

fan as an astronaut. Did John Glenn, he never ran for president, did he? I think he did. He made a primary situation. Primary situation? I think. Because he was what? He was he was from Ohio. He was a long time senator or congressman, which one was, I'm forgetting that. Senator. He was a senator. Yeah. He was a senator. And the more he was kind of exposed, the less of popularity.

Right. You know, it's popularity diminished as a senator. But he served his country well, and then he went up in space on the space shuttle years later. Hmm. I'm just pulling up something. And he was, he was,

he was Ted Williams Wingman in Korea. In Korea, I think. I think so. I'm pulling up his Wikipedia page right now because I want to see when and if he ran for president. So in 76 he was under consideration to be Jimmy Carter's running mate, but that went to Mondale. In 84, he announced his candidacy for president.

how many primaries did he make it through? He opened offices in 43 states, spent a significant amount of money in Iowa, finished fifth in the Iowa caucus, lost New Hampshire big, so that was it for him. And then, yeah, so that was the year. And obviously that was the Reagan number two against Mondale, which was an absolute route. Nobody had a chance against Dutch in 84. All right. So what I wanted to get to was the draft.

Yeah, we'll talk about the draft today and the quarterbacks in the draft because I went through this morning and just wrote down a lot of different things that have been said about all of these quarterbacks. And it's just remarkable to me the differing opinions on all of them. We'll get to that and more right after these words from a few. of our sponsors. Hey guys, most of us are interested in our mental and physical well-being to a certain degree. And with that in mind, I'd like to welcome and introduce a new sponsor to the podcast. The new sponsor is Unified Healing, Unified spelled, U-N-I-F-Y-D healing. It doesn't matter if you're a big-time world-class athlete or just a somewhat athletic podcaster like me. We all understand the

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warranties on everything you purchase. So you don't have to worry about anything once they are in your home. Call them at 86690 Nation or head towindonation.com. So I woke up this morning to one of these Bill Barnwell columns on ESPN.com. This one's about the draft. By the way, Tommy, He writes very long columns, as we've discussed before. How does that work? I don't understand the math, the inches, the words, how long his columns are, like, compared to, you know, a normal column? 15 inches is generally a column, maybe a little bit longer.

I'd be about 800 words for 18 inches. It's generally a column, 800 words. So I'm figuring his columns are. probably 2,500 to 3,000 words. Yeah. Yeah, like, you know, 60 plus inches probably of words. Very long column. But anyway, the, you know how headlines typically are through algorithms tailored to my personal

interest in what I typically read and what I typically click on, et cetera? So the headlines, you know, over a several hour period changed like three different times. But basically all of them said something to the effect of Washington's number two overall pick will likely bust, you know, or will likely end up being terrible. Like it was just this eye-grabbing headline and it was this long story from Bill Barnwell. A story that trying to summarize it as best as I can because it was very very, long, I think produces two big takeaways, which he actually summarizes in his final paragraph, his final two paragraphs actually in this very long story. But I'll give you a rough recap of what I think were the two big takeaways.

Number one is this, based on, you know, 43 years of first round quarterback research. In 2024, if you need a quarterback and you have a first round pick and there's a quarterback there that you like a lot. Take him. The rules of today favoring the offense, favoring the quarterback's impact on win probability today versus many years ago coupled with the fact that there is a rookie wage scale, which was collectively bargained for in 2011. So you're not paying what Matt Stafford or what Sam Bradford got as the last two number one overall picks in the draft that were quarterbacks pre-Rookie wage scale where they were paid, you know, top dollar quarterback salary-wise.

The rookie wage scale lessens the risk, the importance of the position. If you like one there, you don't have one, and you've got a first round pick, take one. So that was big takeaway. That was takeaway number one for me. The other big takeaway was this. Be prepared to fail when you select that quarterback in the first. first round because the odds are you won't get your franchise quarterback with that pick. So I'll read to you these final two paragraphs that kind of sum up those big takeaways.

He writes, as we approach the 2024 draft and what might be an unprecedented run of quarterbacks from numbers one to four, history tells us it would be a pleasant surprise if two of them turned into franchise caliber passers. We're more likely to see two play who wash out of the league than two future Hall of Famers. And yet, at the same time, knowing history shouldn't stop teams from drafting quarterbacks, taking a quarterback in round one is more valuable now than it has ever been, arguably in the history of the game. If the Bears, commanders, patriots, or any of the other teams linked to signal callers have

a quarterback they love in the first round, they should do what they need to do to land. them just have a healthy expectation for what might happen. I mean, it's kind of crazy, right, that you have to take them, but you also have to have the expectation or the understanding that you probably won't land on the guy that will become the guy. But you need what, you need it. You know, it's like, you know, I don't, it's like you keep buying the same piece of equipment that that's wrong from different manufacturers, but you still need that piece of equipment to function. You've got to keep shopping.

You've got to keep shopping until you find the right manufacturer. You find the right piece of equipment. Just an odd existence for general managers in franchises that don't have quarterbacks. Yes, well, there's one quarterback. we talked about this on the last podcast. And after we talked about it, Chase Daniels tweeted the following. You can't tell me Michael Pennix Jr. It's not one of the top three quarterbacks in this year's class.

If you've actually broken down his film and watched him, if you say different, you don't know Ball. I saw that from Chase Daniel, and I've been trying to reach out to get him on the show because you know I love Penix Jr. I like Jaden Daniels more. But that... But Michael Pennix, Jr. is screwing with a lot of people's minds right now.

They all are, though. They all are. And this is what I wanted to get to. So Adam Schaefter had a podcast reveal, I guess, somewhat of a reveal. He's done this before where he's kind of hinted Jaden Daniels to Washington at number two. But then he, you know, said, you know, this is more of a hundred. than actual reporting or knowing. So in his podcast earlier, on his podcast earlier this week,

once again, he suggested that Washington is going to use number two overall on Jaden Daniels. He actually did it in a weird way. I'm going to read you what he said. He said, I know we're not supposed to spoil picks. We'll see how the commanders decide to move forward with the number two overall selection. but a little over a few weeks out, to me, I think the signs continue to point to Jaden Daniels being the second overall pick. Seems like he's popular in the scouting community.

Seems like he'd bring a lot of those attributes that the commanders would like. I think Jaden Daniels is going to be someone who really appeals to them. It's hard for me today, today, to see Jaden Daniels sliding much past pick number two. So let's pencil him in there. we're not supposed to reveal the picks in advance. We don't know what the picks will be. We'll see how this shakes out. I think that's how it's stacking up a few weeks out.

Caleb Williams won, Jaden Daniels 2, and then the Patriots on the clock with the possibility of taking Drake May. First of all, it was weird because I actually listened to this. Why is he saying, I know we're not supposed to spoil picks? I know we're not supposed to reveal the picks in advance. I think it's an uncomfortable way of getting into this. It sounds like you say, we know it, but we're not supposed to reveal it. It does kind of say that's not the case. And that's not the case.

I don't think it is. You know, that can't be the case. I don't. But I think it's kind of an awkward way of describing just being a very well-informed predictor. I want to make sure that I am agreeing with what you just said. When you say it can't be the case, it can't be the case that he knows it for sure, right? Yes, that's what I mean.

I agree with you on that. But when he says, I know we're not supposed to spoil picks, I know we're not supposed to reveal the picks in advance, it's a weird thing to do for a guy who's the number one reporter on the planet when it comes to the NFL. It's actually his job to report it if he has it. It's also weird because everybody on that network and everybody on their website, they're constantly doing mock drafts. They're constantly reporting what they know.

I mean, are they afraid we're not going to watch the draft three weeks from tonight because we know what the top two picks are? No. And you know, it's funny. What's funny is their NBA, player, NBA reporter, Adrian O'Donowski, made a name for himself before he went to ESPN when he was with Yahoo Sports years ago by telling everybody how the NBA draft was going to unfold before the pit minutes before the picks were actually made.

Yeah, Denton, my producer said that there's been an emphasis specifically in the NBA draft not to reveal the picks. Now, that's a draft show that is not the, the level of the NFL draft show. No. And it's also a weird draft in that picks are made and then trades are made and they're not announced and they're not, like you get some dude up there in a hat in a hawks hat and he's already been traded to Dallas. Like it's stupid the way they do it in the NBA draft.

It's a weird way for Schefter to kind of lay it out, but whatever. This is specifically what I wanted to get to, though. So I went and just pulled a lot of different quotes. about the quarterbacks, McCarthy, May, and Daniels from just the last several weeks. Because first of all, in terms of where they're going, there is certainly a lot of opinion on where they're going, right? Now, if you do a quick back of the envelope audit of mock drafts, more people have Daniels going to Washington than have May going to Washington. and there's only one or two that have McCarthy to Washington. But on CBS sports, they've got all of the mock drafts on one page.

Five of the six have Daniels going to Washington. Kuyper's got Daniels going to Washington. Matt Miller has Daniels going to Washington. Now, guys like Daniel Jeremiah and Dane Bruegler at the Athletic have May going to Washington. Ben Standing has Jaden Daniels going to Washington. He's a multi-time mock draft champion. And Bruce Feldman, who I love, has, from the athletic, has Daniels going to Washington as well. So there is mixed opinion on, but maybe, well, definitely a majority opinion, Daniels to Washington, too.

But here's what I jotted down this morning. The opinions of what these quarterbacks are, it's just amazing how all over the place they are. You just talked about Pennix and Chase Daniel's opinion of Penix. I guarantee you I could find the opposite opinion in several places. I didn't do it on Pennix. I did it on Daniels and Drake May and J.J. McCarthy. So here is what's been said negatively about Jaden Daniels. And I'm talking about like evaluators, pundits, NFL draft experts.

Daniels is a run first quarterback. Daniels can't throw from the pocket. Daniel, you have to create a dual threat offense for it to work. He can't throw the intermediate pass. He's too skinny of a frame. He panics and he runs too quickly. And then on the flip side, Jaden Daniels, the best deep ball thrower in the draft, the best pocket presence throwing the ball,

best throwing mechanics of any of the draft available players, the most poised of all of the quarterback. So one guy says panics and runs too quickly. Somebody else says the most poised. Then on Drake May, bad footwork leads to inaccuracies, bad decision maker, moves and floats into trouble in the pocket. Then Drake May hoes for an arm, best arm in the draft, can make every throw, big strong athletic dude, Justin Herbert reincarnated. And then J.J. McCarthy. Don't understand how he's a first-round pick.

Didn't see anything in college that would indicate. Slow mechanics, not athletic. Then you get highest intangibles of any quarterback in years since at least Burrow. Super mobile, very athletic, can make every throw inside and outside of the pocket. I can't remember, I'm sure this is probably more of an annual thing. than I'm thinking right now and I might be living in the moment. But usually you have some consistency on this is what this guy does really well, this is what this guy doesn't do really well.

And it's a matter of personal preference. But you got three guys with three. I'd throw penics into the mix. Of course I would, but not everybody has. But the opinions about what they're good at and what they're not good at are all over the map. That's, I think, weird about this year, or strange. You know, the last time Washington was disinterested in picking a quarterback this high was 2012, and it was already set in stone that it was going to be Andrew Luck and Robert

Griffin III. Yeah. And, I mean, so there was, I guess the fact that there's four now and five, if you include Pennix, creates the different opinions. Back then, there was, although Russell Wilson was, you know, should have been considered,

it turns out, you know, he didn't go to the third round. Kirk Cousin didn't go to the fourth round. I just don't remember this kind of stuff about Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin, the third, and I think it's because that was it.

That was, that was the, that was your shopping cart right there. Now you have a shopping cart with lots of different choices. That's true. But in 2021, there were lots of different choices too. I mean, everybody knew Trevor Lawrence was one. And then it was a battle between Wilson and Lance and Fields and Mack Jones.

And to me, it just kind of felt like Justin Fields really athletic, great runner, big arm. But, you know, some of the flaws would be didn't have to read the field, whatever. Mac Jones, more pot. Like, it seemed like people were more in agreement on flaws and strengths. Whereas basically, you can find somebody that says that Drake May is not an athletic quarterback and then someone else who will say he's the most athletic quarterback in the draft. You find somebody, and when I say somebody, I'm talking about people that cover the draft. people whose job it is 12 months out of the year to study this thing and to write about it and to be on television and talk about it.

You can find somebody to say they're really concerned about Jaden Daniels' pocket presence and his throwing ability, and that he's much more of just a run-first quarterback. And then somebody else will say he's got the best presence in the pocket of any of these quarterbacks, and he's the best deep-baller, deep-ball thrower in the draft. it's amazing. Like people are going to be so wrong and so right, you know, three, two, three years from now. And you're going to be able to find a lot of the stuff that was written that will not match up to what actually happened. Because some people are going to be right and some people are going to be wrong.

I think personally, Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels, Michael Pennix, Jr., in Drake May of the five, if you want to throw J.J. McCarthy, which everybody has J.J. McCarthy in the mix. Those four, to me, it's like if you told me Washington drafted any one of those four, I'd be like, okay, I'm going to be on board with this, I'm going to be fine with this, I'm going to be excited about this. They know, they know more than I do, they know the people. Because in all four of those guys, you can find things to really like and probably find a couple of nits to pick. The McCarthy thing would really form me. But there are people that say, you know, if you're, what you said Chase Daniel said about

Michael Pennix, there are people out there saying that about J.J. McCarthy. If you watch J.J. McCarthy and you came to the conclusion that J.J. McCarthy shouldn't be a first round pick because he wasn't asked to throw the ball that much or really carry a team, you don't know what you're talking about. You needed to watch this game and see the mechanics and see, I think With McCarthy, it's more about the stuff we can't see personally. I think it's a lot of the intangibles and the smarts and, you know, and probably a lot of stuff that even in games, you know, he was checked, although I think he did say he couldn't check to pass if a run was called.

It's just a weird year. To your point, lots of quarterbacks, lots of uncertainty. But we had that in 2021 after Trevor Long. Lawrence. We had that in, what was the year that Baker Mayfield came out? 2018 when it was... We weren't paying attention as much then because we weren't... That's fair. Because Washington wasn't looking for a quarterback. That's true, too.

Yeah. I mean, now it's people wake up and go to sleep. Commander's fans wake up and go to sleep with quarterbacks in their dreams. Yeah. With that said, let me just be nauseating for two minutes on Jaden Daniels because I've been accused of being nauseating on Jaden Daniels. Those that say Jaden Daniels is just a running quarterback obviously did not watch any LSU games. That is, I'm very comfortable saying if you think he's just a running quarterback, you didn't watch their games. If you think he's a straight line runner, I've heard that a lot about him, like RG3, you clearly haven't even watched his highlight reel.

And if you don't think he can throw from the pocket or throw a good deep ball, I'm not sure who you were watching. You had him confused. You were watching an old LSU quarterback back, not this year's quarterback. But yeah, that's the one I feel most strongly about, obviously, and have felt that way for a while. But I am concerned about him being, you know, skinny and his frame being too thin. Let me ask you this about Penix.

Yeah. In particular, I mean, Penick is getting closer and closer to the group at the top. Okay, two, three weeks ago, he was considered lower in the draft. I don't think he is. I think there are a couple of people that think he is. I think he's going to go in the top half of the first round. He's not getting closer to the top. He's key. Okay.

More people have him in the first round than maybe had him, you know, two weeks ago. But go ahead. But you would rank him where, third or fourth? I like him. Caleb Williams, Daniels, Pennix Jr. are my three favorites in that order. Okay. But Daniels really close to Williams. So let's say the commanders feel the same way.

And they, but they think that Pennix will last a little bit less a little bit longer than second or third. So they decide to trade back, get some more draft capital with the idea that they could draft panics at their new draft position. Okay? Would you want them to do that? Or if they want, if they want penics, do you want them to just take him with that second pick, even if it's overreaching at that point?

Yeah, I think right now things change. I think right now that's overreaching. Like I'm looking, like I said, it's really easy to kind of pull up the CBSSports.com mock drafts. They've got all six of them on the same page. Ryan Wilson's the only guy that has him in the top half of the first round. He's got him going 13. Several of them don't even have them in the first round. He's got him going 13 to the Raiders. So taking him at 2 seems to me right now to be something that would be very, very much a mistake.

Because they could probably... If Pennix is who they like, they should trade back. I said that if they ended up trading back and getting Michael Pennix Jr. and picked up a lot more draft capital, I'd be fine with that. I still would rather have them pick with Jayden Daniels. Right, but the risk is Pennix not being there when you think he's going to be there. That's right. Yeah, first of all, you'd have to trade him to a team that you know is going to take Daniels or McCarthy or May at number two.

And then you'd have to trade down to a level that you know that Pennix Jr. isn't going to go. But I don't know how you can be totally sure because there are teams that once three or four of these guys are off the board, you know, every team from five on down becomes potential trade territory for the Broncos, for the Raiders, for the Vikings, for, you know, et cetera. Now, when I say the first four are gone, that assumes somebody traded up because that would be Chicago, Washington, New England. Arizona is not taking a quarterback at four. The chargers are not taking a quarterback at five.

The Giants would be the first spot without somebody trading into the top five. where you might think they could take, I mean, it's not impossible to think of the Giants taking a quarterback in this draft. Oh, look, it's a risk. There's no guarantee. I know that. That's the risk. That tells me that you've got to take your quarterback with that second pick in the draft. You can't take that risk. But if the guy they really love is Pennix Jr., and I would be surprised if that's true. Now, he does have a time. top 30 visit to Washington. One of their top 30s is Michael Pennix Jr. But if that were true, like Adam Peters and, you know, Cliff Kingsbury and Lance Newmark and Martin Mayhew and Dan Quinn, they are all on board. This is the guy. I don't know why people have him mocked, you know, in the second round. We're not going to risk it, but let's see what we can get it to

and try not to go down that far. You know, Minnesota at 11 as an example. But then you do have to be worried that somebody trades up in front of you. I mean, we've seen quarterbacks over-drafted for years based on where they were projected before the draft. Quarterbacks tend to rise more than they fall. I mean, last year, Will Levis fell, and we've had fallers, you know, before. But we've also had, you know, the years in which, you know, you turn around and you're like,

wait, who's, who's Brock Osweiler? Who's Brandon Whedon? Never heard of him before. He just went in the first round. You know, who's, how did Jake Locker get into the top eight? Christian Ponder is in the first round. Like, you've got those examples too. But I don't know.

I just think it's really interesting. and it's probably because of what you said, we're paying attention to it much more because of number two and because of the need for a quarterback. The fact that this draft may produce an unprecedented result, which is four in the top five, but the opinions on each of these guys are just all over the place. I mean, you take two guys that are pretty respected,

draft guys, and they watch the exact same tape and they come up with completely different conclusions. And it's not like, oh, well, you know, this guy, you know, he just, he throws a good deep ball, but I'm a little bit concerned with the touch on the deep ball. Yeah, I can see that. But here's some other examples of where he did throw it with touch. Ah, but can he do it consistently? No, it's one guy saying, this guy is terrible in the pocket. And the other guy saying, he's the best pocket quarter.

back in the draft. It's strange. It certainly does seem like there's more consensus and agreement on the type of player Caleb Williams is than everybody else. Like, we can be pretty confident that Caleb Williams is going number one overall. Yes, I'd say so. All right. A couple more things.

Big game, by the way, in town tonight, rivalry game. We'll have that and more right after. these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, the elite eights are over and the final fours are set in both the men's and the women's tournament. Prize Picks is the place to go to for Daily Fantasy Sports. I have the Prize Picks app. It's an easy and exciting way to play DFS.

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It's that easy. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelly's. Well, Shelly's backroom at 1331 F Street Northwest will play host, as they usually do every year, to my annual Cigars and Curve Balls fundraiser. Monday, May 6th, starts at 6 o'clock. technically to 8 o'clock, but we've had people stay as late as midnight, telling stories, smoking cigars, laughing and drinking because it's that good of a time. You can buy tickets for the event.

It's $100 at DCGraise.com. If you've never been to Shelley's before, this is a great way to introduce yourself to one of the great atmospheres for guys and girls in D.C. and part of what we do at the event is we have an auction of different memorabilia, and this year we have a framed, D.C. Gray's jersey signed by 30 members of the 2019 Washington Nationals World Championship Team. Those signatures include Max Scher, Steven Strasberg, and Ryan Zimmerman, among others. And the auction is always a lot of fun, right, Kevin?

It's one of my favorite nights of the year. It's a blast, and we end up seeing a lot of people that listen to the show. And we don't get a chance to see those people. And it's in Tommy's spot. Tommy just sits there. He's got a cigar in his mouth. He's just, everybody's running around for him. And you always look about as happy as you can possibly look on that night.

We're saying a lot. And this year, usually Shelly's is divided into two rooms because it's such an in-demand place. And we've typically been in a small room, but we've grown so big that Bob Matarazzi, the owner of Shelly's, has decided to move us to the big room this year. So we've got even more room for what we hope will be a big crowd of people to show up at Shelly's back room at 1331 F Street, Monday, May 6th. go to DCgraze.com to find out more. It'll be a great night. The Caps have a huge game tonight. By the way, if you're at the Caps game and they're killing the penguins in the third period,

just head to Shelly's and hang out and watch some late night talking and baseball and NBA. You won't be alone, that's for sure. So the Capitals, yeah, they've lost three in a row. They were looking really, really good for a playoff spot. And they still are because they have games and hands. but the penguins have won a couple in a row. And this is kind of an elimination game for Pittsburgh tonight. If they don't win, and I'm saying two points,

they get a regulation win against the caps. They're probably going to be done. They've gotten themselves back into the mix here, and a win tonight would put them just a point behind the Capitals and the Red Wings for that fourth wildcard spot. The Capitals are an interesting team because they were so dead two months ago, and they played great until recently, and it's three straight losses. I know one of them was a very competitive loss to Boston over the weekend,

but this is a big game, big rivalry game down to Capital One. Maybe I'll go back down to Capital One tonight. Probably not. Call your Uber, buddy, from Senegal. Yeah, well, it's raining. He may be depressed. He may be in his house. you know, underneath the sheets and pillows.

It's weird, right, that the caps and pens, after all these years, are actually playing a game tonight that could be, for all intents and purposes, a decider on who makes it and who doesn't. Now, the caps are not out of it if they don't win or if they don't get a point, but their chances, I think I saw this, increased to 68.5% if they win tonight against Pittsburgh. So go caps. I wanted to read this story to you.

DJ Burns Jr., who's become a star in this NCAA tournament, NC State's Big Man, was on the Dan Patrick show, I guess, earlier this week and said, when Patrick said, have you considered football? He said, well, I'm not a close-minded person. Well, apparently today he basically said about playing football when the season's over. What are the chances? And he said, zero. there have been a lot of people, including NFL scout types, that have watched him, Tommy.

He's 6'9, 275 pounds, but he's got great feet, he's got great hands. And there's been this idea that he would make for a very intriguing prospect for the league. Now, would he be drafted in April? Probably not, because he's never played football. But his coach, Kevin Keats, said that there's no way he's going to play football. Quote, he's got great touch. He's not that bully that you guys think. Spend some time with him.

He's a teddy bear off the court, closed quote. DJ Burns in the football conversation, I get it. He's big. He looks like he'd be a great D-N or a great tackle or something like that. Tommy, he's going to play basketball professionally. maybe not in the NBA, but he's going to get paid to play basketball somewhere. I wouldn't be surprised if he makes an NBA roster, because rarely do you get somebody that big that is that skilled.

And talk about the tournament making a guy, this tournament is made DJ Burns. I'm not saying that people didn't know who he was, but when people say, you know, these players don't get paid, and there's no value and they're creating all the value. Uh-uh. A guy like DJ Burns can point to college basketball as an unbelievable marketing platform for himself.

You know, whatever he ends up getting paid in endorsements in compensation is because he played college basketball on a big stage. And that's always been the part of the value proposition with players that's never really been quantified. But I get why people talk about. about football, but this dude's playing basketball. He can play at the next level. I think he can. Wouldn't be surprised at all if he's on an NBA roster next year. He's not a stretch big man,

everybody who says this, you know, football is hard. Yeah, painful. That's a hard way to make a living. I know we don't think of it in those terms, but if a guy can go play basketball, you know, in Europe somewhere, make $200 grand a year or more. More than that. Okay, for the next 10 years or so, why is he going to play football? That's hard.

Yeah, I mean, he'd have to make a lot more than that in a basketball career for it to be justified financially if he actually ended up becoming a big-time left tackle or a big-time pass-rusher. But here's the other part of what his coach Kevin Keats said. Kevin Keats is basically telling you he doesn't have the mindset to play football. Yes. You can't, you know, you got to be up for it.

You have to enjoy getting hit and hitting people. And basketball is not a non-contact sport. And if you watch him play, there's plenty of contact in the post. But it's a different level of contact. There are so many people that, you know, like football players will say, oh, really John Wall would be a great tight end or LeBron would be a great wide receiver. Well, let's see what happens to them when they get hit for the first time. Because you have to have that mentality.

I really think for parents, football is one of those sports. If your kid doesn't want to play football because he doesn't like contact, God, do not force it on him. That is just, I saw a bunch of that when my kids were young. kids that were out there that clearly did not want to play football because they didn't want to hit or get hit, which by the way is normal. That's a normal reaction. But the father or the mother, uh-uh.

They wanted, they wanted a little, they wanted junior out there playing. And I think that football is the one sport. when parents force kids to play that or convince kids who don't want to play it to play it that it's a big mistake because, first of all, they can get hurt. Secondly, it's a big blow to confidence. Big blow.

You know, for young boys that are out there with kids that do like contact and they don't, it's a blow to their confidence. And what they don't know at that age is actually their reaction is the normal reaction. Most people don't like contact and don't want to dish it out. And it sounds like maybe this is what DJ Burns is. He's just a teddy bear. He's a sweet kid.

And he's a hell of a basketball player. Really good basketball player. I think you can get paid at the next level. I know some people are probably going, no chance, Ian. He can't stretch the floor. He's not going to play in the NBA. You're probably right. But I think there's still a place for a guy that is that.

Guild in the post on a roster somewhere. But, you know, I think about the best passing big man in the game today, Yokic. And Walton was the best passing big man way back, Tommy, as you know. Right. But the big difference is Yokic brings the ball up court and shoots threes, too. Yeah. That's not really what DJ Burns' strength is. But, all right.

Did you have anything else? I got nothing else for you, boss. Okay. Stefan Diggs, I just saw this. The Texans are wiping out the final three years of his contract, and they're giving him the ability to become a free agent after the season. Now, they didn't trade that much, ultimately. They gave away a second round pick next year. But in many ways, I wonder, and I've got to read through this, and I don't have an easy answer to it right now, but I wonder if in some ways this is a way to make sure that this is a way to make sure that this. this year in Houston, he is truly incentivized to play. He must really be a pain in the ass. He must be. He must be a major pain in the ass because he's very talented, although I kept reason that he wasn't as good on the deep ball as he had been in the past.

He's still, to me, extremely talented. But he must really be a pain. No doubt. Yeah. I mean, there have been a lot of things. stories floating out there about him and Josh Allen in particular and, you know, about just their relationship, not being very good and being super strained. But yes, he's got, he's, he wears out his welcome, clearly, because he's so good. He's so talented. Yeah. All right, I'm back tomorrow. See you,

Tommy. See you, boss. Giant stride into history, Colonel John H. Glenn Jr. squeezes into his spacesuit. His smiling face belies the ten postponements of his flight that have kept him grounded. This morning, the weather over Cape Canaveral and in the pickup areas is better. And there's an air of optimism as the colonel walks to the gantry elevator. Carrying his now familiar portable air conditioner, Glenn prepares to go to the 11th deck as clocks point to 6 a.m. Eastern standard time. The skies are beginning to lighten and a cool north wind.

Russell's across the king.