The Kevin Sheehan Show - Sweat & Young Traded

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

Kevin and Thom opened the show with the news that Montez Sweat had been traded to the Bears for a 2nd round pick. Then during the show, the news broke that Chase Young had been traded to the 49ers for a 3rd round pick. The guys reacted in real-time on the Young trade. Thom also with thoughts on the passing of Washington Senators great, Frank Howard.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here, and the show is presented by Window Nation. Call them at 86690 Nation or go to WindowNation.com if you've been thinking about new windows.

Buy to get too free right now. Plus, no money down, no payments and no interest for two full years. It's a great deal. Mention my name. They will take great kids. care of you. So, we are recording this podcast at 1.30 p.m. on Halloween. Tommy, happy Halloween, by the way. Happy Halloween to you. And so as of now, the only thing that's happened is Montez Sweat has been traded to Chicago for a second round pick. Now, I was told during one of my

breaks on radio this morning that, you know, Sweat brought back the most in compensation that if Chase Young had brought back something similar in compensation, they probably would have moved Chase Young before moving Montez Sweat. And then what's been reported and is still being reported after the Montez Sweat trade is that Washington is still fielding calls on Chase Young. So it is possible by the time you listen to this podcast that not only Montes Swear is gone, but Chase Young is gone too. I think that they would move them for something, you know, approximating what they got for sweat or maybe a little bit less.

I think they would have moved him, Tommy, before the draft. That got reported many times before the draft that Washington was all ears on Chase Young, but all they got offered were basically day three. three picks. And so they decided to, you know, not pick up the fifth year option and roll the dice that he would come back, healthy, and play well. And maybe they could do something with him at the trade deadline. Or maybe they would decide to keep him. Who knows? But let's start with Montez Sweat. I think this is the right thing. I like Montez Sweat. I think he was an excellent player for them. He was not the game-changing kind of player that I thought he would be when they

drafted him because I was a big Montez Sweat fan. Remember, the 2019 draft was the draft in which Dan Snyder walked in and told Kyle Smith and told, you know, all of his football people, a draft Dwayne Haskins with number 15 overall, which they did. And the football people wanted Montez Sweat. They also liked Darnell Savage a lot, the safety out of Maryland. He was on their list for 15. And then Snyder said, if you really want Montez Sweat, then trade back up into the first run and get them. But you guys are taking, you know, Dwayne Haskins. And so when they drafted Sweat, I was a big fan of Sweat at Mississippi State. I thought he had a chance to be a dominant player. There were some health concerns. There was a health, you know, related issue that was heart-related

in the combine or in one of the medicals, which is why he probably was still available late in the first round. He's been a good player for them. Not a a star in the NFL player, but a really solid, better than average, much better than average, defensive end in the NFL. But, you know, if you didn't think you could sign them and you didn't want to use the franchise tag or you were going to choose to spend money elsewhere, a high second round pick back from Chicago, which should be a high second round pick as of now, it would be, you know, number 35 overall. is pretty well done. It's good compensation back for Montes Sweat.

Because remember, you know, if they kept him, they were going to have to pay him a lot of money to stay. So I think it's a job well done by them, even though I think Montes Sweat's a good player and will be missed. What do you think? Is he the equivalent of Preston Smith? That's a really good comp to a certain degree. different kind of player for sure. But Preston Smith was a second round pick, and he had played well enough to think that maybe he was a guy that would be,

he ended up, Preston Smith ended up being a better player, you know, in Green Bay than he was in Washington. If they knew what, you know, he was going to become in Green Bay, if they knew that, I think that they would have, you know, would have, you know, kept him and tried to keep him. But, yeah, I mean, they have not done well with, you know, Preston Smith's actually probably one of their better second round picks. He just didn't have the career here that I thought that they, you know, probably would have wanted. But he still had shown you enough here that, you know, you had to strongly consider trying to

keep him. Yeah. I mean, I think. I think Preston Smith was a good player here. He ended up becoming a better player in Green Bay, though. I'm looking up the stats, but I guarantee you he's got a lot more sacks in Green Bay than he had in Washington. I mean, I kind of look at Montez Sweat the same way, a guy who has played well enough to be very interested in trying to figure out a way to keep him, but not enough to commit financially. or long-term in that case. That's why I think he's a lot like Preston Smith. Good enough to be tantalizing, but has not been a game changer.

I mean, that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about game changers. Right. Preston Smith, by the way, you know, in Green Bay, four complete years in Green Bay versus four in Washington, you know, a veteran player who was entering his principal, prime, but 33 and a half sacks, 2019, 2020, 2020, 2021, 2021, 2022 in Green Bay.

And he had 24 and a half in Washington. His first year in Green Bay after signing a $52.5 million, $52 million four-year deal with the Packers, the first year he had a 12-sack season that particular year. But yeah, not a dollar. dominant player here, a better player in Green Bay. Montes Sweat. I would actually say that Montes sweat, here's the big difference, Tommy. Preston Smith was one of the only good defensive players they had on some of those teams. Those teams were really void of good defensive players. They were

terrible defensive teams. Now, some people will say, well, Sheehan, they're terrible on defense this year. No, they didn't. I mean, that team going back to, you know, so he left in 2018 and thinking about that team, they just didn't have anybody. You know, they had guys like they were bringing in, Bruce Allen was basically in that mode of let's see if I can get an NFL caliber player on clearance, you know, paying, you know, 50 percent, you know, guys like the Dallas guy, Stacey McGee, and Zach Brown, remember him. They didn't have any Scandric. Here it is.

Here I'm just pulling up a roster now. Like here was their 2017 ending defensive roster. Stacey McGee, Ziggy Hood, Matt Ionitis, Preston Smith, Martrell Spate, Zach Brown, Ryan Carrigan, Bashad Breeland, Monta Nicholson, Jesus, DJ Swearing, Kendall Fuller, there's some law involved with some of these dudes. Does Schaer Everett? Good God, I mean, Quentin Dunbar.

I mean, how many of these guys got arrested? I know. Fabian Moreau was on that team. Junior Galette, Josh Harvey, you know, yeah, it's just a, Terrell McLean, McGee and McLean. Bruce was so proud of those two signings because he got great deals. I remember one day at the park, he was like, yeah, look, we'll be paid for him, though. Really?

Well, great. You paid nothing for him, and by the way, they both suck. Yeah. And Washington's got more flexibility with the roster to replace, you know, a Montez Sweat. But Tommy, he's, Preston Smith was a good player. Montez Sweat was a really good player. here. He was a really good player. He was not the game wrecking. If you watched Monday night football last night, I kept thinking about Montez Sweat and Chase Young as I watched Max

Crosby for the Raiders. That is a relentless, high-motor game-wrecking player. And Washington has not had that with Montez Sweat. And they really haven't had it with Chase Young either. I mean, there were moments down the stretch in his rookie season where he was certainly creating havoc on the football field against some pretty bad teams and some pretty bad quarterbacks. And we thought, oh, my God, look at what he's going to become. But, you know, injuries and, you know, he just hasn't. He might, he might live up to that at some point. I think Montez-Swent, we knew now that he wasn't going to become, you know, he wasn't. going to become T.J. Watt or

Micah Parsons or Max Crosby, you know? No, he wasn't. No. So. I don't think the other guy is either at this point. But yeah, look, this is, okay, so the question is, who made this trade, Kevin? Is that

the question? That's the question. Did the front of, did the new owner go to them and say, trade this guy? or was this a Ron decision? The guy that would have gone to Ron and said, you know, trade and let's get whatever we can get back in terms of if we can do some good deals would be Josh Harris. He's the owner.

I don't know if you've heard about him. Right. He was involved in a rather large trade last night. Yes, he was. With the 76ers. And just let me say real quickly, who the hell would want James? Harden. I don't know. I don't know why you would want James Hardin. It speaks to what a screwed up league, the NBA.

It's screwed up. What a screwed up product it is. Hardin, Westbrook, Kauai. Speaking of which, did you happen to watch any of the Wizards last night? We'll get back to that later on. Yeah, yeah, we'll get back to that later on. I would hope that Josh Harris has had somebody as a consultant. You know, he was, he's a sports owner. He's a sports owner. He's He was a minority owner in the Pittsburgh Steelers. He's got to know and has known people. Kevin Colbert was the long time, you know, vice president of player ops and general manager in Pittsburgh.

And he's, you know, out there. Maybe somebody like Kevin Colbert's been an advisor to Josh Harris. And Josh Harris has, you know, had these conversations with Martin Mayhew and Marty Herney and Ron Rivera about the direction they want to go in. I certainly hope that's true. I think what people would judge this trade in part, if you said to them, well, okay, it was Ron Rivera that decided to trade Montez Sweat versus it was Josh Harris who decided to trade Montez Sweat. I think the latter people would be very excited about. I think the former people would be a little bit worried about.

Yeah, I mean, he's not going to be here. Martin Mayhew's not going to be here. Marty Herney's not going to be here. None of these people are going to be here when the regular season ends, you know, or maybe before it. And so I, you know, this is a team. You know, Tommy, here's something we haven't talked about. This is a pretty attractive job all of a sudden for a general manager and a head coach. You know, Snyder's not the owner.

more. You've got, you know, by all accounts, a solid ownership group. You have the fifth most cap space available heading into 2024. You now have, you know, all of your draft choices and two number twos, including what should be a pretty high number two. You've got some young talent on the football team. I mean, we can talk about the disappointment of the defense. We can talk about, you know, Josh, you know, Jahan Dotson. I almost Josh Doxon, Jahan Dotson, although he played well. But there's some good young players. First of all, unless you're an expansion team with an expansion draft available to you,

you can't just deal everybody and then start from scratch. You know, there are a lot of players under contract. And they're good players under contract like John Allen and Duran Payne and Terry McCorn. And by the way, good, you know, players. and good players to have a round to try to build something with. So this is, you know, we really haven't talked about this is the first, not only is that the first time the job isn't toxic, if you take it, it's actually really attractive for a lot of reasons,

and all the reasons I just gave. And unless it turns out, unless it turns out that the world is, sports doesn't think that highly of Josh Harris, you know, but it's really a good, good gig for a general manager to come in to this organization in January and for a head coach to take a gig here. I mean, you could turn this thing around pretty quickly. It has become attractive, and in part because of what you're measured against, you know, the acts that you're following, the decades of destruction. You know?

Yeah. I mean, your measure of success is not that high to reach. I know, but that's not the way somebody would view it. You know, that's the way you would view it. It's not the way a highly thought of general manager candidate is going to look at it. hey, there's no way I can fail. Did you see the last guys that were here and the guys before that? No, they're going to want a gig in which they can succeed

and they can win it all and have a chance to win it all. I know that. I know that. But make no mistake about it. Most of these guys pay attention to fallout. And they'll look at the potential fallout here and think that, you know, I'm covered for a long time. That's what they'll think.

I don't think they'll think that way. I think if they've got options, they're not going to think. No, they're not going to think that way. Is it a decision-making factor? No. Okay, good. It's an ancillary benefit. Let me take the job where I'll get the least amount of criticism when I fail.

I hope. Oh, I know front office people who have done that, Kevin. Okay. I'm sure there have been people that have done that. I'm just saying that this is the kind of opportunity. where you should be able to attract the people that aren't looking for the place in which they can fail and not get criticized on the way out. That's the opportunity that probably exists here now. I mean, and again, it's not just, it's obviously because, you know, there's a new owner and this place was there.

I mean, we know in the last decade just how many people would never have come anywhere near this place with Snyder being the owner. But it's really what I, it's beyond that. I just, I wanted to see what the updated salary cap projection for next year, Washington's got the third most amount of cap space heading into 2024. Chicago's one, they're going to have to pay Montez sweat to make this trade worthwhile from their standpoint. Tennessee to Washington 3. And then you've got all your draft choices. You just add at a second. They might add another pick or two before the end of the day.

It's possible. And you're leaving out the best part. The quarterback is what you're going to say, right? The franchise quarterback. There you go. You know what? Somebody may view it that way. But if they don't view it that way,

they're going to have a chance with salary cap space, with draft choices, depending on, Look, here's the worst thing that could happen for the next general manager that's coming in is that they go 8, 8 and 1 and they end up picking 15th or 16th or 17th again. Like, you know, whoever is advising and may end up being the guy for Josh Harris is quietly rooting for them to lose out. Because as good as Sam Howe played Sunday, the week before he was horrendous. there's no guarantee on him at this point. Sorry, there isn't.

He was great. He was great on Sunday. I mean, I just, but I'm still drafting a quarterback. If the one I want is available, high, I'm drafting them. Even low, I'm drafting a quarterback. Look, I take it standard operating procedure to pick quarterbacks in the draft, no matter who you've got anymore. But yeah, no matter what Sam Howell does, he's competing for a job next year. I read this tweet earlier in radio, but I'm going to read it with you. It came from Fran. Kevin, I hope Sunday was all you needed to see. Do you have an opinion on Sam now?

Because you should have one. He's the answer. I got a lot of that, you know. I get a lot of that when he plays great, and I get a lot of the, you know, of, silence when he plays poorly. And it's just funny to me because people are so sensitive to somebody that doesn't have an opinion on somebody. You know, it's like, I didn't have an opinion on him. And Fran picked up on that at least. I don't have, I did not have an opinion on him. I had no idea. Sorry. Not the take of a talk show host typically. But as I said, you know,

more than five dozen times during the offseason, I have no idea. idea what to expect from Sam Howe. I am definitely more encouraged, as you and I have talked about, than even I expected to be for a lot of reasons. But I'm also concerned about a lot of things that I've seen. But yeah, no, I don't have an opinion for sure on Sam Hal at this point. I still think eight games. And given that he wasn't good in the Arizona game, he wasn't good in the Buffalo game,

He wasn't good in the giant game. By the way, it wasn't all his fault. I thought the game plan was hideous in the giant game in particular. He wasn't that good after the early portion of the Atlanta game. He wasn't that good in the first half of the Chicago game. But he was really good in the Denver game, excellent in the two Philadelphia games. Pretty damn good in the first half at Atlanta. So it's been that roller coaster ride with a quarterback that you didn't know anything about

that didn't have any experience that with a new offense, not the one he learned last year as a third string quarterback. And that's what we've seen this year. We've seen ups and downs, but man, the ups have been good. Sunday was really, really impressive by both him and Eric B. Enemy. And it just, that reminds me because it is Tuesday, and we didn't have a show together yesterday, what was your reaction to the 3831 loss?

Well, it's kind of like twofold on Eric, on Sam Howe and Eric Bied to me. I mean, Sam Howe was out there setting records on Sunday. He was making history. He did. Particularly in the first half. Yes. I mean, you know, what he was able to do

certainly would encourage me that he has a much better chance than I had originally thought to be an A answer. Maybe not the answer right now, but a answer to your quarterback problem moving forward. You know, the maddening thing for me about Eric B. enemy was that that play calling,

all it did was reinforced to me how terrible he was in previous games. I mean, you didn't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out the limitations of what this team can do offensively. You could figure it out early in the season what they could do. Like I said before, the Cardinals told you what the rest of the league knew about this quarterback

and this offensive line. And yet, this guy, this offensive coordinator, kept trying to shove an offense down their throats that wasn't working, that was destroying his young quarterback, and putting them at risk. I mean, is there anyone who watched football who didn't know how they had to approach Sunday's game offensively? It would seem pretty obvious. Yes.

Okay? So the fact that they did it, I'm not pinning a rose on them. If anything, I'm saying, where was this in the Giants game? Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, look, we saw some of what we saw Sunday in Denver. We saw some of what we saw Sunday in the first Philadelphia game. And yet we saw what we saw against New York. And, you know, it's not like he was expecting to fail in New York by dropping a

back 14 times in the first half. And again, dropping them back, meaning deeper five and seven step drops, five step drops, even with the extra protection. This is a get it out of his hands quickly quarterback. And Tommy, I mentioned yesterday on the podcast because, and I went and looked for this sound on Sunday night. I was looking for it. I couldn't find it. But when I had the guy who was his offensive coordinator at North Carolina, who's now at Wisconsin, Phil Longo on the show, I asked him specifically what kind of offense will Sam thrive in? And he said, West Coast, get the ball out quickly. He is a good distributor of the football.

You put pieces around him and you put him in an offense where he can distribute and distribute quickly. Like anybody that knew Sam Howell's deficiency, which was on dropbacks, not processing, not throwing with anticipation and because of it taking too many sacks, it doesn't mean he'll be terrible at that forever. Yes, it means that it's a current flaw. And yet we still had the Arizona game. We had the Buffalo game. We had the New York game.

We had moments in the Chicago game. And it's like, no, just, yeah, that's square peg round hole. What we saw. That was maddening to me to see what could. done, given the limitations that everyone knows this offense has. And you're right. It doesn't mean that this is the future of Sam Howe as an NFL quarterback, you know, as a distributor. It doesn't mean that he can't become a guy who can read the field, get rid of the ball on a five to seven drop play. It doesn't mean that's the future. But, you know, I mean, you have a young

quarterback. You should be spoon-feeding him. You shouldn't be shoved food down his throat. I know, but that's where we get back into the conversations that we had early in the season. And it's amazing that we're already saying back in the early portion of the season. It seems like it just started. But this is week nine coming up. It's Halloween. But I said that there's something else going on here. It's more of kind of a instilling of an offensive philosophy and finding out if Sam's going to sink or swim in it. And then I think after the Buffalo game in particular, I think that Ron, remember, that was the game where Ron said, I don't even want to really talk about players. We got to get ourselves as in coaching staff kind of aligned.

I'm paraphrasing. It was something, and I remember saying he's going to have a heart to heart with Eric B. Enemy about, you know, maybe not pass to run ratio, but the number of times he's dropping his poor quarterback back. Because it's the quarterback, it's the offensive line. Like it doesn't, it really doesn't even matter. This was back when you were doing the thing about, are we going to sit here and play the F-A-U-L-T game, you know? Whose fault was it on the, on this? seven sacks on Sunday. And it's like it didn't even matter whose fault it was against the Giants or the Bears or the

Bills or the Cardinals. It could be the offensive line. It could be the route runners. It could be the quarterback. We did find out that it was more quarterback, you know, than offensive line until the giant game. It's so obvious. You've got to, you know, you can't have him take these deep,

with medium to longer developing plays down the field as your primary way of throwing the football. There are other ways, and the other ways are more conducive to what he is and what you have around him. And we saw that Sunday. I mean, I went back again just to, it was such an obvious part to the game in the first four drives. It was literally like, I think it was 13 of the first 15 pass play calls were quick game, screens, rollouts. And they did drop them back, but it was first and 10, play action, max protect. You know, these aren't the downs where you've got extra pass rushers coming. These are the downs where play action tends to be more effective.

And it was just, I mean, you don't have to pin anything on him. I'm just very happy that we didn't have to bury him as an offensive coordinator after Sunday. Because if he had done the same thing he did against the Giants, against the Eagles, and there were seven sacks, and there were, you know, 14 points, I would have been, I would have been like, this guy's too stubborn to do this. and he's not too stubborn because he went with something that, you know, is the right fit for what he has. And by the way, also weren't the first time against Philly. We'll see if he's not too stubborn.

See if he continues this. Yeah. But Hal was great until he wasn't. Yes, he was. It seems a lot of people after he set all those records in the first half, which he did, as you mentioned, 24 completions is a franchise record. 390 plus yards with at least four touchdowns first time since Rippin in 1991. You know, he was not sharp late. And, you know, I talked about this yesterday in my recap of the game,

and I don't even think I emphasized it enough. I mean, I went back and did look at a lot of the offensive plays, none of the defensive plays, which probably would have been better served. But those, the interception is a bad interception. It's really an unfortunate one. I do think when you throw 52 passes in a game or you, you know, 53 pass calls, you're not going to be perfect on every throw. And everybody needs to understand that.

And quarterbacks, even the best, throw picks. But that was unfortunate as far as the timing. It was a really bad pick, but you bring up a good point. 52 times in a game, you're going to have an interception to. Yeah, yeah. You know? Even the best quarterback. is going to have it. It was really bad timing.

Terrible timing. For that play. And he should have been picked on that fourth and one in the first half. And if you go back and watch out on the All-22, I was right when I said yesterday to those listening yesterday and today, Curtis Samuel is wide open for a touchdown on the fourth and one.

Now, I don't know where that was in his progression, but it's a touchdown. It was a total blown coverage by Philadelphia. But no, quarterbacks, the best of them throw interceptions. So, Okay. And I think actually the fourth down throw to Terry McClureen, the fourth and eight, the third and eight wasn't the best throw. The fourth and eight, Terry should have caught both of them.

I have not come off of that. The fourth and eight, that's just such an easy pitch and catch throw, and he really made it difficult for Terry. Terry should have pulled it in, but it was not a good throw, and it was a big spot. So you had three. Let's get back to the passing, though. The amount of passing. Yes. For a second. It would seem like, and they had the 129-yard run by Brian Robinson, so that kind of warped his figures.

But still, they have a ball in Brian Robinson, Jr. And you keep saying that they love Chris Rodriguez. He didn't play. He didn't get in the game. I know. I know. I was shocked by that. I mean, to me, why aren't you using these guys more?

I know Philly's tough to run against, but even Philly tried to run the ball more against Washington. They weren't that successful, but they still tried. Well, I mean, the answer is easy. This is not what Eric B. Enemy wants to be. Eric Bionemi has a philosophy of, you know, Andy Reid, you know, massive pass-to-run ratio. And that's what we've seen. And we saw almost a four-to-oneer on Sunday. Philadelphia is not a team.

They were the number one rush defense in the NFL. And I think one of the reasons Washington had some success running the football Sunday is that their mountain of a man defensive tackle, Jordan Davis, was not in the game a lot. Nor was Jalen Carter. They both played a limited number of snaps. I think they were either hurt coming in or they may have gotten banged up at times during the game. So they had more success running the football than anybody's had against Philadelphia, even though there were only, you know, 10 rushes by Robinson, right, and two by Gibson.

I think that's what it was, 12. I mean, Hal had a scramble or two, but in terms of the running backs, I think it was 12 carries for like 75 yards or something. So that's really good. I mean, you know, you're basically over six yards per carry, and it helped. You know, it helped during the day. I think the quick passing game and made it. made it easier for them to take some of their shots on first and ten with play action. It made it a little bit easier for the running game.

They had Philly flummoxed. I mean, they really did. And that, I don't, I think the Philly secondary is massively overrated. Now, maybe it won't be when Kevin Byard settles in after that trade. But I just think that they, for whatever reason, Washington seems to have the answer to attacking Philadelphia through the air. No doubt. You know, this year for sure. But, yeah, I like Brian Robinson, Jr. If that's what you're asking me, why not more of them? I like them. I prefer more running runs. Why not more Chris Rodriguez? I love. I love Rodriguez.

I love Gibson. I've loved Gibson from this start. But I don't care personally, and I think in today's game, you know, I mean, for all of us that watch a lot of football, you don't care about balance for balance's sake. You care about whatever needs to be done to move the football and score points. You do that. And Washington didn't have any problem moving the football and scoring points on Sunday with a four to one past run ratio. It's kind of the Belichick Brady theory. Like they'd run it if that's what the defense, you know, if that's what the opponent it was weak at stopping and they'd throw it if they thought that was the best way. That's what Andy Reid does do for the most part.

So anyway. I get that. But again, if you're taking a philosophy that you're spoon-feeding a young quarterback, which should be their philosophy at this point, one of the tools for taking a young quarterback along is giving him the comfort of a running game. It's not having them put the ball up in the air. 52 times in a game. Well, I agree with you that you're not looking for an equal balance.

You're not looking to run the ball 25 times a game. Okay. It is a security measure, a blanket of sort, have a young quarterback be able to hand the ball off more than 12 times a game. Well, they're not spoon feeding them. They haven't been since day one. There's been nothing about... And I think that's a mistake.

Well, I mean, I don't know if it is or is. I can tell you this, he's had some really good games not being spoon fed. And he's had some really bad games, not being spoon fed. But I think that's been the plan for Bianami all along. I'm throwing him into the fire. And you can throw him into the fire, but you've got to give him a chance to grab some oxygen somewhere. And that's the kind of game plan that they had Sunday. and I just thought that that was the right thing to do,

and he thrived in it, and so we'll see. I mean, yeah, they're not going to be a run-oriented team. That's not who they are. I also do think that Larson and Chris Paul made a bit of a difference, too. Larson in particular, because they were really struggling at center with Gates. But anyway, yeah, what else from the game? Well, that's it. That's it.

Okay. Those are my things. The quarterback, you know, they should crown him for his performance, and no crown for the offensive coordinator, you know, for doing the obvious. And plus, oh, we haven't even gotten to yet, the, I didn't see it on the screen. Oh. I don't know. I just don't know what to say.

I'm still so angry about that. I mean, that's like I didn't know we could be eliminated. It's not that bad. But it's in the same vein. Yeah, the answer wasn't great. I went off on this yesterday. It's funny, I got this from Randall on Twitter. He said the other thing you missed from Rivera was, at the end of the half,

kicking the field goal with six seconds. I'm going to come back to what you said, Tommy, in a moment, but it just reminded me because I wanted to. Randall said Rivera's clock management blunder that you didn't mention, Kevin, was the team kicking the field goal with six seconds to go, because if it had missed, then Philadelphia would have had a Hail Mary shot at midfield. Very good point. Excellent point.

I think I suggested yesterday they could have taken a quick shot. It was first down with no timeout, select. they could have taken a quick shot to the sideline with six seconds to go to try to get it closer than 56 yards, which it first was before the penalty. But really good point. They should have spiked the ball and run two seconds off the clock and then kick the field goal with four seconds. That's very smart. And of course, they're not going to think of that, nor anybody in their brilliant analytics department is going to think of that.

But I will say that I just still don't understand why they're waiting for a video screen review. But beyond that, well, let me just say this. So he answered the question. Ben asked him for the process yesterday because I actually asked Ben on the radio yesterday. I said, what is their process? Who's up in the booth? He goes, I don't know who's in the booth. I suggested that it might be their analytics coordinator, Drew. Drury, I think his name is.

I don't know who it is. Ron wouldn't answer the question. Ron just said about the process. He said, up in the booth, we're hoping to get a look. We'd love to see the replay. Love to see it out there quickly. What you don't want to do is get into a situation we were in, and that is we didn't get a chance to get a look.

If you throw the flag and you're wrong, you lose it. So we're trying to decide. We know how important having the challenges are. We know how important the timeouts are. And there's really nothing that's definitive there. It's hard to make the decision, excuse me, appropriately. And Ben said, well, who is communicating with you? And he said, there are people upstairs that are in my ear.

He wouldn't say who those people are. I don't know why the secrecy about it. Also, what? Also, what was his final statement was it's hard to make that decision? Yeah, it's hard to make that decision appropriately when there's really nothing that's definitive in terms of the replay. Well, you know something? If it was easy, they'd let people in the stands make that decision. Well, they would have gotten it right.

Of course it's hard. Yeah. Yeah, that was... It's hard. It's supposed to be hard. That's your job. All the decisions are hard. I know.

But Tommy, look, I'm very critical of him. I'm not throwing the flag, but for a slightly different reason. I didn't love the explanation about the video screen thing, because I would hope that the people up in the booth aren't waiting for the replay on the video screen. But if nobody really has gotten the kind of look on a bang, bang, play like that, and Philadelphia is sprinting to the line of scrimmage, I understand that you may be faced within that moment throwing the flag without somebody saying to throw the flag, or without knowing for sure.

Yes, you may be. My point was, this wasn't a first down play. It wasn't a second about it. It was a fourth down conversion. It is moving late into the third quarter. It's 17 to 10. And if you're right, you're going to get the ball at midfield, up 17 to 10 approaching late in the third quarter.

It's very likely at that point you'll have a two-score lead going into the fourth quarter. And everybody on your sideline, in front of the third quarter, in front of the play, he was facing the sideline when he tried to pull it in, said they saw it hit the ground. You think that it may have hit the ground. And Philadelphia is sprinting to the line of scrimmage to try to get a playoff before you challenge it. Right or wrong in terms of the result, I think you've got to throw the flag there. I think it's too important of a moment. I think you have to trust your gut.

You have to trust your instincts at that point. You've got to do it. hindsight, clearly, I just would, I would not have been critical of him throwing the flag if they had not won the challenge. I promise you that. I'm more critical of him not throwing it A, and then B, on the play with Jehan Dodson, on the play that the, you know, Darius Lay gets injured, they get the call down from the replay booth saying Jehan Dotson didn't catch it after they saying he did catch it. Why would he challenge that and burn a time out when they had already from the booth with an expedited review said it was incomplete.

Like the chances of you winning that were probably not very high going in. Right. And so, look, these situations are not, you know, the easiest from where they sit or stand, arms crossed and folded or not folded. I just thought that the game situation and the down and distance and what the ramifications of the play were, and then everything else adding up to it, it's like, sure, you'd love somebody to buzz down or scream down through your headset. Throw the flag, you didn't catch it. But if you didn't get that, sometimes you've got to make an executive decision.

And the decision there should have been to throw the challenge flag. And it would have likely been overturned, and it would have been very impactful to the final. final score of that game. I think it would have been. But Kevin. Yeah. Kevin. It was hard. It was hard. It was hard. You know what's hard? You know what's hard sometimes? Working with you is hard sometimes. But I'm not about to throw the flag. I'm going to let the play stand. All right. We got other things to talk about. I'm just sitting here checking to see if there's anything new. As of now, nothing new. Um, still, uh, wow, the Cardinals are trading Josh Dobbs. Josh Dobbs and a seventh round pick to the Vikings for six rounds. So the Vikings are, are going to go with Josh Dobbs instead of, like, there was a lot of discussion about James Winston as a possibility. Um, and they're going to go with Josh Dobbs. You know what? I ridiculed Josh Dobbs after the opener and before the opener against the Cardinals.

And the truth of the matter, as Ron likes to say, he and his team, they're one and, like, they've had the best of both worlds. They're one in seven, but they have almost won like four other games. But for them, it's perfect that they're one and seven. but Dobbs actually was a pretty, you know, it wasn't great. You know, he's not a real full-time NFL starting quarterback, but he proved more with the Cardinals than he did with anybody else in his career. He'd some good games.

Look, he's better than some of the quarterbacks we've seen pass through here. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, all right, as of now, nothing else. We'll get to a couple of other things that I know you want to get to, which includes the passing of an all-time baseball great here in town. We'll get to that.

We'll get to the harden trade a little bit more. And the NFL game last night in particular. World Series 2. We got a lot of things to get to. We'll start doing it right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment brought to you by Shelley's back room, Tommy, down on 13th and F Streets Northwest. Yeah, Shelly's backroom, my home away from home.

One of the things I noticed, you know, you're in someplace a lot, and you take things for granted. And I was in there recently Thursday night. And one of the things I noticed that when you're walking out the door, there's like a video board that has the top 25 cigar aficionado Cigars ranked at that moment. And Cigar Fisciano is like the Bible of the industry. It's a great magazine.

I once wrote a story for Cigar Officiato magazine about Mike Rizzo, but he's a big cigar guy. But Shelley's backroom, they make the claim that they have on hand the top 25 rated cigars from Cigar Ficinato. And they're on this board. They were right there to prove it. They had them all listed up there, and you can buy them right there at Shelly's. And you'll have the help at Shelly's is very well-versed in cigars. They know to pick the right one for you if you're a newcomer and you just want something mild.

They know to pick the right one if you're a veteran. And, you know, the help there will help you pick one off the vast cigar menu that they have. you don't need to bring your own cigars to Shelley. They have the best supply you'll find anywhere in the district. But even if you do want to bring your own cigars, you can. There's no restrictions. You can bring in your own cigars and smoke them there at Shelly's, and they'll welcome you.

Shelly's Backroom. You go to shelley's backroom.com for more information. I pulled up the top 25 cigars of 2022 per cigar officiator. why are there so many cigars named after Churchill? I know he was a cigar smoker, but I'm assuming that that's named after Winston Churchill, or am I wrong about that? Yeah, that's a style of cigar.

It's not a brand of cigar. Okay. But why? Yeah, it's a style of cigar, named after Churchill, maybe the most famous cigar smoker of the 20th century. Right. So it is, I just, I see a lot of Churchill. in the names of the cigars.

Yeah, Churchill's have a little bit more body to them. They're a little bit thicker than so many other cigars. I like Churchill. Okay. I wanted to just say, so smell tests ended up three and three this weekend. And I had Detroit, I had the Raiders last night plus the seven and a half, and that was painful. My God, Jimmy Garapolo. I mean, he missed so many throws.

in that game, including two long potential touchdown passes to Devante Adams, who had one catch on seven targets last night. Devante Adams, the last two years, has been targeted as much as any receiver in the league, but has more incompletions than almost any receiver in the league over that period of time. And it's just amazing, because he's such a great receiver. He is a top three to top four, top five receiver. Some people had him at number one when he was with Rogers.

We may have seen number one or number two on Sunday and A.J. Brown right now. But he, everybody's talking about him getting traded. I don't think the Raiders are going to trade him. But that is one of those situations. He went there because Derek Carr was there. And Derek Carr is not there anymore. And Jimmy Garoppolo is. And Garoppolo has had moments in his career.

I mean, you know, that's one of those deals too where it's like everybody assigns win record is like the most important thing to look at it when it comes to a quarterback. Well, Jimmy Garapolo has a way over 500 record as a starter. Is anybody going to confuse Jimmy Garapolo for being a great starting quarterback in the NFL? No. He had a great team around him.

You what? He's no Sam Hal. He's no Sam Hal. Actually, I think Jimmy's something. sometimes was knocked too much. I think he was, you know, big and big spots for the 49ers during some of those years. But anyway, I mean, I kept thinking last night, if Adams gets his way and he gets traded, where's he going? And the first team that I thought of was the Kansas City Chiefs, even though they're in the division. And I had Mike Jones on radio today, and I said, and he was

talking, we were talking about it, and I said, where do you think he'd get traded? And he said, well, the chiefs would be one place. And I go, oh my God, I thought, that was the first team I thought of, but then I thought that would be the most unfair thing. And it would render the rest of the NFL season uninteresting, really, because the chiefs would then become such a big favorite. They don't have wide receiver play that's great. I still think the chiefs are probably the favorite to win it. It's still Mahomes and Kelsey and, you know, and their defense is very improved this year. But can you imagine if Devante Adams ended up with Mahomes and Kelsey? Oh, my God, yeah. That would not have been good. I saw Mike Jones Sunday in the

press box at FedEx Field. He said he was good to see him. Yeah, he's a good guy, really good guy. Anyway, Detroit, they're sitting there six and two, and with Kirk gone in the NFC North, they're going to win that division. They may have won the division anyway. And the Lions, I thought golf looked okay last night. They have a lot of good players, though. They have some good players in that team, some really good players. Tell me about Frank Howard passing away.

I remember Tommy barely Frank Howard. I've told you this before. I went to my first baseball game in 1971, the last year the senators were here. I remember Frank Howard. I remember having a baseball card collection when I was a kid with a lot of Frank Howard and senators cards. He was the big name on those senators that then went to Texas and are, by the way, competing in the World Series with the two games to one lead.

You knew him. Yeah. We had many conversations over the years. Such a warm, friendly guy. I mean, such a big, big guy, six, seven, you know, and a bat looked like a toothpick in his hand. But he was so approachable for people. And, you know, I have a calm run in the water in the Washington Times.

he had a good friend named Mike Goss, who is a mutual friend. And I talked to Mike a little bit about him, and he told me that Frank would tell the same story over and over again about, you know, the questions he would get asked. And never blink about having to answer the same question over and over again. You know, he loved being around people. He had such great humanity. He treated people with respect. It's funny because he had a 20-year career after he was out of baseball as a player, as a coach. He coached for the Brewers.

He coached for the Yankees. He coached the Mets. He coached in Tampa. And he was a great coach because he was so open. He was so willing. like he, I remember he said to me, he said, when you have a young player, you critique, you don't criticize, because every young player potentially had that potential to be great, and it's up to you as a coach to find a way to do that.

Love that. And I thought that was really interesting for a guy like Frank Howard who had so much raw talent. I mean, he was just a tremendously talented athlete. He was a basketball player at Ohio State in the late 50s. He was an all-American. Wow. I did not know that. At Ohio State.

Yeah. Yeah. So he had a disposition. I mean, when I used the term gentle giant, it's kind of a cliche, but Frank Howard was a gentle giant. He had a great disposition. It was a massive home run hitter.

Led the league and home runs twice while he was with the senators. And the one year when he hit 48 in 1969, he didn't lead the league. Armid Kilbrough had 49 that year. So there was a four or five-year stretch where Frank Howard was the preeminent home run hitter in baseball. And Mike told me that Frank gave away

a lot of his memorabilia, a lot of jerseys, hats, things like that for charity auctions over the years. But when you win the home run championship, at least back then, you got a belt. Okay? and he kept those. Those are the only pieces of memorabilies that he kept

because he was so proud of winning that home run title. So it's, you know, Brooks Robinson a couple weeks ago, Frank Howard here in Washington, I mean, these are legends who had a great impact on the game off the field, and for Frank, since he was like, since he was part of a less than ideal baseball situation. Right.

You know, a desolate baseball situation. You know, losing teams almost the whole time he was here, he was able to rise above that and give people a sense of pride that, well, even though we stink, Frank Howard still plays for us. Right. And he carried that well. Tommy, you know what's interesting in looking at his baseball reference numbers from his career.

So he came to Washington from the Dodgers in 1965. He was a big-time home run hitter to a certain degree, but not like he would become in Washington. His best year was 62. He had 31 home runs. He was the rookie of the year in 1960. But at the age of 30 is where he started to hit prolifically home runs. 36 as a 30-year-old in 67. 44 in 68 as a 31-year-old.

48 and 69, as you mentioned, as a 32-year-old. 44 in 1970 as a 33-year-old. I mean, that was the stretch. And then he had 26 and 71 his last year in D.C. and then they moved to Texas, and he was in Texas, it looks like, for basically one season and then finished up his career in Detroit. But he wasn't an All-Star until he was 31 years old. He was an All-Star four times, but it started when he was 31 in Washington.

It's interesting. When I talked to him, and you can see this in the stats to some degree, in L.A., he wasn't always a starter. Okay. You know, the Dodgers had a team built on speed, and they had Willie Davis in the outfield, and guys like that in the outfield. They didn't have, you know, there wasn't a place for Frank all the time in the starting lineup out in Los Angeles. When he came to Washington, he was, you know, he found a place where he could play every day,

where he could get 600 bats in his season. and that's where the big difference is. It's just literally more playing time. Right. Yeah. All right. Well, 87 years old, rest in peace, Frank Howard. I certainly remember Frank Howard.

I remember, you know, Hondo was his nickname, and I knew that you had talked to him many times over the years. Here's a quote. Here's a quote from Frank. It's when he was traded to Washington. instead of getting 425 bats a year at bats a year, I was getting 550. Instead of hitting 25 home runs a year, I was hitting 30 or 35. The more at bats you get, hopefully the better hitter you become.

Yeah, no, I see that right now. That was the difference. Yeah. Yep. He had over 700 at bats twice, and he hit 48 and 44 home runs in those two years, 69 and 70. And the 69 Washington Senators are the Ted Williams Washington Senators that actually went like, you know, was it 86 and 76? Yeah, they were 10 games over 500.

And it was the best season they had had in forever, right, Tommy? I mean, I'm looking at the, let me pull it up here, going back to Washington. Yeah, I mean, the year before they won 65 games, the best that they had won, going back to the 61 senators, which was the Washington team that replaced the team that went to Minneapolis. See, for those of you that don't know the history of baseball in Washington, Tommy knows it much better than I. But I do know that there was a team that left and went to Minneapolis. Then Washington got an expansion team, and that team left and went to Texas. and then we got the Montreal Expos, and that's the team that is here today. But the teams, the team, the expansion, 61, 60, 56, 62, 70, 71, 76, 65.

And then finally, 86 wins with Ted Williams as the manager. And then in the final two years, they won 70 and 63. Was there any, I mean, I don't remember, but was there any thought that the senators, you know, when they were 10 games? What did they finish in the division, 10 games? Because they were in the American League back then. Well, that was, that was the first year of the divisions, 69. Oh, it was?

That was when, you know, 68 was the last year of just the American and National League. Then we went to the East and West Divisions in 69. Got it. And there was no wild card, so the Orioles had won like 109 games. 109 games. Here it is. The Senators finished 86 and 76, 23 games back of the Orioles in fourth place. Yeah. They finished in fourth with that record. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, there it is. You're right. The year before, it was just the American League pennant winner over the, you know, in the World Series. That last year, 68, do you know who the American League pennant winner is?

I think I could have gotten this because I know what the 68 World Series is. Well, of course I know who the pennant winner was in 68. I could tell you that on my deathbed. It was to the Detroit Tigers. And what happened in the World Series? They beat the Cardinals in seven games. Yeah, very good. Mickey Lowell has won three games for them.

Yeah, a very hot summer of 68. Man, turmoil. Okay. Well, let's finish up with a few more things when we come back. right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C.,

and they will give you a cash bonus on your initial deposit. Game 4 of the World Series tonight. Right now is even money. Texas and Arizona, basically both minus 105 at MyBooky. By the way, Garcia got hurt last night. Scherzer got hurt last night. Texas won the game three to one. Tommy, I have this sense that I know you're paying attention to it and I am as well.

Man, it just gets buried even on things like SportsCenter. I mean, it's the world effing series. And game one was incredible. Yeah. The ratings are lower than they were for 2020. But still, as low as they are, they still blow away everything else that was on TV that night on network TV. The Adelis Garcia got hurt last night. That's a big deal. This guy has been a record-setting performer in the postseason. And Scher actually looked pretty sharp before he got hurt. It wasn't that ball that went back and hit his elbow.

he actually hurt, and I think he tweaked his back. But anyway, game four tonight in the World Series. My bookies essentially got, you know, the odds as even for the game. And then Sunday, if you're wondering about Washington and New England, yeah, Washington at New England in Foxborough, been a while since they've been there. The Patriots currently are three-point favorites Sunday. That's what I would figure. I would figure it would be even except for the home field.

I'll tell you what, this is right now a great NFL Sunday, an incredible NFL Sunday, which starts with the Chiefs and the Dolphins in Germany at 9.30 a.m. Sunday morning. So you get the Sunday morning game from Germany, chiefs trying to bounce back off of a loss to Denver in the cold against the dolphins. I mean, that's one of the highlight games of the year. one o'clock window has the Ravens and the Seahawks. That's a hell of a one o'clock game. And then the four o'clock window has Cowboys and Eagles in the first of their two games.

And then the Sunday night game is Bengals and Bills. That's a hell of an NFL Sunday, which follows, by the way, a huge college football Saturday. By the way, for all of the people screaming at me for not calling for Mike Loxley's head, just stop it already, okay? Do you know how bad they were for a while? They were 5 and 0 this year. They will likely win another game or two and go to a bowl game.

I do believe that. I actually think Maryland's a good play Sunday plus the 10 at home against, Saturday, plus the 10 at home against Penn State. MyBooky.ag use my promo code, Kevin D.C. Read us, read us, read us, rate us and review us, if you get a chance, especially on Apple and Spotify.

This five-star rating, very nice, from Ted, he wrote, Dancing Around the Firing of Rivera. That's the title of this. This podcast over the years has been the first thing I seek out, the morning following a loss, even more so than after a win. It's like my therapy or support group to help process each pitiful performance. Kevin and Tom have a knack for getting to the root of the issues not necessarily trying to provide the most accurate play-by-play breakdown

because that's pretty impossible coming from outside of the building. But they take a more logical philosophical approach to the football team's decisions and performance. That being said, I haven't heard Kevin outright call for the firing of Ron Rivera. It seems due. I think Eric B. Enemy as interim head coach could be a useful audition for a team that's clearly not going anywhere. Maybe he's hoping to get Riverboat back on the show for another interview and doesn't want to cut ties. Did you listen to me criticize him yesterday? It's certainly been alluded to that Rivera accepts this fate after all he's been through, but why not just come out and call for his firing?

They preach the importance of honesty in this business. It all seems like a lie by omission. Well, thank you, Ted, for the five-star rating and the review. I haven't called for his firing. I don't even know that it's necessary. He's gone. He's not coming back. But with respect to calling for his firing right now, I don't think that is the best thing to do right now.

No. I mean, traditionally, that does not work. Now, in the idea, and I've seen a lot of this out there, and I'm getting suspicious as to why it's out there so much, so that you can audition Eric Bienemy, why? So that he can fail, and then you don't have to go through this idea of Eric Bienemy should be the head coach when the season ends. Look, if I were Eric Bienemy, I wouldn't take the gig interim.

He'd be set up to fail. He already, through eight games, has proven, if you're paying attention closely, he's proven that the job he has is a challenge and that he's learning to a certain degree on the job. Not that he hasn't had big responsibility as an offensive coordinator before, but he's never had this kind of responsibility. He is the lone single top voice on the offensive side of the ball. He's never been that before. He's the number one play caller.

So this is not, you know, this is not something that I think would be in his best interest to take. And if people, it seems to me some people just want him to be named so that we don't have this discussion about Eric B. Enemy being the head coach. Look, we shouldn't have this discussion anyway. They should hire the best possible candidate for a general manager and let the general manager hire the coach. I don't care if it's Eric B. Enemy or somebody we've not even mentioned at this point. I want that process at the end of the year. No, I don't think it makes sense to fire Ron Rivera right now

because the only move then would be to give the team to Jack Del Rio. He's the one with head coaching experience, and he's the one, even though he should have a lot on his plate too. He's not in more of the learning mode as a coordinator, and by the way, he's not going anywhere after this year. He's probably done too, although it wouldn't shock me if somebody hired Jack Del Rio. I know everybody in our fan base thinks he's the worst defensive coordinator of all time.

He's actually somewhat respected. Now, not super innovative, understood. But no, I haven't called for his firing for two reasons. One, I don't think it makes a lot of sense doing it right now. And two, I've kind of accepted since Josh Harris took the team that we were going to have a new coach in 2024. I don't, if you're wondering why I didn't call for the firing over the summer in the offseason, well, it was too late to fire.

him. What were you going to do after they took over on August 1st? Fire him and do what? You were going to training camp four or five days later. You had a preseason game two weeks later. I agree. I wrote that in my column on Sunday, my game column, I wrote that what I believe is that most fans would just as soon fast forward the rest of this season, just put it on like, super fast forward, get through it so they can get rid of the staff. I don't think anyone's looking forward to the Giants coming to FedEx field or the Niners coming to FedEx field or the Cowboys. I don't think anyone's looking forward to that.

I think they just as soon. Here we go, Tommy. Here we go. We got breaking news. Should we hit the Breaking News sounder? Yes, go ahead and do it. We don't have one. Chase Young traded to the 49ers per Diana Rusini moments ago.

It looks like it's for a third round pick. Chase Young to the 49ers per Diana Rusini. There you go. How about that? Well, I guess this regime doesn't have any problem dealing with Kyle Shanahan, do they? No. This group is fine. Chase Young reunited with Nick Bosa.

So now this is interesting because I think this is who they wanted to trade. Okay. They wanted to trade Chase Young before the draft and nobody wanted him. They couldn't get anything more than a day three pick. So, you know, that is, look, there's a lot that all of us don't know in real detail. There's some things that some of us know without a lot of great detail. I just can tell you that Chase Young has not been a favorite of a lot of the people in the building for a while. A lot of people like Chase Young.

I'm not saying everybody couldn't stand them. But there were, I told you guys, when he missed those voluntary OTA days, how pissed Ron and that staff were. He was the only one out of 90. Didn't post for him this year either. Only posted for things that were mandatory. I'm not saying that that's the reason. Obviously, if he had performed at a high level, I think there's been some concern and medical concern about Chase Young's need to a certain degree and what he will eventually become. There is no doubt, if you don't believe this, you are really naive.

There is no doubt that at various times during his time here, it wasn't the easiest thing to coach him. That he was among the guys, if not the only guy, that wasn't adhering to the scheme, wasn't playing within the framework of the defense. there were maturity issues. And back then when we were going through that early in 2021, my position was, well, change it for him. Don't let him, if you got a guy with that much talent, then maybe he shouldn't be a scheme guy. Maybe he shouldn't be gap integrity responsibility guy.

Maybe you ought to just turn him loose and tell him to go get the quarterback. But, you know, I was probably wrong then. And doesn't change the talent that he has, doesn't change the ceiling that he has. He is healthy and explosive potential player, but there were issues here all along. And apparently his father went on with Grant and Danny yesterday and said that he's double-team 90% of the time. I mean, that's not true. That's the kiss of death right there. when the father gets involved that's a kiss at death yeah uh wow there you go so now you've got two number

twos and two number threes right yeah you got two twos and two threes look i think i think i think based on what um what we were hearing about chase young and what was out there reported i'm not saying what we were hearing is in you and me but what was being reported is that it just wasn't in the same realm of Montez Sweat, and they weren't just going to hand them to somebody for a day three pick. And they got a day two pick. It wasn't the Montez Sweat pick, and it's a team that will finish, you know, very high in the standing, so it's really more like an end of the third round pick more likely than not, even though they've lost three games in a row. But, yeah, Diana Rusini, I was told Washington ownership had a strong hand in deciding to deal both Chase Young

and Montez Sweat. Many in the building wanted to keep them because they believe in this team, but in the end, it's about the future for the commanders. That's what Diana just tweeted out. Diana is now with the athletic. So, yeah. Okay. What a busy day. You know what? I'd like the moves. If I'm a commander's fan, I'd like these moves. I would have preferred to have handed over one of these players, whichever one I thought, the new regime would want to keep and would want to sign or tag, or at least contemplate that. But for a second rounder for sweat, I can't, I can't balk at that. That's good value for a player that very possibly would not have been a player that the new regime

wanted to sign to a long-term deal. And then with Chase, man, there's just so much to the Chase Young story. So much. And it's a shame. You know, Montes Sweat was a first rounder, but he was the 26th player taken. Montes Sweat played here longer than Chase Young did and played in many more games because he was, you know, not always completely healthy, but he didn't have this season ending, you know,

injury that Chase had. Chase's rookie year, the end of that rookie year, I thought he was every bit of what I thought he was going to be when he came out as the number two overall. But he wasn't after that. Before the injury in 2021, he was not a very effective player. And there was frustration building with him, you know, from the missing of the offseason OTAs to, the lack of what they considered to be a mature commitment. Not everybody felt that way, but some people that maybe you don't even care felt that way. You know, people on that staff. Maybe other players felt that way.

But I don't think anybody denied the talent. And so there you go. We are... Here's the bottom line. they didn't win anything with either one of them as Doc would say they didn't win anything with either one of them but to think that he was the number two overall pick in the draft was the defensive rookie of the year and you are giving him to the 49ers for a third round pick in the fourth and final year of his rookie deal without a fifth year pickup and they're going to they're they're they're taking you know they're this is a this is interesting for them you know

Like you look at that defense, and it is one nasty defense. I mean, with, you know, Bosa and Hargrave and Fred Warner. I mean, they have Hall of Famers on that defense. And you're going to add, you know, I don't know, who's he going to play in front of them? I'm trying to think of who the other D-N is. Armstead, more inside, Hargrave, more inside, Bosa, more outside. You know, I kept, they added Randy Gregory. Remember, they added Randy Gregory a few weeks ago, too.

Chase Young to the 49ers. By the way, for those of you who have been calling for it, they essentially fired Ron Rivera today. Okay. That's what they did. They traded one of his best defensive players, and they traded his number two draft pick, is his testament to his personnel skills as the top defense,

as the top personnel guy with this organization in one day. Got rid of them both. But again, are you surprised? No. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. But for people who need validation, there's a little bit of validation. Anybody that needs validation, somebody asked me on the show today,

what percent chance do you think Ron Rivera isn't here next year? I said 99 and a half percent. It is, it's 100% is the right answer. Yeah. I wasn't, I probably am wrong with that answer. There's still, by the way, another hour and 15 minutes, hour and 20 minutes. No, hour now left. It's an hour left in the day.

So we will see. I think that's a really fair return on Montez Sweat. I do. On Chase Young. Man, I would have loved to have seen him fulfill, you know, live up to the talent, not hold it hostage, as Doc likes to say. But anyway, all right, it could be more things coming the rest of the day. We'll bet I'll be back tomorrow to talk about all of this in more detail. Santana Moss will be with me tomorrow on the show.

All right, Tommy, that is it. Enjoyed it. Thanks for doing it. Talk to you on Thursday. Okay, boss.