The Kevin Sheehan Show - The Josh Norman Dilemma

Episode Date: December 11, 2019

Kevin and Aaron opened with Maryland's loss at Penn State. Then it was Kevin discussing why it's a problem that Josh Norman continues to be active on gamedays when the Redskins have no intention of playing him. More on Alex Smith from Kevin and then Kevin endorses a front office role for Chris Cooley. Plus, Gerrit Cole to the Yankees, Joe Burrow and more. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right. And the show today is brought you by stamps.com. When I talk about stamps.com, I wonder who goes to the post office anymore, especially during holiday season when it is so busy. That's why you need stamps.com. Anything you can do at the post office, you can do at stamps.com. It eliminates trips to the post office, saves you money with discounts. You can't even get. at the post office. Here's the deal right now. Go to Stamps.com, click on the microphone. At the top of the homepage, use my promo code, Kevin, DC, and you will get big savings to include a four-week trial plus free postage and a digital scale with no long-term commitment or contract required. That Stamps.com enter Kevin, D.C. You shouldn't go to the post office again, especially if you're a small business. Stamps.com saves you time and money. All right, it's Aaron and I today.

No coolly today. He'll join us on Friday. He had something come up this morning, so we will get to him on Friday. And we start with the thing that Aaron and I care about the most these days, and that is our college basketball team, the University of Maryland, who went to Penn State last night as the fourth-ranked team in the country. And we both told you here on this very show yesterday that the points spread reek and that we were very concerned that last night would be the first loss of the year. Not only did it wreak, Aaron, it went from Maryland minus one to at tip Penn State was a two-point

favorite. Yeah. So to explain that to people, because so many of you will ask me to get in more detail on the gambling stuff because you're not familiar with it, and I understand that, and I apologize when we sort of just throw out things assuming everybody will know what they mean because I know, you know, most people don't gamble, and that's fair. It's a fair criticism of me when it comes to talking about gambling. So the fact that Maryland was a one-point favorite when we were on the air yesterday, first of all, it reeked, it stunk, it seemed wrong because Maryland is the fourth-ranked team in the country, and Penn State is unranked. Maryland just won a very dramatic game at home in the first conference game of the year over Illinois, and Penn State lost by 32 points on

Saturday to Ohio State, who's very good. They must be really good. Ohio State must be. So the fact that Maryland was only a one-point favorite at this time yesterday made us think Vegas is basically telling you that Penn State's good and they've got a chance to win this game. In fact, they're kind of leading you to believe that Penn State has a chance to win this game and more likely than not will because they were inviting action on Maryland, basically. They were saying, go ahead, you're so convinced we're wrong, put all of your money on Maryland laying one point. Essentially, meaning all Maryland had to do was win the game for you to win your bet or worst case, push it. And then something else happened between yesterday and tip time.

The point spread moved in the direction of Penn State. And so what that tells you is the public money, the John Q public bet, who looks at Maryland as number four in the country and says, wow, I can bet Maryland laying a point. That's it. And they think that Vegas has made a mistake. They're betting on Maryland. And yet, Vegas is giving that particular audience, the audience that thinks Vegas has made a mistake with the point spread, even more reason to bet on Penn State by moving Penn State to a two-point favorite. So now you can bet Maryland is the fourth-ranked team in the country. against an unranked team and get two points.

Why did it happen? Well, almost always that kind of move is what they call out in Vegas and in offshore a sharp play move. There are two dozen, three dozen people in the world that Vegas and the offshore books actually really respect, like they respect their opinion. And they themselves can move a points

spread. And the point spread moving three points from Maryland minus one, Maryland favored by one, to Penn State minus two, Penn State favored by two, that's a three point move, is almost always an indication of somebody really sharp and respected bet on Penn State and probably bet a lot of money on Penn State. Now, sometimes a key injury or an expected or a suspension or some big piece of news can move the point spread. Last night there wasn't any of that, which tells me that a lot of sharp money, Aaron, was on Penn State. That moved the line in that direction. And when they went off at minus two, I just tweeted out, this really reeks. And I knew. I knew before the game tipped, didn't you, that this was more likely than not going to be a Maryland loss and a Penn State

cover. I mean, even before the odds came out, we were circling this one. This was one that, based on Maryland history, based on Penn State history, based on how the teams matched up, based on the history of these games they play in front of no crowds, we knew Maryland was going to have trouble with. Now, the gambling, the betting lines certainly confirmed the suspicions, but this one was, as you said, every sharp was on it. You look at like, you know, expert analysis and stuff and everyone had Penn State yesterday. This is something that it was, everyone could see this coming. I think even Maryland fans knew it was coming for the most part. Yeah. So it was disappointing, but it wasn't a shock to anybody on any level.

I've talked about in the past how I think my perspective on sports is different than a lot of people that I work with because I bet. And a lot of the guys that I've worked with for years are not betters. They're not gamblers. And it's not that it's a better perspective. It's just a different perspective. And a lot of, and last night's the perfect example. Not only did we see the line when it came out, we predicted basically what the line would be. We talked about going to Penn State. I don't know if we did it on the podcast. I know you and I talked about it. Scott and I talked about it. I have others in my life who live offshore. I probably talked to one of the guys, I don't know, a week and a half ago, I said, I guarantee you they're going to go to Penn State and you guys are

going to have Maryland as a super short favorite and it's going to be a major trap game and Maryland's going to lose that game. And that's the perspective we have of when you bet on sports, and by the way, I don't recommend it necessarily. It's not the best thing to do unless you really can practice moderation and live in that sort of moderation world. A lot of us over the years and a lot of you have issues with that. Got to be careful when you gamble, but it provides that kind of perspective. And it was sort of expected. Now, what's really interesting about last night is more times than not, I would have bet Penn State and gone with the happiness hedge. The happiness hedge is when you bet against your favorite team. So if your favorite team wins, you're happy,

and if they lose, you win money, you know? So that's the happiness hedge in gambling. And I didn't do it last night. And I didn't do it because I just, I love this team. I wanted to rule. super hard for this team last night and hope it overcame the built-in gambling disadvantage that it sort of went into the game with. Now, there were a couple of other things that made the sharps and the books out in Vegas think that Penn State was going to win this game. First of all, Penn State's good. This is something that you need to understand Maryland fans. That was not a bad loss last night. It was not an upset. They were an underdog. You know, be careful. I mean, you can look at the fourth ranked and whatever.

I only categorize a game as an upset if a major underdog wins the game. Maryland was the underdog last night in the game, whether you believe they should have been or not, they were. But one of the reasons they were is that Penn State's actually really good. They've got a pro in Lamar Stevens, who's going to be a late first, early second round pick. They've got Watkins, who's a full-grown man as a senior inside, really difficult to deal with. Miles Dread. A lot of you guys locally know he went to Gonzaga locally. He can really shoot it. Played with Turgent's son at Gonzaga. And Penn State's a good team. And then you take the typical college basketball thing that says they got their ass kicked on Saturday and they're coming home and they got to play better and they're going to be fired up to play after they got completely obliterated at Ohio State. and then Maryland had this incredibly draining physical game on Saturday that they survived somehow.

So they were thrilled to have survived that game. So they're coming in almost thinking, you know, icing on the cake, which is never a good thing. So the setup was there. They got beat. Marilyn hung in there. You know, they had a bad first half with a lot of turnovers. They had a chance down two when the freshman Mitchell grabbed a rebound. It would have been their first possession.

their first possession of the game since very early in the game where they had a chance to get back into it and potentially take the leader tie. But there was a turnover there. Penn State got up three, it was up 358-55. Maryland had a steel on a backdoor cut by Morsell, and they called Morsell for a complete phantom foul. Now, Maryland fans, as we know, Aaron, complain about officiating more than I think most fan bases do. And I got a kick out of that last night on Twitter, because at one point Maryland had shot 17 free throws and Penn State had shot none. So it was not a game in which Maryland got screwed by officiating. What they lost, the reason they lost the game is they had too many turnovers, 20,

which, you know, leads to 20 opportunities where you don't get a shot. So they end up with far fewer shot attempts in the game than their opponent. And they didn't hit open shots when they had them. They got a little bit stagnant offensively at times, and ultimately they got beat by a team that's a good team that I think has a chance to be a tournament team. Yeah, shooting 33% even without the turnovers, isn't going to get it done on any level. This team, and it's been something that they've, it's really become a hallmark of them over the past few years. They can't play in front of empty arenas. Last night was not an empty arena.

It was, but it still was, it wasn't. My son was at the game. My son who's a suck. I didn't think it came off that well. Well, the announcers were talking about this is the best Penn State home crowd in years. But what is the best Penn State home crowd? I understand that. But when you're used to going into an empty building in State College,

because they don't care about basketball, and then you go into a building where the student section was packed and the arena was pretty much packed last night. They were fired up for the game. It was probably a totally different experience for them. Last night, I would not put into, you went into a sterile, you know, environment, and that, you know, affected your play. That was for Penn State basketball, a hostile environment.

Now, it's not hostile like we're used to at Maryland or some of the good home courts. And that's probably, I'm probably being at a snobby college basketball fan right now. But even Docch last night in the broadcast and who was doing play-by-play last night? It was, um, I'm blanking on who it was. I'm blanking on who it was, too. But they said this was a different environment for a Penn State home game. Penn State, hockey's bigger than basketball at Penn State. It's not, you know, did you hear Nocky's call?

Maki, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he essentially said as the court got stormed at the end by the students, they must think they're going to the Rose Bowl. And that's what matters at Penn State. Yes. Anyway, it's a loss. It's December. They weren't going 31-0 in the regular season. And now, unfortunately, they got to wait.

nine days during final exam week, plus before they go on the road to play Seton Hall, who's 22nd ranked in the country, but lost a key player. Yeah, I'm not even going to try to pronounce his name. Yeah, it's that big white dude that actually played really well against him last year. Mama Kuleshvili? Yeah, he's a good player. Oh, he's really good. And that's a huge break for Maryland because he would have caused problems.

He would have caused problems. And if we're looking big picture about Maryland, what are their flaws? well, you know, they don't have a post-up guy offensively like they did in Bruno. They can get beat up a little bit with some size at the rim. And, you know, we didn't see as much zone last night from Turge. And we saw a Penn State team that was very fired up defensively. They really wreaked havoc at times defensively, and Maryland was not sharp. You know, dribble handoffs.

One pass away with a guy in a passing lane, very casual passes that you can't have against a decent team on the road. Anyway, they lost the game. There you go. Didn't think they were going undefeated, and we sort of had that one going in. So the Wizards lost last night, too. Man, this Davos Bertans is ridiculous. You know, the three-point shooting, I turned it on for the end of the game. They had a chance to win it. They were in it. There's a player that I really like on this team in addition to Wagner and Bertons. I really like Ish Smith.

I've always been an Ish Smith fan. I think he can flat out play, and I think they are better with him in the game than they are with Isaiah Thomas, to be honest with you. At least they've got a better chance defensively. But Bertons last night in 30 minutes, 11 of 18 from the floor, 8 for 12 from behind the ark. 8 for 12. This dude right now, in this season for the Wizards, is shooting 46.5% from behind the ark. It's ridiculous.

He is a great shooter. He's a good player too. And this is where the Wizards, in what I would call a tank season, have to understand that this guy's probably not going to resign here, and you've got to get what you can get for him, which is going to be a first round. pick prior to the trade deadline. He is going to be sought after pre-trade deadline. This was a really good

get for Tommy Shepard in his first year as the general manager because Bertons, and I had a lot of you tweet me, why do you keep mentioning Bertons as a trade piece? Well, because he's a free agent. And you'd rather get a first round back than nothing back. You know, if you keep him beyond the trade deadline knowing that you're more likely than not to lose him, well, that would be idiotic. You know, you're going to have a big, big battle for a guy like Bertans prior to the trade deadline, maybe well in advance of the trade deadline. You know, the wizards should start shopping him now. Unless you have a sense that you can resign him next year, because he's only 27 years old,

and he can play. Like, he can really play. And in this day and age of stretching. the floor with 610 and 611 guys. This guy is a great shooter. Great shooter. He's got to be near the top, right, in three point percentage. I didn't even look that up. I'm going to look at it right now. Three point percentage in the league right now. Bertons is fifth, all right? Fifth, 46.5%. George Hill, now he also attempts almost twice. Well, more than twice as many three-pointers as three of the guys in front of them.

So keep that in mind. He is the leader if you combine percentage for guys that have more than six attempts a game. But George Hill, Rodney Hood, Marcus Moore, Senior Doug McDermott are all ahead of Bertons, percentage-wise. In terms of three-point shots made, he's second in the league per game, three-pointers per game, behind James Harden. All right. Davis, Davos, Davis, Davos Bertans, okay, is second in the league and three-pointers made behind James Harden.

He's also shooting 40 overall from the field. He's shooting 47.5% from the field. Just keep an eye on that. One of these situations that the wizards have not found themselves in that often over the years, they've got a guy that's going to be valuable at the. the trade deadline. Very valuable. I want to get some Redskins stuff right after I tell you about my bookie.ag. If you're looking for a place to bet and you haven't found a place, it's an exciting time for sports in December and January, all of the football, all the bowl games, the national

championship final four and then the national championship game, major important December NFL football leading into the playoffs in January. Without a doubt, if you're going to get in on the action, and I've got a really good place for you, and that's mybooky.ag. If you're the kind of guy who likes to bet a little to win a lot, they've got great parlay opportunities. If you're a guy that likes to bet teasers, and I would say, beware of teasers. Okay, I know enough people on the other side.

They call teasers profit margin, but they're fun to play. I would urge you to always make bets that are straight bets. That's your best opportunity over the, you know, a long duration of time to win or not get crushed, Aaron, right? We all have that experience. Straight bets, same amount every game, and that gives you your best shot. You start throwing together three and 14 teasers every Sunday afternoon, and you got a sheet at the end of the day where you got 15, 14 teasers.

I guarantee you you got your ass kicked, or you will over the course of time. Parlays? I don't mind those. I like a lot of money line parlays on Sundays. I like taking two or three dogs and wrapping them into a two or three team parley. But anyway, go to mybooky.ag. Here's the offer right now. They will match your deposit halfway if you use my promo code, Kevin D.C.

What does that mean? It means all the way up to $1,000, they'll match your deposit halfway. You deposit $2,000, you'll get an extra $1,000 in free money to play with. MyBooky.orgie.orgie.com, my promo code, Kevin, D.C. All right, let's get to some Redskins discussion. First of all, Darius Geis is on Injured Reserve. If you caught that yesterday, he goes to Injured Reserve with the sprained MCL. It's not an ACL.

However, you know, it's good news that it wasn't an ACL. It's bad news that he's injured again, three times in a year and a half, or just over a year and a half. You know, Tommy said it yesterday. They should be in the market for a running back next year. Maybe. You know, they'll have Adrian Peterson under contract. They've got Bryce Love coming off his year. of recovery after an ACL tear at the end of his Stanford career, you know, and you don't know

about Geis. So that may be a need in the organization. So anyway, I wanted to mention that he went on IR. Also, they had, if you followed this, the Redskins had a cornerback, Simeon Thomas, get suspended without pay for violation of the NFL substance abuse policy. And I said this on the radio show because when it happened yesterday, somebody texted or tweeted me going, who is Simeon Thomas? And that's what happens at the end of these years in bad seasons. Your team is shuffling players in and out,

trying different things out. And if you're not paying attention closely, what you're seeing is you're seeing New Jersey numbers that you're not familiar with. He was number 38. He got a lot of snaps against the Packers and in recent weeks. And actually played pretty well. But there are a lot of guys like that.

Like if you tune in Sunday for whatever reason and you haven't been, you're going to see, you know, you're going to see a guy number 45. He's a fullback. He's Mike Burton. You may not be, you may not be familiar with him. Fifty-four, Nate Orchard, who had a really good game against Carolina a week ago. You're not going to see 38, Simeon Thomas out there anymore, but you're going to see numbers that you're just not that familiar with because they're throwing guys in there, trying guys. Darwin Kitsy was back on the active roster on Sunday. Remember him from the preseason? He was wearing number 84. Cam Sims has played a little bit for the Redskins number 89. Anyway, let me get to the Redskins

topic that I got to on radio earlier because it was something that I was not planning on talking about. And I was listening to Al Galdi this morning on the morning Blitz on 980 before I come on from 7 to 10. And he was talking about Josh Norman being active in the game against the Packers on Sunday. And he suggested that it is because he has an incentive in his contract that if he is on the 46-man active roster, he basically has a $500,000 per season roster bonus for being on the 46-man roster, and it comes down to, you know, an average of $31,250 per game. So if he's on the 46-man active roster. He is earning an additional $31,250, whether he plays or not. It made me think of a lot of things. The first of which was, you know, why? You know, why are they cowtowing to Josh Norman?

Why are they genuflecting at the Josh Norman altar to get him his $31,250 per game when they have no intention of putting him out on the field and having him play? I don't get that at all. Galdi suggested it's some sort of quid pro quo for him not talking. Talking about what? But I do think that Galdi's onto something. He's not active for, he's active, excuse me, for like a third strike. week, and for a second straight week, not one snap. Do you know on Sunday there were only two players on their active 46-man roster who did not

take one snap, not on the field for one play? Case Keenham, the backup quarterback, many of you think he should have played, and Josh Norman. And there they had this guy, probably some of you unfamiliar, with Chris Odom, number 50, a linebacker who played really well in the game against Carolina. First game last week. He's got a couple of sacks. He's got a forced fumble. And he's inactive. And Josh Norman is active. Why? I don't get it. Why the caving to Josh Norman, the helping Josh Norman out financially. And at the same time, they've been trying to bleed Trent Williams.

it's so strange. It's weird. I don't understand it. But then again, I do. And that led me to this. It also made me think, it was one of those things where I heard Galdi talking about this Josh Norman, and I got to thinking about the Redskins as an organization, and the way they, you know, really value certain players and prop certain players up. And, you know, call them and refer to them as like true. Redskins. I was thinking about Ryan Carrigan, after the Josh Norman discussion by Galdi this morning. The Redskins have ruled Ryan Carrigan out this Sunday. He's not playing. Ryan Carrigan, it's just the second game he's ever missed. He's been incredibly durable. He's been such a good player over the years, four-time pro bowler. You know, somebody that they would

refer to as a true Redskin. You know, he's been a really good teammate. He's been very good in the community. His annual leukemia charity golf tournament has been a massive success for years. I've been to it many, many times. And the Redskins are big into community, you know, community involvement, charitable causes. And they love how some of their players and executives over the years have really found a connection somehow in the community. And Ryan Kerrigan's always been a good one for them, a great representative for the team. The team has a charitable foundation. It's a big part of their website, and they're not unique in this. Most sports teams, you know, you'll find community involvement, charity, you know, opportunities for you to donate to some of the charities that they back.

And the Redskins Charitable Foundation has a mission statement. You know, they want to be ever present in the community, constantly working to achieve the mission to make a positive and measurable impact in the lives of children that need it most. Their mission statement goes on. And since Redskins owners, Dan and Tanya Snyder, created the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation in 2000, they've given more than $23 million to the community and currently provide support and services to more than 175,000 individuals, mostly children, annually. They focus on supporting education, children's health and wellness, and preparing them for their futures. That's the mission statement of the Redskins Charitable Foundation. the Redskins for all they do in the community and all that Dan and Tanya Snyder do with charities are there to be lauded, admired.

You know, it's not unique. Most NFL teams, most NFL owners, most sports teams give back in a major way to the communities that they reside in. But I bring it up for this reason because Ryan Kerrigan's a good representative for the franchise. I've been at events with Kerrigan before. He's very good. The team loves Ryan Kerrigan out there representing them. They do. It's important to them. Also important to them, you know, is Ryan Carrigan being celebrated as a great player, as a true redskin. You know, I guarantee you the conversation about his ring of fame candidacy has already taken place.

And they're already excited about the day that he comes back, you know, to be inducted into the ring of fame. And this is, you know, the Josh Norman thing and the weirdness of, if true, them activating him to get him his bonus money. And at the same time with Trent Williams, the way they've sort of treated him. And it just gets me to thinking about all of the things that this organization does wrong. Not that charity and community involvement is wrong. They do a great job of that. And I am an admirer of all that they do. I'm not criticizing them for that.

But what I have a sense of is that this is so super important, as Doc Walker used to say all the time, and I think it's brilliant and so true. There are very few organizations that do it better than the Redskins do Monday through Saturdays. They're the best, Monday through Saturdays. It's Sundays that they struggle with, game days that they struggle with. The team should be considering right now, trading Ryan Kerrigan, well, when they can at the end of the year. They should have at the trade deadline. He's got one year left on his contract. He's 31 now. He's going to be 32 next year.

He's got some value. And you know what? Actually, just as an aside, if you've got some empathy for Ryan Kerrigan, he has sort of served his time here already. He deserves to be set free, you know, get out of this place and go somewhere where he can win. I don't know if he wants to or not. I love Tommy's line. It's always one of my favorites about DJ Swaranger when they cut him. And he said, you know, if they really wanted to punish DJ Swaranger, they would have made him stay. And, you know, Ryan Kerrigan has served his sentence here. You know, it's not going to be that big of a deal to deal him.

You know, he can go win somewhere and participate in a real legitimate organization. You know, I've got some empathy for him, but I don't even know if Ryan wants to do that. You know, I think he buys into this whole thing of him being a true redskin, whatever that means. I think that whole thing's been tarnished over the last 20 years. It doesn't mean the same thing it meant when Jack Kent Cook or Bobby Bethard, Charlie Casserly, or Joe Gibbs said it. But they won't trade him. They won't. It's important for them that he finish his career the same way he started it as a true redskin.

You can hear Dan and Bruce and others behind the walls in Ashburn talking about true redskins. You know, just like before the draft, you know, and you'll hear. over the years you've heard Doug or somebody stand up there and talk about the Redskin grade as if there's something magic about the Redskin draft grade. I think, come on. But this is what they value. They value these things. It's important to them.

It really is. The fact that Ryan Carrigan has been a part of a team that's gone 5886 and 1 while he's been here with zero playoff wins means little. to anything to people in the organization because Ryan is a true redskin. You know, he's going to be in our ring of fame one day where maybe we can misspell his name just like we did London Flectors. This is the point. This stuff means little to most of us.

Again, not the charitable causes that they are involved in the community involvement. All of that is great. Not that they don't do a great job in the community. They do. but that it's so uber important to them. And what's important to many of us is winning. Whether or not Ryan Carrigan becomes a ring of fame guy or not means nothing to me. And it means so much to them.

Ryan Carrigan should have been traded last January. Josh Norman should have been traded last January. Alex Smith should have been nuclear optioned back in January, all of the pain of the remaining contract this year. Ryan Kerrigan's career is going to be remembered, but unfortunately not through championship lenses. Ring of Fame, alumni weekend. I mean, all of this stuff means so much to them,

and they stink year and year out. You know, I'm singling out Ryan Kerrigan because he's the example that I know is coming. and I don't think they're going to trade him. I heard a month or two ago that it's more likely that they extend him contractually than try to deal him. That wouldn't be smart. Ryan Kerrigan's a good player. He's never been an elite player.

But he is a good player. And he's been a good teammate. And he's been, for them, a true redskin. You know, just like already, I guarantee you they view Alex Smith as a true redskin. Chris Cooley, Santana Moss, Clinton Portis, you know the list, all of Dan's favorites, true Redskins. You know, and this leads me to something else. And that is this adulation that the owner has for players. You know, it's this jock-sniffing sort of mentality that I know rubs a lot of you guys the wrong way. And it does me too. You know, the empowering, the relationships that he's developed

with players over the years, players that are, have been more often than not, much younger than him. With, I guarantee you, not a hell of a lot in common. But, you know, he's empowered Griffin, and he's picked Dwayne Haskins because he's got a tie to Bullis. I don't think that's the reason he picked, you know, that he went in there and picked Dwayne Haskins. But it's just this feeling and it's more than a feeling. It's sort of an understanding of what they've been as an organization, you know, like really good at doing certain things and really good at it trying to make the Redskin brand, you know, and the nostalgia surrounding the brand important, rather than focusing on just football and getting smart people to build a roster and getting

smart people to coach the smart roster that you've built and to develop a toughness and a smart mentality and personality rather than being an owner who wants to be friends with some of the star players, wants to talk about certain players as true Redskins. And part of that is because he doesn't know anything about football. You know, he can't really participate in the other stuff. Anyway, the Josh Norman thing, which made me think about all of this other stuff that I've just rambled about, is stupid. Why is he active? Why should they give two shits about his contract and the $500,000 incentive bonus for being on the active roster?

It's an incentive bonus, meaning if you're good enough and you've played well enough to be on the 46-man roster, you earn it. If you haven't been, you don't. He hasn't been very good. The defense has been much better without him. I don't. It's this stuff where if you take Bruce out of the equation and no news on him, as of now, at least not at the time of this recording of this podcast, Aaron, stay on Twitter, please, make sure we're not missing anything because there could be some news here the next day or two,

or maybe not until the end of the year. Who knows? But it's like, focus on the things that will improve your product. All of that other stuff is great and will be admired even more if you win, if you're competitive, if you're functional. At this point, we'll just take functional. The Alex Smith conversation that we had yesterday with Tommy, I had Joe Thysman on the show this morning.

Joe doesn't think that he's going to be the general manager, but Joe did say that his opinion is valued in the organization, that he is valued by people in the organization. And by people, I think he, you know, means what I believe to be true, and that's Dan Snyder. You know, Alex Smith is the new jock that he loves, you know, that he thinks is really, really a true redskin in the making. And again, they've hung on this six and three thing from a year ago

as if it were going to turn into 12 and 4 in a Super Bowl run. And, you know, given the crumbs and how few the crumbs, how few crumbs there have been over the years to sort of, you know, try to satisfy your hunger, you know, Alex Smith at 6 and 3, I can understand why they're, you know, they hung on to that. They haven't had anything else to hang on to. And at the same time, you know, a guy like Snyder who doesn't know anything about football probably thought, whoa, six and three, Alex Smith, Bruce, you got this one right.

Congratulations, great job, great trade. And then he broke his leg. That's not Bruce's fault. I still love Alex, though. You know, he's such a good guy, smart. You know, when he talks, there's a lot of Northern California. Silicon Valley, you know, sort of talk in there. He says things that are saying, oh, you know what?

He loves Dwayne Haskins. I knew that Alex was smart. He sees a lot in Dwayne. I throw that in there because I have heard that he really does believe in Dwayne Haskins. Alex Smith does. And of course, Dan's going to be looking for somebody to say, I really believe in Dwayne Haskins. You know, it's not, it would not be good for, if, If you wanted a job in the organization on offense at a high level, you probably are better

off saying you believe in Dwayne Haskins. And I'm not saying that because I disbelieve in Dwayne Haskins at all because you know how I feel. I've been more encouraged than discouraged. I've been more impressed than unimpressed. And it's all been surprising to me because I was not a huge fan of him coming out, not as a first round pick. But the Alex Smith thing, yeah, I mean.

I think it's in play. Joe said not as a GM. You know, there's the contract that he has. You know, he's got 21 million and 19 million in base over the next two years. You know, they also have the insurance policy on him. You know, maybe there could be a wink wink with a retirement and they give him a job as, you know, a very highly paid, you know, assistant GM or player personnel guy or, I don't know, they'll come up with some title where he's mentoring Dwayne Haskins and he's also, you know, a right hand to the owner. that kind of thing. You know, one of the things I don't know that we weighed in on yesterday was how we would feel about that.

I don't know how I would feel about that. You know, he doesn't have experience, but either does Cooley, and I would advocate that Cooley be a general manager candidate. Many of you have asked me that since yesterday's show. And I, of course, look, I'm not objective when it comes to Chris. He's a really good friend of mine. We did a show together. We became friends.

We're friends before even doing a show together. But I consider Chris Cooley of the people in my life that I, you know, talk sports with, football with specifically, to be by far in a way the smartest person I talked to. Nobody I have conversations with. Mike, there are a couple of coaches. Mike's one of them who's really sharp. You know, he's so much, this is going to sound critical. He's so much better off air, you know, having a phone conversation.

conversation with him than he is on the air, and I've had him on the other day. I think one of the reasons he's not doing a lot of TV is, A, he wants to spend all of the free time he has with Kyle's team and, you know, helping Kyle out. So I totally understand that. But he's also a hesitant communicator, hesitant to, you know, to really get after somebody if he doesn't think, you know, they're very good. But man, in a private conversation, you realize how that guy won so many games. Not here. I know what his record was here.

But Cooley, God, I mean, so smart. I think about all of the things that Cooley has said about, as a scout or a potential player personnel guy, I wouldn't trust anybody in that organization more than I would trust Chris to sit down, to evaluate tape, to watch games, to conduct an interview and ask the right questions and to come to a conclusion on a player. Kyle Smith, I've heard, is very talented and has a real good talent evaluating eye. And so I'm happy about that. And I hope they give him an opportunity.

And maybe that's the GM with Alex Smith having another position with some sort of offbeat title, where he's, you know, involved with the quarterback, he's involved with the owner, he's involved with the GM. You know, one of the things Joe Thaisman told me this morning is Alex is a respected voice in the league with coaches and players. And I understand that. But yeah, Cooley over the years, like I was rambling off some things just, you know, that pop into my mind. Obviously, Sean McVeigh may have been his greatest call. I mean, when no one even knew who Sean McVeigh was, and he wasn't yet an offensive coordinator, or he was about to become an offensive coordinator,

Cooley said in 2014, this guy will be a head coach within five years. Who? Who will be? Sean McVeigh. The guy that was on the Shanahan staff that Gruden's kept? Yeah, yeah, that guy. He's going to be a head coach in less than five years. Wow, that's pretty aggressive.

How old is he? He's 29 or whatever he was at the time. You know, he, the other one with Cooley, Aaron, was, it's always one of the ones that stick out in my mind because it was so clairvoyant. And he didn't know anything about it, but the Redskins were playing the Ravens in 2016 up in Baltimore. And Cooley was, you know, what he would do is he would look at Baltimore tape

on like Wednesdays and Thursdays and then do a segment on the Friday show where he sort of reviewed the opponent and talked about the opponent's weaknesses and strengths. And Mark Trestman was the offensive coordinator that year. And Cooley came in during the Friday show and just, ripped trussman. He said, I have no idea how this guy's an offensive coordinator in this league. I'm watching this stuff. It is so bad. It is so easy to figure out the Redskins defensively are going to have a great day, and it's all because of the coordinator. He's terrible. There's no way that he can be a coordinator for that long. And I said, well, you know, he was a head coach.

Right? He was a head coach in Chicago and other places. The Redskins shut down the Ravens that day, and on the Monday following the game, Tressman was fired. I'll never forget that one. And I was like, whoa, you called his firing. Did you know? He's like, I don't know anybody in the Ravens organization. I'm just watching tape.

He said about Adam Thielen, before Thielen became Adam Thielen, he just said one day on the show, that number 19 for the Vikings, he's an elite wide receiver. Trust me on this, Kevin. Number 19, who is that? And I said, Adam Thylen, he goes, Adam Thylen is going to be a great receiver in this league.

He's like, I don't know how they've kept him under wraps. I don't know where he came from. He was looking at, you know, Vikings stuff before, you know, a game against the Vikings. And he just said, number 19, I mean, this is years ago. I don't even know what year it was. It would have been 2014 maybe. Did they play the Vikings? Whatever, what year it was.

He's like, number 19 for the Vikings is going to be an elite wide receiver. and then a couple of years later, he was elite, you know, 100 plus catches, you know, 1,500 yards or whatever he had. Hurt this year, too much of this year. But anyway, yeah, over the years, I mean, just think about the last draft. He said back in April before the draft, he said when we were doing the quarterbacks, he goes, I like Drew Locke, I think Drew Locke can play. Now, it's only been one game in Denver. He's like, I'm totally intrigued with Kyler Murray. he thought that Haskins was a project.

You know, that was the kind way of putting it. And we don't know that he's wrong on that yet, but he said this is a long-term project thing with Haskins. This was before the Redskins picked him. And he said that he really liked Gardner Minshu. You know, he said, somebody's going to have a chance to draft the Washington State kid. What's his name? I said, Minchu.

And he said, I mean, third round. He ended up going, what, in the sixth round? I believe that's the case, yeah. He said, I'd take him in the third round, fourth round, because he is going to be able to play at the next level. He comes from high-level, you know, a guy in Mike Leach can read defense is really, really good at creating time in the pocket outside of it. And I don't know if Gardner Minch who's going to be a great quarterback. We know that he had a great run there when he took over for Foles, and he's back in the starting lineup now.

But, you know, that's like, you know, he called George Kittle long before Kittle became a star in San Francisco, said, this dude Kiddell is going to be a badass. I can't even remember all of them. Christian McCaffrey, he said McCaffrey's the best wide receiver coming out in that draft if you wanted to just play him at wide receiver. You know, he's gotten some wrong. You know, like Lamar Jackson, he said, if Lamar Jackson wanted to be a running quarterback or a running back, he would be the best of either one.

Like if he wants to play quarterback, we've got to have a college. dual threat. He's got to run system. He's got to, you know, he's got to embrace that. And if he does, he'll be the best at it. But if he played running back, he'd be the best running back in the draft and be one of the best running backs in the league. You know, Cooley wasn't wrong about that. And he wasn't wrong about him being a running quarterback. But he thought he had a long way to go as a pocket passer. Anyway, yeah, to answer those of you that asked me, I would hire Cooley to be the general manager in a second, in a second. I would think outside the box. Let me rephrase.

I would definitely give him a job immediately on my scouting staff. And I would say prove it to me. And he'd prove it to him in a year. And then I would think outside the box and make the jump. You know, you get into this world of lifers. A lot of these guys in football are lifers. You know, they've been, you look at some of the assistant. coaching resumes and how many different places they've been to and how many years, you know,

they have coached over the years. I'm going to just pull up one randomly from their list. Ray Horton, who came back out of retirement, played in the league and then was an assistant defensive backs coach with the skins 94 to 96, then was with the Bengals from 97 to 01, Then the Lions in 0203. The Steelers, 04 to 10. Cardinals 11, 12. Browns, 2013. By the way, it took him six, 17 years to get a coordinator position with the Cardinals in 2011, 2012. Then he was with the Browns.

Then he was with the Titans. Then he was with the Browns again. Then he was out, retired. Then he's back with the Redskins. Lifeers. Actually, I think Ray Horton's a good coach. I've always thought Ray Horton was a good coach. But, you know, Chris is.

I'm not saying all these other guys aren't bright and aren't capable, but the 49ers thought outside the box with John Lynch. I would have hired Cooley as a scout last year. I would hire him as a coach, like a tight ends coach. But I think he really has an incredible evaluating eye for football players. And I think he would be great at conducting the interview. He would know exactly what he needed to learn about somebody's mindset when it comes to football to determine whether or not that guy loved football enough.

That was one of the first things all of us learned from Chris is he said from the jump, I would never ever draft somebody or sign somebody that I didn't know loved football, loved ball. Those are the guys that end up being the best players and have the longest staying power. That the guys that are just super talented that don't love ball may give you something for a year or two, but eventually it's not going to work out. I think we know that in life in general. You hire somebody who's passionate about their job,

and it'll work out more often than not versus the person that comes in just looking for a job to get paid. All right. I wanted to quickly get to the Garrett Cole thing with Aaron. It didn't take long, but Garrett Cole signs this deal with the Yankees, $36 million per year, $324 million, an aggregate didn't take long for it to trump the Strassberg deal, which I think people predicted. But how does Garrett Cole fit in with the New York Yankees?

It's going to be interesting to see how he fits in. He's never been in a big market. You know, he was in Pittsburgh. He was in Houston, never been in a big market like New York. So as far as a fit there, it'll be interesting to see it. I mean, he's a great pitcher. We've seen that, you know, despite what happened. at the end of the postseason run there.

He is one of the best pitchers in the game. He was projected to get the highest contract by far going into it, and he did. I'm a little surprised that it was so quick. I thought that Boris might try to dangle him out there. I don't know what other pitchers he represents in the market, so that might be it. He's trying to set this market for the rest of the pitchers. But I think people kind of assumed it was either going to be the Yankees or the Angels going forward. He is a California guy, so some people thought the Angels would make a big,

offer. Apparently they did, but not enough to trump this. And the nine years is a little surprising, but not overly. I had predicted after Strasbourg, he was going to get around 8,300, and he got the extra year. He was dominant this year. But he was not as clutch in the postseason as Stephen Strasbourg was. He wasn't. He didn't deliver like Strasberg did. That's a lot of money, man. I had Ray Knight on the radio show this morning. Ray Knight, leaning towards Rendon not being back. Did you see Strasbourg's out recruiting, actively recruiting Rendon? That's interesting for a lot of reasons.

I never expected Strasbourg to be that guy. I know, but he wants Anthony Rendon back. He wants everything they have. Last thing I wanted to get to is just this developing Patriot story with the videographer caught taping the Bengals sideline last week under sort of the label of we've got this telegraph. television group that's doing this show called Do Your Job. And we're just taking an advanced scout and making it a segment on the show on how he does his work.

We're going to see because it's getting more interesting. It's going to, to me, it would seem if this hasn't happened all year long with the Patriots, if this, you know, TV show, Do Your Job, the internal television thing, the actual, you know, football team doesn't have any to do with, although Belichick has his hand in everything. But if they hadn't been doing it during the course of the year, and then all of a sudden they picked the Bengals to do, the one in 10 Bengals, one in 11 Bengals, that they're really concerned about the Bengals and they need to steal signs from the Bengals and they didn't do it for the Chiefs or they didn't send a crew before the Texans game, I would find

that hard to believe. But if there's video there and they get that video and it's several minutes of them just videotaping the sidelines for Cincinnati? Problem. The whole thing's strange. I agree with you. I think more likely than not this is, and I don't want to say, an innocent mistake. But it's weird. Why would they need to film the Bengals and Browns?

I don't even understand that part of them. Well, is there proof that they did the same thing with the Browns? Well, that was the game that they filmed. Oh, yeah, but it was for the Bengals. It was for the Bengals. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry. Why are they filming that game? It doesn't really make any sense.

No. If they weren't doing it with their other opponents this year, do you really believe that they felt compelled in the need to do it for the Bengals? No, but I also don't understand what the compelling argument to do it even if it's an innocent reason is. Like what's the, even if it is strictly for the documentary or whatever, why are they filming Bengals Browns for the documentary? Yeah. I don't know. I have no idea. One last thing before we run. Mel Kuyper, Todd McShay were asked 30 questions about the 2020 NFL draft. The Kuiper and McShay preview was on ESPN.com yesterday. And one of the questions posed to Kuiper was if Washington gets the top pick, is it young or Burrow? And he says, hear me out, I would take Burrow. Yes, the Redskins used the number 15 pick on Dwayne

Haskins in last year's draft, but Burrow is going to have a much higher grade on my board. Washington is going to have a new coach in potentially front office who isn't tied to Haskins. Let Burrow and Haskins duke it out like they did when Haskins won the job at Ohio State in 2018. It's worth noting that Arizona just did the same with Josh Rosen in 2018 and then drafting Kyler Murray in 2019. The team does have several needs, offensive tackle, receiver, corner, but the ideal scenario would be to trade down to pick up more high-level assets. That's not always easy to do because it takes two sides to make a trade. So there you go, Kuiper, Wade-in, Burrow over Haskins. The Redskins aren't going to have the number one pick.

They still have a chance to have a top three pick. You know, they're sitting there today at third. Yes. But a quick look ahead to Sunday. and the point spreads, have you looked at the NFL board yet? Just a little bit. I took a gander at it earlier. You know what Philadelphia is favored by Sunday at Washington? Five or so? Four and a half right now.

That is low. Vegas is telling you the Redskins have a chance to win this game. And they've been a covering machine. They've covered five of their last seven games as a big underdog most of the time. I mean, the Eagles are coming off of a game where they almost lost to the Giants and they have a short week. Like it's very logical that it should be a fairly low spread. But at the end of the year, when you get to week 15 and one team's playing for something and the other isn't, and one team is perceived to be pretty bad and one team is perceived to be floundering, yes, but better.

I think that four and a half is going to get everybody to bet Philadelphia. I think so, but I think there's a lot of anti-philadelphia sentiment right now amongst the public, too. You know where else there's anti-public sentiment? Yeah. Anti-public sentiment on Dallas, who is getting just a point, and it's a pick-em-in spots at home against the Rams on Sunday. Yeah. Mark me down for the Cowboys on Sunday as a smell test play right now. All right, that's it.

Short show today. Tommy's back with me tomorrow, and then Cooley couldn't do it today. He apologizes. He had something come up. He will be with us on Friday. And actually, that's not even the fair way to put it, because we had sort of loosely said Wednesday. And he didn't commit to it, but he is good to go for Friday. All right, have a great day. Don't forget, we've got an app. If you've got an iPhone, it's available in the

app store. If you've got an Android, it's available in the Google store. Check it out. Let us know what you think at Kevin Sheen, D.C. Have a great day.