The Kevin Sheehan Show - The Mayfield or Wentz Deal?

Episode Date: July 6, 2022

Kevin opened the show comparing the Baker Mayfield trade to Carolina today with the Carson Wentz trade to Washington back in March. Plenty more Commanders' conversation with Al Galdi on the show too.�� 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 Cheyenne Show. Here's Kevin. Al Galdi's going to be on the show with me today. We'll talk a lot of commanders football, a lot of other things as well. Just a heads up.

Al and I had our conversation earlier. And since our conversation, two things came out that I'm going to talk about here in the open. One was Ron Rivera after the Terry McLaren contract. Extraction Press Conference from this morning. Ron Rivera said a few things about McCorn and about sort of the state of the organization with the beat reporters. I want to touch on here shortly. And then there was a big trade in the NFL.

Baker Mayfield traded to Carolina. Carolina gives up a conditional fourth or fifth round pick. If Mayfield plays a lot, starts. It'll be a fourth rounder. If he doesn't, it'll be a fifth rounder. That's it. in terms of trade compensation, a fourth rounder and nothing more. In addition to that, or a fifth rounder, in addition to that, Carolina only has to eat

$4.85 million of Mayfield's salary next year. The Browns are going to eat the rest, and I think Mayfield's foregoing some of it, just to get the trade done and to get the hell out of Cleveland. But when a team has telegraphed that they are going to trade a player and potentially release that player if they don't get a trade done, more times than not, the team that trades for that player has a lot of leverage. And Carolina took advantage of it, paying only a fourth or fifth round pick and eating very little of Baker Mayfield's 2022 salary. Now, obviously, I'm bringing this up because I don't think Washington used its leverage very well in the trade for Carson Wentz. You know, giving up multiple, you know, third round picks, one of which will become a second round or more likely than not. Swapping spots in an early round in this draft and then picking up his entire 2022 salary was, to me, overpaying for a player that was more

likely than not going to be released. I think Washington was desperate. I've said that many times. I think they were in all, for all intents and purposes, bidding against themselves, didn't realize it, and we're taking advantage of a little bit in the deal. Carolina got a much better deal for Baker Mayfield than Washington got for Carson Wentz. Now, are they the same player? Not ceiling-wise, not upside. Carson Wentz has, I think, a bigger upside than Baker Mayfield. But in recent production, they're not that off. They're not that different. Baker Mayfield threw 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions in 2020. You know, he's been a full-time starter in Cleveland. He started and won a playoff game, you know, after the 2020 season.

Nearly, nearly was the starting quarterback for a team that knocked off the Chiefs. an Arrowhead. But I'm not a huge Baker-Mayfield fan. I'm not a massive Carson-Wence fan. They're not identical players. Again, Wence bigger upside. By the way, Wence also has, you know, some contract control for the team if they want it beyond the upcoming season. Baker-Mayfield is a free agent in 2023. So there's that as well. But the players aren't that far off. So if you wanted to play the game, you know, would you rather have Baker Mayfield if you were Washington for a conditional, you know, fourth or fifth and hardly any salary this year versus Carson Wentz and what Washington played paid for Wentz and are paying in terms of salary? You can play that game and it's not an unreasonable game if you land on Mayfield is your answer. I think my answer would be Wentz because this team needs an up.

side quarterback, and so we'll see if Wence can sort of recapture what he looked to be early in his career. Mayfield's never looked at any point in his career like a possible, you know, high-level NFL starting quarterback. But their downsides are kind of equivalent, you know, Wence could certainly peter out, and this could be it for him, and this could be it for Mayfield as well. So, and Anyway, enough of that. Ron Rivera, after this Terry McCorn contract extension press conference this morning, Terry did a great job. I've read through the transcript. I listened to just a little bit of it. Not much, really. But we got, I just got the transcript a few moments ago, and you'll hear Galdi and I talk about the McCorn press conference. And at that point, we didn't have what McClorn had said verbatim. Anyway, after that, contract extension, Ron Rivera met with beat reporters, and John Kimes summarized a lot of it. You know, Ron Rivera said that the Terry McClearn contract extension impacts the entire Washington commanders organization. One of the quotes from Rivera, quote, he's an organizational

signing. It impacts not just the football side, but the business side. It tells people we want to retain young men of this stature. We want young men of this magnitude out there representing our organization, closed quote. A very nice thing to say about Terry. A lot of pressure on Terry, you know, impacts not just the football side, but the business side. Terry will just focus on football, I'm sure. But as we've discussed, I'm glad they signed Terry McClorn. I think it's good for the team. I think it's good for him. And certainly he, so far in his very young career, has been, you know, a first-rate representative, and there haven't been many, as we know,

over the years of this organization. But there was something else that Ron Rivera said. John Kime wrote in his column, Rivera centered the McLaurin signing around how he said the organization has changed in the past two years, getting rid of others in key spots who have been accused of sexual harassment.

harassment. Quote from Rivera, as I ask, please don't judge us from this happened at this point in time. We're going forward. We're changing things. We're trying to do the best we can. I know some people don't think it matters, but it does matter. It shows you you can change. You can adapt. You can make things better. You can correct your mistakes and that's what we're doing. We're correcting our mistakes. We're getting a lot of support. We're doing the best we can, putting the best players in position so we can build something we can all be proud of. I get a little upset about it because I get it. It's a news item. What we do on the field is important. That's what we're trying to do. We're not trying to say that what happened isn't important

because it is referring to the past. It's something we need to make sure societally going forward. We don't let those things happen again. So we're doing everything we can to make sure we are better closed quote. So I've said this before, and I'll say it again, Ron Rivera is continuing to ask for people to basically not focus on the past, but focus on what they are now, you know, what they've become the last two years. You know, ask, you know, he's asking. He doesn't want to be judged on things that happened, you know,

He wants to be judged on things that are happening now as we're going forward. You know, the image of your team isn't going to change because you ask for it. You know, it's not going to change just because you ask for it to change. Nobody in that organization, of course not the owner, but nobody in that organization, maybe with the exception of Doug Williams, has built up anywhere near enough credibility here in this city to just ask not to be judged. You know, only actions. You know, not one action, not one action like signing Terry McClorn to a contract extension, but actions plural over a period of time, honest actions, good actions, successful actions, high road actions,

without any of the low road actions that have become the norm over the years, actions over a period of time might, might change the narrative that you work for anything other than a dumpster fire of an organization. You can't ask for this, Ron. your actions and the organization's actions have to earn it. The team did a smart thing in signing a really good player. I don't want to take anything away from that. He's a really good representative of the organization,

but you can see what they're trying to do with this, right? They're trying to use this moment. They're trying to use Terry in some ways to extract. every ounce of goodwill that they can extract so they can ask for more so that Ron can ask you to, you know, just focus on what they are now and what they've been for the last two years. And I'm going to get to that in a moment. I mean, we've already talked about that. You know, the last two years, the owner was out running a parallel shadow investigation

to the Beth Wilkinson investigation. I don't blame them at all for being happy, you know, for even to, taking part in some self-congratulation over getting a really good and important player signed to a contract extension. But, you know, here I'm getting this sense, you know, and you'll hear me talk to Galdi about the press release. They had one of the longest press releases I've ever seen for a contract extension. They talked to him and they mentioned his girlfriend in the press conference, his family. it's great okay i don't blame them for being really happy i don't blame them for a pat on the back or two but you know it's like every other kind of moment or you know something in the organization that

people on the outside sense is a good thing you know sean taylor i mean overboard and overboard on sean taylor as we know to deflect over and over again from all the negativity you know emphasizing, as we talked about on yesterday's show, Tommy and I did, over and over again, how diverse and inclusive the organization has become. And now it's going to be the Terry extension. There are, there are a few good things here and there about this organization right now, especially on the football side. You know, there are things here and there that indicate that there are more adults in the building, and it's a more competent organization than it was a few years ago. But 14 and 19 in two years, and the organization is still owned by Dan Snyder,

and he is still doing Dan Snyder things, destructive things. So Ron can ask all he wants. Only actions will change this. Because as he's been asking and preaching that the organization's completely different, the owner has been doing the owner things that he's been doing for two plus decades. We know that. Last 18 months, 2021. You know, using the court system to get information on people that were, you know, alleging things against him. Things that resulted in witnesses being intimidated. So he can talk about, you know, the football operation.

And I agree there is a lot that seems different. I think Ron Rivera is a good man. I think Martin Mayhew and Marty Herney and a lot of people in the organization are competent. And there's a chance that things are getting better on the football side. But Dan Snyder is still doing Dan Snyder things. So don't as Joe Bennett, I love using this line from the office, as Joe Bennett, the head of Sabre, when she met with Michael and Jim for the first time,

as she said, you can't give me gravy and tell me it's jelly because jelly ain't sweet, is it, Jim? So stop. Stop with the, we're a totally different organization than we were two years ago, nonsense. You're not. You know, that's nonsense. You know, it doesn't matter how many Sean Taylor dedications you do. It doesn't matter how many press statements include

how diverse and inclusive you've become. It doesn't matter how many contract extensions you celebrate. Mr. Snyder is still around. And one day, you know, a year from now, two years from now, you and everybody else out there are going to understand what those of us who have been around for this whole disaster of the last two plus decades, what we know to be a certainty. And that is his self-destruction impacts more than just himself. It ruins everything and anybody that comes in contact with it. Other than that, great job getting Terry signed to the contract extension.

I can be, you know, positive about that. I can do more than one thing at a time. I can be positive about Terry's contract extension from a football standpoint. I can think, as I've said many times, that offensively I'm very intrigued and I think they've got a chance to be a pretty good football team offensively. And overall, I think they've got a chance to win eight or more games and vie for an NFC playoff birth this year. But I also know, as I think that in the moment, that as long as Dan owns the team, the chance for a run of sustained success and outstanding behavior to go with it, those chances are slimmed. and none as long as he's here.

Al Galdi will be my guest right after a few words from a few of our sponsors. Don't forget if you want to play some early season NFL prop bets and maybe you can place a wager on Terry McClurene's reception number over under or his yardage number over under. Go to my bookie at mybooky.com or mybooky.ag. use my promo code Kevin D.C. And MyBooky will match your first deposit dollar for dollar all the way up to $1,000. So deposit 500, you'll have $1,000 to play with. All of the NFL prop bets are up.

MyBooky.com, mybooky.ag. And again, use my promo code Kevin, D.C. It is always my pleasure to bring on my friend and former colleague and now very successful podcaster, Albert Galdi, joins this right now. I don't know if I've ever called you Albert before. Albert is your full first name, right? Yes, yes, it is Albert, just like Albert Hainsworth. But thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. It's always good to have you on. What's your middle name? Do you have a very Italian-sounding middle name or not? Peter, and I'm actually the third. I'm APG-3, like or G-3. I'm APG-G-3. Wow, I didn't know that.

Your father is a neurologist for those that don't know. Very successful neurologist in Montgomery County, right? Yeah, yeah. Was he upset that you went the path of sports talk radio instead of trying to become a doctor and make real money or not? I think he was actually happy because he works insane hours and he was like, I'd rather you do something else. although the hours that we all work are, of course, even duttyer in our business.

So I'm not sure that I check that box for them. Yeah, well, your hours for a long period of time at the station. Well, look, Al is an absolute creature of habit. He is, you know, when it comes to preparation, I don't think I've ever worked with anybody who is more prepared, who spends more time preparing. So when you were doing that ridiculous pre-show to the Cooley and Kevin show, which was like 5 to 7 a.m. in the morning on 980, I mean, your schedule, if I recall, basically you would go to sleep at like 6 o'clock at night, right? Something like that? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like 6 or 7, and then I'd wake up at like 1. And then, you know, drive in, get to the station by, I don't know, 1 30 or 2.

and then prepare the show and then do the show. And then I had the honor of doing updates during your show. So, yeah, I mean, the hours were nuts. And, you know, when we would have, like, a Redskins game that night, it would just be straight through the night. Like, if it wouldn't go to vet, you know, it just would go right into work. So it was interesting.

But, you know, it's a labor of love, as you know. Yeah, but you left out a big part of your routine. You would wake up and you would work out at, like, 1.30 in the morning. or at least I remember you telling me that prior to getting dressed showered and getting dressed and coming into the station, that at 1, 1.30 in the morning you were working out. Only cardio. So, like, I'm a subscriber to the belief of empty stomach cardio. So you wake up and you do the cardio then.

So the days I did cardio, I would do that. But, like, in terms of lifting, I would always do that after work. I wouldn't do that. I mean, the gym wasn't open, so I couldn't, like, go to the gym at 2 a.m. Well, what kind of cardio were you doing? So where I lived, where I used to live, I lived in a condo building. Yeah, in Rockville. You know, a gym that you could access.

Yeah, right at the station, in fact. Yeah. So, you know, you could access that whenever you wanted. So I would use that at like one in the morning. And what's funny is there would be people in there. Like, I wasn't the only freak that would be doing something at that time. So, yeah, I'm not sure what, I never really made conversation with those people. I probably shouldn't have.

But, yeah, I was not alone in that gym in those early morning hours. What's the empty stomach cardio? Does it just easier to burn carbs or fat because there's nothing in your stomach? What's that about? Yeah, so like when you do cardio, you initially burn carbs, you burn sugars, and then you get to burning fat. The idea with empty stomach cardio is because you haven't eaten it a while because you're in a fasted state, you wake up and you do the cardio and you do the cardio and you, you're, you're in a fasted state. you wake up and you do the cardio and you get to fat burning more quickly. There's actually a big thing now.

I don't know if you're into intermittent fasting, but the belief now is that you should always work out on an empty stomach. Like even if it's not cardio, but it's just weightlifting, you should work out in a fasted state that you get a lot more benefit from doing that. I mean, I'm familiar with the intermittent fasting. It's hard to do. Sometimes I do it without even thinking about it because you're working and all of a sudden it's been seven or eight hours

and you haven't come up for anything. But yeah, Galdi was, you still are. I mean, you are super healthy in the way. I mean, Galdi used to, Galdi and I for many years had our desks essentially right across from each other. And then I got that very decorated office, which was also then right across from you and, And Galdi would eat protein that looked so vile.

I don't understand how you would eat some of the stuff you would eat. Some of this like cardboard sausage and chicken that you would throw into the microwave. Some of that stuff that you ate, do you still eat that stuff? Oh, yeah. I mean, I used to make egg-wide omelets for the week, like on Saturday or Sunday, and then, you know, bring them to work each day. and I still do that now, even though I work from home. It was like, it became a part of my routine and meal prep.

And the thing is, like, to me, cooking, I'd rather cook all at once instead of having to cook every day. Like, to me, that's kind of annoying and inefficient. So I'm like, let me just do it all at once or as much as I can at once. And then you have it over the course of the week. But yeah, don't judge food by its look, judge food by what it does for you. Always remember that. I judge food by its taste. not by its look necessarily, but I'm curious with, is this the routine for everybody in your family?

Do you have everybody kind of on the same schedule, or is it hard to manage everybody else? No, no. I am a rogue employee. Okay, good. And I don't dictate anything, trust me. My wife's the exact opposite of me, and I think my kids are probably following that same path, which is probably in their best interest. Yeah. At some point, you throw up your arms and say, well, if you're not going to eat these vegetables,

how about some pizza and chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese because we've got to get something into your stomach? Yeah, a lot of peanut butter sandwiches, exactly. You know, it's funny because you know, and we've talked about this before, I miss the old days, and I know you do too to a certain extent, even though we've talked a lot about the relative successes

of our podcasts and how the podcasts are really the way of the future. But we had such a good time, all of us working together for such a long period of time. But I think about, you know, especially 1801 Rockville Pike, where we were for many years, just like there you were and Sally. And don't take this the wrong way because I think interesting is much more fun for me than routine. but Sali was a weirdo in his own right, you know, with wearing the same blue sweatshirt every single day to work. And there you were with your food routine every day.

And I would just sit there and look at both of you and just smile and laugh. Those were fun days. We had a good time. Yeah, I think a psychologist could have had a field day with our office. But yeah, I mean, that's the one thing that I missed more than anything is just, you know, the camaraderie and the atmosphere that we had. And, you know, the truth is we lost that before all of us or before I left and others left because, you know, other people got fired and the station changed, you know, a million times in terms of ownership and lineup and all that. But when we had people actually working there, that was fun. That was a great time.

And I always remember that. It was fun, and, you know, thank God nobody recorded a lot of the conversation among everybody in our bullpen area, because in this day and age, we might be in some trouble. But anyway, enough of that. So I started the radio show off this morning talking about RFK Stadium. I'm not sure if you saw this or not, but RFK Stadium somehow, some way, caught on fire. or there was a fire at RFK Stadium. By the way, I was thinking about this.

Clearly, it had to be intentionally set. Like, there's not anything on. I can't imagine that there's any electricity to the building. It's not like, you know, super hot weather would cause it. Somebody, you know, threw a cigarette in there or something that started it. But beyond that, did you see some of the pictures in some of the video of what RFK Stadium looks like on the inside now. Yeah, and I talked about this on my podcast for Wednesday.

I mean, as much as the smoke was jarring, as much as seeing all the firefighters in the stadium was jarring, seeing all of those weeds on the field. I mean, it looked like somebody's unkept backyard, and it was sad. And I know that RFK is going to be demolished. So, you know, you say, well, who cares what it looks like before someone takes a wrecking ball to it? it really was staggering to see it look like that. This dilapidated mess that, you know, probably the most iconic venue in D.C.

Sports history has become, that really was striking. Yeah, I mean, there's really not a venue that comes close. I mean, if you were going to say a venue that comes close to in terms of iconic, it would probably be Cole Fieldhouse because of the, not just the great Maryland basketball, teams that played in that building, but the legendary 1966 NCAA championship game between Texas Western and Kentucky, where Texas Western was the first college team to start five black players in a game. That game was played at Cole Fieldhouse. I mean, it's not like we have lots of storied venues around town. But on RFK, you know, you're old enough. I mean, you're younger

than I am, but you went to RFK. So do you have a most memorable RFK day or night? Yeah. So, you know, when I was growing up, I'm a child of the late 80s, early 90s. I mean, it was legitimately impossible to get Redskins tickets. So I never went to a Redskins game at RFK. Never. I did use to, no, never, not once, which is, you know, unfortunate. But I mean, it was tough. It was not easy like it is now, obviously, to go to games. But I did used to go to HF Festival at RFC Stadium when I was in high school. And HF Festival was a big deal in this area in, like, early mid-90s. There was WHFS 99.1 was like the alternative rock station.

And every, I guess I want to say June, HFS would have these great concerts with like all these great bands. And so me and my buddies, we would go in high school. and that's where I really got to experience RFK. I mean, my first time at RFK Stadium was HFS Festival in 1996. And so, yeah, I mean, I wish I had like a great Redskins playoff memory or something like that. But that's what I first experienced the stadium. And it was awesome. I mean, the place was packed.

Like, you could not move on the field in that stadium. It was something else. I went to a couple of them. I was talking about that this morning. and Brendan actually sent me. I guess there's a list of all, and I told him, I said, I know I saw the counting crows at an HFS festival at RFK,

and I know I saw no doubt with like the foo fighters very early on. And I guessed it was like in the early to mid-90s, and he said, yeah, 94, the counting crows were there. And there's, you know, I forget who else played. And in 96, foo fighters, no doubt, jewel, garbage. gin blossoms, you know, more of an 80s band, were all there on the, you know, kind of the main stage. Yeah, I went to a couple of those as well.

You know, in continuing the music conversation, one of the most memorable non-redskin games for me at RFK Stadium because I saw lots of concerts there. But I went to the victory tour, the Jackson's victory tour in September of 1984. And, you know, other than, you know, maybe a dozen, you know, a half dozen to a dozen Redskin games, I'm not so sure I've ever been in the stadium when it was that lit and that electric. I'll never forget when they came out on stage, the flash bulbs, which you would never see anymore, obviously.

The flash bulbs just lit up the entire stadium. It was like somebody flicked the lights on. And I went back and looked. It was September. They were the Jackson's with Michael Jackson with Thriller Out. You know, with his brothers on tour, they played September 21st and September 22nd, 1984. I don't remember which of the two shows I went to. I went to just one of them.

And it was incredible. But, you know, two months later, Galdi, two months later at the Capitol Center, not that this is an RFK story, Prince and this Purple Rain Tour in Landover at the Capitol Center for what I remembered as nine consecutive sold out nights. And for whatever reason, it's stuck in my mind for decades now that Prince holds the record for the most sold out consecutive shows at the Capitol Center. And I thought it was nine. Well, I looked it up and I was wrong. He came here for three nights in November of 84, went to Philly and came back for four consecutive nights a week later. And a week and a half, he sold out seven straight shows.

I went to three of them. So I didn't even realize I saw the Jackson's, I saw Michael Jackson and his brothers in September of 84, and then two months later I saw Prince's Purple Rain Tour. So that was quite the fall of 1984 concert-wise. And by the way, there were some pretty good Redskin games at RFK during that time as well. It's amazing to me that you never, like not even a preseason game. A friend didn't invite you to a game or, you know, a preseason game opportunity.

No, I mean, again, tickets were hard to get. My dad is from New York, so he's a giant fan. He's not a Redskins fan. So like going to a skins game wasn't necessarily, you know, at the top of his list. But, you know, it's funny. I remember growing up, the notion of going to a Redskins game was kind of this pie in the sky, I think, because even as a kid, you kind of understood, yeah, those tickets are like impossible to get. So I used to go to a lot of Bullets games and a lot of Capitals games, and I went to a lot of Orioles games.

But, you know, Redskins games, no, you can't, there's this list. These tickets are so hard to get. And that's why it's so funny to me to see how it is now. It is such a departure from the way that it was. but like it legitimately, if you didn't have an in, if you weren't on the list, if you didn't already have tickets, it was very difficult to go to games at RFK back then, as you know. Yeah, I was lucky. My father, you know, was such a big fan and my father got season tickets when DC Stadium opened in 1961.

And so, you know, Darren is the beginning of me as a massive, you know, fan of the team, but really a massive sports fan. And I mean, my father was a fan of all sports, but we had season tickets. And so I grew up going to all those games. It was a big deal. There was like nothing more exciting than in, you know, like late July, early August, when the season tickets would actually show up, you know, at the house. And you would open them up and you would see, you know, the tickets with the teams that they were playing.

And look, the all-time. for me, and I've mentioned this many time, many times before. The all-time memorable moment for me in RFK Stadium, and there's not a close second, is the championship game for the 82 team in January of 83. That is still to this day the most raucous electric environment I've ever been in for a sporting event, or almost anything. We were a family that, you know, my father and my uncle, and I used to go to the games. And then my younger brother, who's much younger,

then he started to come to the games. But we were never a get-to-the-stadium early family. My father was like, games at one o'clock were leaving the house at 1225. And we'd be walking into the stadium, into our seats at one o'clock. By the way, think about that, you know, as it relates to FedEx Field. And the amount of time you have to give yourself to get to a game, for a one o'clock game back then we could leave the house 1215 1220 1225 and be in our seats and we didn't live in the city we lived in you know in Bethesda but still it was just so easy to get to that stadium but anyway we were the the family that showed up you know as the game was kicking off and my father what was um what's the Zabe acronym for leaving early what does he

always talk about um the oh ale always leave early the ale theory that Zame talks about. Always leave early. My father was definitely a subscriber to the ale theory. So there were many times where we showed up when the game kicked off. And if the game wasn't competitive early in the fourth quarter, we were out of there. But on that particular day, we got there 45 minutes before kickoff. And I've mentioned this so many times. And anybody that was there will back me up. There wasn't an empty state, a seat in the stadium, 45 minutes before kickoff. and the entire stadium was chanting, we want Dallas.

And when the Cowboys came out, something I wasn't used to seeing, but 30 minutes, 35 minutes before kickoff for warmups, 40, whatever it was, they looked up into the stadium and the entire stadium was packed. And I remember Tony Dorset years ago saying about that game, he said,

we walked out of our tunnel and you walked up the steps out of the visiting locker room for warmups and the whole stadium was packed, and we knew we were in trouble. That's the most bloodthirsty crowd I've ever been a part of it, was the most memorable day to be there. Of course, we haven't had many of those at the new stadium, not even one. No, it's funny with the Redskins, I mean, you can legitimately argue that in 82, the more, I don't know if significant is the right word,

but the more memorable win was the NFC championship game win, and not even the Super Bowl win, just because of who the team beat and the nature of the game being at RFK and the way that the crowd was. That game gets talked about as much, if not more, than the Super Bowl win over Miami, it feels like. Well, all of the players that we've known over the years, they've all said it, that the Super Bowl was anti-climactic. I mean, Thysman said it. Doc has said it. You know, Russ Grimm used to say it all the time, that, you know, that was, Rigo has said it. That was the ultimate.

I mean, it was, you know, they only lost one game in that shortened, strike-shortened season, and it was to the Cowboys at home about a month and a half earlier, and they got absolutely blown out in that game. And they were an underdog at home in the NFC championship game that day. And it was just, you know, it was the height of the rivalry. And it was a chance for, you know, it was the second year of Joe Gibbs. and the first year had ended favorably, but it had been a while. It had been two or three years since they had been a legitimate playoff contending team.

And there were some memorable games from that regular season. There was the Mark Mosley game when he kicks a field goal in the snow to beat the Giants to set the NFL mark for the most consecutive field goals, which, by the way, I may be wrong about this, but I want to say it was 21 in a row, which is nothing, you know, now. No. But at the time, it was an. NFL record. And then the playoff run, because it was an expanded playoff format, you know, they beat Detroit, they beat Minnesota, which was another very memorable game at RFK because Rigo went for a buck

85, 37 carries a buck 85 in a divisional round playoff game at home. And that was, you know, at the end of that game, the entire crowd started chanting, we want Dallas. And Dallas hadn't even played their game yet. I think they played the next day. against the Packers and needed to win that game to advance to RFK to play the NFC championship game. By the way, completely different subject. You want to hear something so strange? You know the America's game series on NFL Network?

Yeah. I think it's well done, don't you? Yeah, yeah, that's good. So they ran all of them over the weekend. And there were just a couple of times, like I flipped over the station to the NFL network. And there was a period of time into the 1970s where home field advantage was not determined by best record. It was determined by a rotating divisional format. So the 1972 dolphins, the only undefeated team in NFL history, 17 and 0, um,

They played the AFC championship game in Pittsburgh as an undefeated team. That's ridiculous. Isn't that ridiculous? Yeah, that's pretty nuts. It's funny. You have that, though, in sports, when you look back on things like 40, 50, 60 years ago, they did things in ways, and you're like, why did they ever do that? Like, what sense did that make?

But, you know, at the time, I guess it made sense to someone. I guess. I mean, a team that went undefeated during the regular season had to play the AFC championship game on the road against a team with like three or four losses. They won. The dolphins won the game. They were the better team and they won. But that may have been, no, I think it continued. I think it continued to like 73 or 74 or something like that. This would be a conversation, by the way, that would be more befitting of Tom being on the other end because he would have many more men. memories of some crazy shit. I actually told him, Al, about the NBA many years ago. If you go back and you watch old games from the 60s, when you fouled late in the, you know, and you were in the penalty,

the other team only got one free throw if you weren't shooting. Is that right? One free throw. So it was actually really beneficial to foul because the other team could only score one point on the possession. How stupid was that? Yeah. You would have hacked everyone. By the way, with Tom, one of my RFK Stadium memories is with Tom Levero. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Tom and watching a Nationals Phillies game at RFK Stadium in September 2007, with like 90% of the crowd being Phillies fans. So I can always associate the great Tom Levera with RFK Stadium.

I'm sure he had a pint or four at the game. All right, let's talk some football. So Terry McClorn, he held his press conference this morning. Team making a big deal out of a contract signing. I'm happy he got signed. I think they should. I think he's a really good player. He's a really appears to be a first-rate representative of, you know, this franchise

that is so messed up in so many ways. And I'm glad it got done. I'm assuming you are glad it got done and are happy it got done, right? Yeah, very much so. I think it's one of the most well-received non-game news items for our football team in a long time. Like, there's been so much negativity and so much bad and so many things that, like, so few people like, to have something that is universally well-received like this, I think it's been nice, it's been refreshing, and I actually think that the commanders have played this well from a standpoint of the contract got agreed to now two Tuesdays ago.

The team waited until after the holiday weekend to announce the extension and then did the press conference the next day. Note this for every last drop of positive press you can get. Take advantage of this because we don't know when the next time will come that you have something that is this universally well received. Universally by whom, though? Well, I think the fan base. I mean, there's been, you know, I don't know if rejoicing is the right word, but people are really happy about this.

You know, that, I mean, we have been as fans, right, sort of conditioned to expect the worst when it comes to whether a good player is going to end up signing a long-term deal with the team. Even though now, if you're being fair about things, over the last year and a half, the team has signed a good number of quality players to contract extensions. But, you know, people still have in their mind, Kirk cousins, and some people think about Brandon Sheriff, and they're like, well, I don't know, you know, maybe they end up franchise tagging up a bunch of any walks or something like that. Maybe he doesn't want to be here, right? You hear that all the time. I don't want to be here. So I think to get this deal done was a big deal to a lot of fans. I mean, I certainly have heard from a lot of people. And honestly, I mean, I was happy. Like, when the news broke, I was like, wow, this is good. This is an encouraging thing. I mean, does it mean anything in terms of, like, what's going to happen this coming season. Maybe not. Probably not. It's an extension. It's not, you know, guaranteeing you anything in the way of victories. But I think it's good. I think it's good news. I think it's an endorsement of what's going on from a football standpoint. And I think that it's something that the team should try to take advantage of. And I think that it is right now. It's, there's no doubt. It's probably the best piece of news the organizations had. I mean, I had somebody tweet me

last week. And, you know, I came up with the last time that there was a really good moment. And you got to go back a couple of years. But he's like, this is the best moment for the franchise in years. And again, let me make sure I'm clear on this. And I've been very clear on this. I'm a Terry McLorn fan. I think it was important that they re-sign him.

I think it's a really good sign that Terry wanted to sign with the team, even though really given that he was on a rookie deal entering the fourth year $2.8 million. He didn't have that much of a choice. He didn't want to put himself out there fourth year rookie deal with a chance to get injured. This was really the best opportunity for him. It was the best opportunity for the team. I'm happy about all that. As happy as I can be not being the same level of fan that I used to be.

This is not, I think, seven years ago or eight years ago, I'd have been, oh, thank God. Got the McLauran deal done. smart. That's great. We got them in the fold. That's why I say, you know, kind of universally thrilling for whom. It's what's left of the hardcore fan base. This is really appealing to like hardcore people. People who are, you know, just paying attention to the stuff related to Snyder, I don't know that this is like a needle mover. I don't think Terry McCorn personally is a needle mover. Like I had, you know, people reach out to me and say,

if they don't get a deal done with Terry McLaren, I'm done. You know, these are the same people that are hardcore right now that are telling you, if you can't get on board with Commander Sheen, go work in Minnesota, which I get a bunch. I don't know if you get stuff like that, but I'm like, these are the same people that are like, get on board or get out, and yet they were ready to jump off the cliff. if Terry McClorn wasn't signed to a contract extension.

But anyway, prefacing it with, I'm really happy they did it. It was smart that they did it. It's good for him. It's good for the team. It's good for the continuation of trying to build a competitive team, but as importantly, trying to build a group of people that represent the football side that are kind of first-rate people. So that's all great.

the press release that the team put out, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time being critical, because it's fine. I've never seen a longer press release put out on a player who signed a contract extension. They have everything in here about his life other than what he ate for breakfast yesterday. They mentioned at the end of this, who his girlfriend is.

Like, he's currently dating his girlfriend, Caitlin. I'm like, this is very nice. I mean, it's a sweet. of the team to do it and they're doing the right thing really looking after this guy. But my God, Galdi, this is the biggest piece of positive news that this toxic organization has had. And I think it says a lot. I mean, not that we didn't know it already, but this, as Alan Iverson would say, we're

not talking about a game. We're talking about an extension in July. But whatever. Yeah, but I think they recognize it's an opportunity to celebrate something that's good. The girlfriend thinks funny because he did mention her in his own personal statement that he put out on Twitter. I think it was last week when he confirmed the extension. So I guess maybe that's an important thing to him or something. But, yeah, I mean, you know, we went through this last year with Jonathan Allen.

That was a big deal, too. but I don't remember the euphoria over that, like what we have here with Terry. I think the Terry thing is sort of like a cut above. Maybe it's because, you know, he skipped the minicamp. Maybe it's because you're seeing a lot of receivers get paid this offseason. And so people are like, well, this is going to happen with Terry. You know, it might also be too just, you know, receiver as a sexier position than interior defensive lineman. But, you know, look, I think if you're a fan of the team, I think you should feel good about it.

I don't think anyone's being unrealistic in saying that, you know, this guarantees anything. But I think that if you can compartmentalize all the crap off the field and you can separate the football from that, I do think that it's encouraging that two really good players at their position, John Allen and Terry McClellan, within the last 12 months, have decided to sign extensions with the team. I think that does suggest that at least from a football operation standpoint, things maybe aren't so bad. And, you know, this place is not a paradise in NFL terms, but it's also not maybe the hellhole that people like to make it out to be sometimes. Like, over the last 18 months now, Chase Rulier, Logan Thomas, John Allen, Charles Leno, Jr., Terry McLaren, yet J.D. McKissick, reneging on a deal with a Super Bowl contender in Buffalo to resign with Washington for the exact same terms. I think that does speak to at least the football operations being in a semi-decent place,

if not a good place. I mean, we'll see what ends up happening this season and beyond. But, you know, I think, I know for me as a fan, like I try to look at it that way and say, all right, you know, that's good. Guarantees you anything? No, but I think that is an endorsement of the football operations for the team right now. I agree. I mean, I think it's kind of been that way for a while.

I think people who, because I get this from people, you know, I got something last week. I'm looking for it right now as you were saying that. I can't find it. But basically it was something like, so nobody wants to sign here, Sheehan. No, it's from McLaurin and John Allen back to back years. Look, I mean, Ron Rivera is respected. We've been talking about that here for a while. You know, Marty Herney and Martin Mayhew and, you know, the Jack Del Rio.

Yes, Jack Del Rio. These are respected football people. You know, when you're talking about money and you're talking about opportunity and you're not going to work for a buffoonish football operation, but you've got some competent people, you know, you're going to see some of those changes. You know, it's like what Cooley used to tell us all the time. Players don't care about, you know, the ownership situation and what's going on there. Now, agents are influenced by that more and can influence their clients when there are choices and maybe better choices. But no, I think that's right. I mean, I think, I don't think that Ron Rivera is going to have a difficult time convincing somebody that they know what they're doing. You know, is it an elite level operation?

Probably not. But there are football operations that are much worse. You know, on McLaurne, one more thing. I have not listened to the press conference. I haven't been sent yet a transcript. of the press conference with him. What's one question you are hoping? Have you already heard it?

I haven't listened to it. I just saw a few tweets with answers. Yeah, I saw like, it was like 30 minutes long. I've watched like 20, 25 minutes. Oh, you have? Because did anybody ask him about the importance of, you know, the quarterback to his decision to return? He got asked Carson Wentz questions, but he did not get asked that specific questions.

But he talked up once. I mean, he said a lot of good things about him, but he was not at that specific question. So, yeah. The thing I wanted to hear about more was like why he wanted to stay here long term. And like, does he truly feel like things are better now? Because he was here. His rookie season was the season when everything fell apart, 2019. And so he would have the perspective of the way things were versus the way things are.

I did not hear him get at that question. Yeah, when everything fell apart for like the seventh time in the last 22 or 23 years. The last time everything fell apart, yeah. So what do you think of him the player? I think he's a great receiver. You know, I think that... You think he's a great receiver? Yeah. I mean, I think he's a top 10 receiver because I think that when you factor in the quarterbacks with whom he's played and the production that he's put up, I think he deserves a lot

of credit for that. And, you know, I think it's great what guys like Stefan Diggs and Devonte Adams have done, but they played with great quarterbacks. I think it's impressive what Michael Thomas has done, but he has played for the most part with great quarterbacks. I think what this guy is done playing with not just bad quarterbacks, but overall atrocious quarterback play. Like, quantifiably, Washington over the last three seasons, his three seasons, has had atrocious quarterback play, and that

he still has produced as he has, and, you know, has been this great citizen, you know, no diva, etc. He's been durable. That, to me, vaults you in the top ten status. I don't think that there are a lot of other receivers who would have done what he has done over these last three years, given the circumstances.

Yeah, I think it's hard to, you know, to determine top ten based on the quarterbacks that he hasn't played with. I mean, you don't know what it would be like. You assume it would be better, and you don't know what some of these guys like Devante Adams would be like with much worse quarterbacks. I just, I don't know, for me, it's always more of kind of the eye test.

And there are 10 receivers. It is, we are living in the receiver era right now. I mean, the greatness at receiver is really unprecedented in terms of the depth. of really good to great number one wide receivers. And Terry McClureen is an absolute, really good number one wide receiver. But there are guys out there that played last year that, you know, look potentially superstarish, you know. And we're talking about Jalen Waddle, you know, who didn't play with the best of quarterback situations.

You know, there are quarterbacks receivers that haven't played with great quarterback. in recent years. But my god, Jamar Chase, and we'll see what Devante Smith turns into, and then the guys that were picked this year. Yeah, I mean, top 10 is pretty aggressive, but he's really good. He's really, really good. I'm glad they have them. I think Dotson's going to be good. I'm actually optimistic about them offensively this year. Where are you on the team offensively? Yeah, I mean, with the caveat of it always feels like that which can go wrong does go wrong, I mean, I do think that the pieces are in place for this team for the first time really since 2016 when you know who was a quarterback to have a great offense, certainly a great passing offense.

I think that you have depth at receiver. I think you have depth at running back. I think you have a quarterback who, if things break right, can be, say, a top 15. guy, which again, the team hasn't had. Like, that's the thing. It's not that Terry hasn't played with a great quarterback. It's that he's played with atrocious quarterback's way. Like, it's been among the worst in the league

and he still has done what he has done. So, you know, I think if the team just has reasonable good health on offense, which the team did not have last year, right? You had some real bad injury luck on offense last year. If you just have reasonable injury luck on offense this coming season,

given the schedule, given what I think a lot of us have seen from Scott Turner, which is that he is a more than competent play caller, and he might even be a really good one. You know, it's so hard to kind of determine that, but I don't see why this team can't be better offensively, but I do recognize that we go into every season saying this. I feel like I've had this belief going into each of the last four seasons, and every year the team doesn't end up being good offensively.

Like I said, you have to go back to 2016 now for the last time that this team was truly good offensively. So we got to see it, but I do think that the ingredients are in terms. place. You can say that you know who on this show. Are we allowed to? Yeah, we're allowed to say Mr. Kirk Cousins and what he did here, which was set five different franchise passing marks of all time. Enough of that. Galdi and I of the same Kirk Cousins persuasion. We are Kirk Stans. And probably always will be. All right. What is interesting about what you said is that, you know, there have been years where you've been optimistic and, you know, it hasn't gone right. Nothing's really gone right.

Defensively last year, there was a lot of optimism. I think there was a lot of cautious optimism from people who were paying attention, you know, looking at, you know, what kind of quarterbacks and offensive personnel they were scheduled to face last year. But it was more than that. I mean, it was a disappointment defensively. You know, I don't know what to expect from the defense. Do you? Well, I think it's going to be better just because of what you just said, the schedule and the opposing quarterback, and it would be hard to be worse. I think when you talk about the defense, it's a little tricky. So the problem last year really was the past defense. Their run defense last year was actually really good. They stopped the run well.

Their past defense was hideous. And it's actually a lesson, I think, in terms of the modern NFL, you know, when people talk about like the importance of stopping the run, like, yeah, that matters. I'm not saying that it doesn't. But if you can't stop the past, you don't have a chance. And the team had a really hard time defending the past last year, really with the exception of that five-game stretch. You had that four-game winning streak and then that first game against Dallas.

The past defense was pretty good over those five games. Certainly was good during the winning streak. But then over the course of the rest of the year, the first eight games, and then toward the end of the season when things fell apart, the past defense was horrible. And so you've got to figure out a way to stop the past. I think because you're facing lesser quarterbacks, the past defense should be better. I certainly would hope that the mess that we saw in the secondary over the first eight games of last season, we will not see this coming season, you know, better communication and guys like William Jackson,

the third, and Bobby McCain understanding things better. But, you know, I think at the very least you have to say this, this is not a defense that's going to be a carry-the-team lead-the-way. kind of defense. We thought that that could be the case last year. I think that that was part of the approach of quarterback for last season of, hey, if we just have a quarterback who's good enough, the defense can lead the way. The defense isn't at that level, and it can't be trusted to be at that level. And if it ends up being at that level this coming season, great, but I don't think that you can count on that, you know, especially with a guy like Chase Young coming off his injury

and all the problems he had last year, I think you just got a hope for competence defensively, which I think you can get and maybe you can get more. But this idea of this being a great defense, the top five defense, I think we all got to get off that. I think last year it was a very humbling season for this defense. Yeah, I think what's interesting is last year you faced all of these great quarterbacks. I mean, a group of quarterbacks that I don't know have ever existed on one team's opposing schedule. This year, and I mentioned this last week, this year you've got nine games against teams that finished in the top. nine in the league last year in rushing.

You know, yes, they had a good rush defense last year statistically. They also had a terrible past defense, so it wasn't really helpful. They also didn't play nearly the number of teams that are going to line up. You know, they play Philadelphia twice this year, number one rush offense in the league last year. They play, you know, Jonathan Taylor, they play Dalvin Cook, they play Tennessee, who is a a run first team. They play San Francisco and Cleveland, you know, top seven, top six rush offenses in the league last year. So it'll be interesting to see what kind of rush defense they have

this year. You know, every year's a different, you know, deal in the NFL. And their biggest weakness right now, at least on paper, is linebacker. So they're going to be facing teams that are going to have more of an emphasis of lining it up and trying to run it down. down their throat, which they didn't necessarily face as much last year. So we'll see whether or not that happens. Tommy and I were talking last week about the person or player, the coach or player in the organization that has the most pressure on him. We both agree that the answer is easy, but then it got to kind of, well, who's next?

You agree that Ron Rivera's got more pressure on him than anybody else. in the football operation of the organization, right? Yeah, and a lot of it's self-imposed. He has said numerous times, this needs to be a step-forward season, so he has put that pressure on himself. So I believe that there's a lot of pressure on Chase Young. And it may be unfair because of the injury and the lack of an off-season and the very likely possibility that he'll miss training camp

and might even miss a couple of games. But, you know, injury aside, he just wasn't good enough last year on a defense that was struggling mightily. And we all know now, even though I think, you know, a lot of us had this sense as it was happening, that the coaching staff really wasn't thrilled with the way he was playing and the way he was, you know, in their words, adhering to the scheme. And so I think there's a hell of a lot of pressure on Chase Young in year three. what do you think? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, I think in terms of a player, I probably would say Carson Wentz,

just because I think his career, to an extent, is on the line, like his career as a QB1, this may well be his last good faith shot at being a team's intended starting quarterback going into a season. You know, I don't think we're at that point with Chase Young. But there's no doubt. I mean, if Chase Young has a second consecutive underwhelming season, and coming off a torn ACL, that is a distinct possibility, you're talking about two out of his three NFL seasons having been disappointment.

Next off season is when you've got to decide on his fifth year option. Now I think they're going to pick that up probably regardless. But the fact that it would even be a conversation would tell you where we're at. And I think if he has a second straight underwhelming season, the B word, the bus word is going to start to come up right or wrong, fair, unfair, like it's going to be there. Last year, as we all know, it wasn't just about the torn knee. It was about the play prior to the tourney, and the play prior to the tourney wasn't good enough. And the fact, Ron Rivera continually talked about this issue of maturity and called out Chase Young and Montez-Swett at one point on the team's website in an article by Ron's buddy Michael Silver. Like, that tells you that things weren't right behind the scenes.

Like Ron and Chase were not on the same page. That was very obvious last season, and that may have spilled over a bit into this off-season. season with at least the back and forth initially this off season of whether Chase would participate in the offseason program. And I know that he ended up participating, but he didn't show up initially. So, yeah, I think there's a lot of pressure on Chase Dunn. I got to tell you, I don't know if you've seen some of this on Twitter, but pro football focuses and putting out a redrafting of the 2020 draft.

And in every meme that the PFF puts out about the redrafing of the 2020 draft, for it PFF has Washington taking Justin Herbert at number two. And whenever I see that graphic of, you know, the Washington helmet next to Justin Herbert, it is such a, it's like a sickening feeling as a fan man because the answer to our problems was right there. And we didn't do it. And I know that other teams passed on Herbert, too. I mean, you could argue the entire NFL with the exception to the Chargers missed on Herbert, because nobody was talking about him as the number two quarterback going to that draft.

everyone was talking up to it, but it's like, that's part of the Chase Young conversation, too, again, fair or unfair. It's not just that you took Chase and he may be a disappointment. It's that you could have had this possible generational quarterback who would have fixed the longest running football problem with the organization. And he didn't take that guy. And it's like, I think that sticks. I know six with me. I'm sure sick with a lot of people listening. And that is part of this Chase Young equation, too, who else you could have gotten with that number two picks. Well, you know, in thinking about the 2020 draft, and, you know, I would not have taken anybody in the moment other than Chase Young. Unless, unless I was convinced at that point in time that Haskins had no chance. And I do question whether or not Ron Rivera and company knew that. They knew a lot more about the young man and the kind of young, you know, the kind of commitment.

and maturity they had. And so they should have known more. But if anybody ever does the redrafting of 2020 and you're on the clock with Washington after Cincinnati selected Joe Burrow, hell, you could actually make the case that Cincinnati could consider Justin Herbert. And I really like Joe Burrow.

Don't get me wrong. But I think Justin Herbert's actual physical athleticism and upside is making. maybe a tad higher in watching them here through the first couple of years. But if Herbert's on the clock and you're redrafting and you don't take them, you need your head examined. And some of the people out there that for many, many months tried to convince me that Taylor Heineke was the future and that they had figured it out.

They had figured it out with a very low cost were still, you know, even when he was playing last year saying, no, no, not Justin Herbert. No, Justin Herbert would have been the selection. By the way, speaking of some of those things that come out, you know, this time of year, yesterday ESPN put out the beginning of the football execs, coaches, and players picking the 10 best at each position. And yesterday they started with edge pass rushers, DN's outside linebackers. and, you know, none of the two Washington defensive end pass rushers were in the top 10, Chase Young being the most notable exception.

He was among the five players listed as honorable mentions. You know, you said something, and it reminded me of something that Nikki Javala told me on radio like two weeks ago. You said, well, of course they're going to pick up that fifth year option, but the fact that we're even discussing that possibility, not that you did, is Nuts. Well, look, I think he's going to have a really good season. He's too good. I was all in on Chase Young. I thought I was watching in college a dominant NFL player for the next 10 years, you know, and the most, you know, exciting prospect is a pass rusher in college that I had seen in forever, maybe, you know, since Von Miller or Miles Garrett. But anyway, Chase Young, if he doesn't have a good season this year, and add to that, if somehow the injury causes him to be less physically, you know, quick, fast, whatever, I think the fifth year option is not, you know, is still a lock. But Nikki said to me, well, they're going to have to make room here because we're talking about Duran Payne.

they're going to re-sign Montez Sweat to a long-term deal. And, you know, more likely than not, they're going to sign Chase Young to a long-term deal. And I was like, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. What do you mean more likely than not? But, you know, that's a conversation we could be having. I hope we're not. And I don't think we will be because I think he's going to bounce back this year. You know, he's too talented not to produce as long as he's fully healthy.

That's the assumption here. But my God, can you imagine a year from now if he's got three sacks in 14 games and wasn't the factor again for a second straight year like he was his rookie year, the conversations that we will be having at that point will include things like fifth year option and long-term deal? Yeah, and I think it would have to. I mean, my hope is that what happens with Chase mirrors what happened with Nick Bosa. There are a lot of interesting parallels between Young and Bosa, but each guy defensive rookie the year, each guy torn ACL in his second year, and then Bosa was a monster last year and

his comeback from the ACL, and I certainly hope that Chase ends up doing that. But, you know, one of the things about last Washington season that I don't think has ever been fully explored is why the defense was at its best when both Chase Young and Montes-Swest were out. And what does that say about those guys that this defense? last season played at its best while those guys were out. And that's not to say that those guys being out was why the defense played at its best, but how is it even possible that this defense could be at its best without its two most talented players?

Certainly its two most talented edge defenders. And so, you know, that's one of these things that, I mean, you kind of want to push it to the back your mind, but that's a pretty significant thing. That was a thing last season. I mean, if you took T.J. Watt off the Steelers, they wouldn't have their best defensive run of the season. If you took Miles Garrett off the Browns, they wouldn't have their best defensive run of the season.

But Washington last season, without those guys, did well and did well against some good quarterbacks. Tom Brady and Derek Carr, you know, so there's still that here. So no doubt this is a big season for both Chase and Montez, and I'm like you. I mean, I'm hoping for the best. I'm expecting the best, but you can't just assume that we're going to see the best. Yeah, it's funny about that because it is true that when they were out, they were more cohesive.

There were a couple of games. The one game that I really thought was one of their best defensive games of the year was the game at Green Bay, you know, against Rogers and Adams. That was one of the best defensive efforts they had the entire season. And remember, there was a field goal block. They had the Heineke thing, you know, where he did. dove before he got into the end zone and then they didn't get it. It was a weird game. But I think that I believe that was before the Denver game when or before the Tampa by week

when Chase Young got hurt. I think everybody was playing that particular week. All right. I do want to ask you about Snyder and what you think is coming next. And we'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Galdi's still with us. By the way, I mentioned that the, you know, the football outsiders put together their list of, actually, the football outsiders was the most underrated player on each team. I don't know if you saw that. Antonio Gibson was considered the most underrated. Did you see that? Yeah. No. Yeah. What did you think of that? I think Antonio Gibson's a really interesting person to talk about because you could argue that he's

underrated, you also could argue that he's overrated. It depends on kind of what you want to look at, but if you go by some of the efficiency stats out there, he's not underrated. He's overrated. His efficiency numbers last year were not good. I think we all recognize that the team spent a third round pick on a running back to bring some competition here and to Spello Gibson and maybe even supplant him as the RB1.

You know, we'll see how things shake out. But I think there's actually a lot of pressure on him this coming season because you're have to decide on him whether you're going to pay him next offseason. And, you know, the whole thing about him getting like a thousand yards last year, okay, that's great. There's a lot more to a running back than just this total yardage. There's a lot of yards that he's left on the field. If you go by like his DVOA, that was not good last season. So I think it's kind of tricky with him that you could actually argue he's overrated,

not underrated. Yeah, I know, you know, and have gone through and had somebody on the show talking about, you know, all of the loss. yards, the PFF numbers on Antonio Gibson. I just, to me, I see a big time back. Like, the fumbling problem is a problem. You can't put him on the field if he's not going to protect the football. But I see a guy that has continually gotten better with his vision, especially on, you know, the zone runs where you kind of can see it more as a fan rather than maybe with the coaches see. I see a guy who's 6-2-220 and runs a 4-3-40, who is really good, yards after contact, super powerful.

And I just see a guy that really has a chance to be a great player. And during that four-game win streak, he was really impactful. But to your point, it's not, I don't think, what the team feels. Because they clearly spoke when they drafted Brian Robinson, Jr. in the third round. So they must not feel that way. You know, they are a PFF client. They use PFF and the Terry McCorn press release a couple of times. And so they're a PFF client, and maybe they also agree that, you know, the transition to running back out of college, maybe he's not naturally suited for it.

But I personally, my eyes tell me that I see a guy that could. be a great back if he can stop with the fumbling, which is, of course, a big if. I got into this by just saying that, you know, they had the team execs, players and coaches weigh in with the top 10 list on ESPN with the edge pass rushers yesterday. Today is defensive tackles. And do you think John Allen's in the top 10? Have you already seen it or not? I haven't.

I mean, he should be in the top 10, but I don't know if he is. He is number 10. you know, that is lower than I think he deserves. Number one, of course, is Aaron Donald. Number two is the guy that I wanted this team to pick a few years ago. I think Jeffrey Simmons is an absolute monster for Tennessee. He's two. Chris Jones is three to force, Buckner's four, Cameron Hayward five,

Kenny Clark and Green Bay Six, Vita Vea, who has just gotten better and better, seven. Armstead in San Francisco, eight. Grady Jarrett, who, by the way, had a really good game against Washington. in that crazy game is nine and John Allen comes in 10. That's low. Sorry, that's low for him among the defensive tackles. I was upset last year where he finished in the all pro voting.

I think there were four detackles and then I think two or three guys that got more votes than he did. So anyway, it's his first appearance in this top 10, I think, maybe. But, you know, there's your answer in terms of underrated players on the team. It's John Allen. In the scope of the NFL, it might be. I mean, I think Allen is an interesting guy because normally in the NFL, and I think in sports period, you know, your first three seasons happen, and you kind of get a sense on, okay, this is what this guy is.

Allen really has blossomed in years four and five, right? He was rookie year with 17. So, yeah, four and five. So it was 2020 and 2021. He really ascended. Like he's gone from being a pretty good defensive tackle to now a really good defensive tackle over the last two years. So I don't know if maybe that initial reputation still sticks with people of like they say, oh, yeah, John Allen, he's a nice player.

Whereas the truth is he has stepped up into being, I think we both agree, in elite interior defensive linemen over these last two years. The John Allen of the last two years, I think it's been a different and better player than the John Allen of his first three NFL season. You know, I thought he was really good in that rookie season before he got hurt. I thought you saw some signs like, wow, this guy's athletic. He's strong. But you're right.

I mean, and, you know, dysfunctional seasons for the team in 2018 and 2019 with, you know, I think better coaching with a defensive head coach with, you know, regardless of what you think of Jack Del Rio, a very competent defensive coordinator, in my opinion anyway, you've seen him blossom. And look, he's still a young guy, you know? I mean, how old is he? Is he 26 still? I mean, he just finished his fifth year. I mean, this should be sort of the entering kind of the prime years. I just think he's better than the number 10, you know, interior detackle on the game. All right. Let's finish. up with this. I would assume you've spent a lot of time like I have. I mean, I'd rather be talking about other things, but it's hard not to discuss it when it becomes a news item, you know, one to two times a week, and that is the whole situation with ownership. What's your, you know, overall take and what kind of direction do you think this is heading in? Yeah, I mean, I'm like everybody else. I want him out. You know, the time for him to be out has long since Pat, but I don't have a ton of faith that we're going there.

I think there is a wild card that is still to be determined, which is this Mary Joe White investigation, and so we'll see what comes out of that. I mean, the whole thing really has become absurd. We now know for sure of two sexual assault allegations against him, the Tiffany Johnson allegation, and what happened on the plane from Vegas in April of 2009. So, like, it's no longer just a sexual harassment deal.

Now it's actual alleged sexual assault. I mean, like we've crossed over into that territory, but there just doesn't seem to be the momentum still for him being voted out by the NFL owners. And so, you know, with this notion of, okay, well, maybe the Mary Joe White investigation reveals things or brings the light things that force the NFL to get rid of them, I just don't have a lot of faith right now that that's going to happen. I think, you know, we have gotten closer to that as time has gone on here, but I don't think that we're still past that line. And when it comes to Congress, I think this is almost becoming comical. I mean, for all of the bark, I just don't see the bites. Like, I've had a lot of legal experts on my podcast. I know that you have two.

Dan can delay. He can kill this penalty until November, until the midterm elections. And if you buy into the idea that the Republicans are going to flip the house, the second that the Republicans take over the House, congressional involvement with the commander's end, everyone says that, Republican, Democrats. So if that happens, this is over. And there are enough mechanisms for Dan to not give in to the subpoena and not, you know, acquiesced to doing a deposition and certainly not testifying at a hearing to where he can just keep killing the penalty, wait until the Republicans win back the house. And then all of this congressional stuff goes away.

And so I think it's being stand right now, that's where we're headed. I mean, you never know what could come out, okay? I mean, tomorrow the Washington Post could have its latest expose on everything that's gone down. but at least given what we know now, I just don't see the realistic path by which Congress can truly get to Dan and that Dan ends up being out as owner of the team. Yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of been my position. I think Tommy feels differently. Tommy feels that, you know, this House Oversight and Reform Committee are going to absolutely have a chance to take his testimony at some point that they're going to be able to serve the subpoena, that he's not going to be able to fight it in time before November. kind of disagree with that. You know, the right now, the thing that's out there that we don't know the results of is the Mary Joe White investigation.

I mean, I'm not expecting any bombshells to come out of that because remember the Tiffany Johnston allegations were the ones where he, you know, jumped over 15 people to scream, I'll take care of that investigation and we'll make it transparent, you know, because he obviously believes that there's nothing that's provable there. But I think, you know, just the big picture is as long as he's here, the organization's always going to smell to high heaven. And it's going to be hard to overcome that stench as long as he's here. We've seen it for 22 years. Why do we think, you know, anything that Ron Rivera and Martin Mayhew and Marty

Herney and everybody else, why do we think that anything they're doing is going to be able to overcome him. But we'll see. I mean, it's the NFL. Anything can happen for at least a season. We've had a couple of those seasons where, you know, you were doing the post game show and I was doing the pregame show and we were excited to do them because there were some big games. I still, the Thanksgiving Day game against the Cowboys in 2016 when what's his name was quarterbacking the team and they were red hot offensively, that's the most excited I've ever been to do a pregame show. but that was six years ago. What else you got going on?

Galdi's podcast is great. Of course, listen to it wherever you get a podcast. Follow Galdi on Twitter. Most of you are. I think a lot of you listen to his podcast and mine. What else? I was going to talk to you about the Nats, but we can do that, you know,

before the trade deadline, which is still a month away. Yeah, they're horrible. It's sad to see what's happening with them. I'm hoping they get better soon quickly, but I don't know how realistic that is. But yeah, I mean, I talk commanders on my podcast every day, and we are getting close to training camp, which I know you're super pumped about. And, you know, so it's fun, though, because this is like the dead time on the sports calendar.

But the truth is football season is closer than I think people realize. We're inside a three weeks now until training camp starts. and once that starts, football starts, and we'll have a lot to be getting into here. I'm really excited about football season. I'm excited about football season with everything, just in the last couple of months with the team, and then the NBA and free agency,

and there's not a baseball team to root for here in town this summer with any meaningful games. I'm excited about the rhythm of the football season, and I am optimistic. Last year, I did not think the team was going to win more than seven games. I think they are going to win eight or more this year. I, you know, assuming relative health compared to their opponents. I think they've got a chance to win eight plus games. They certainly should. I mean, the schedule sets up for them to do that,

if nothing else. All right. Also, by the way, let me just remind everybody, Galdi not only does his podcast, but he does a Nats chat podcast with Mark Zuckerman, which they, um, They break down every game. That, you know, God bless you because in a season like this, when you're doing those kinds of podcasts, you need a competitive team, don't you? It helps, although we've been doing a lot less on the game and a lot more on the big picture stuff. And actually, with that, if you're a baseball fan, there are actually are a lot of interesting things with them in terms of what they should do and where they should go and how they got here.

I love Mike Rizzo. I think everyone loves Mike Rizzo, but it's been a rough go of it for him from a drafting and player development standpoint for about a decade now, believe it or not. So we've had a lot of those conversations. But yes, if you are a national fan, definitely check that out in that chat podcast. Did he do the right thing almost a year ago by trading Scher and Trey Turner to the Dodgers? Yeah, absolutely. And I commend him for that because that was an all-out super aggressive, no apologies fire sale. And the Nats needed to do that.

And so he did a good job with that. But the truth is they need a lot more. Their farm system still is not in very good shape. All right. I'll talk to you soon. I appreciate you doing this. It's always fun. I appreciate you having me.

Thank you. All right. That's it for the show today. Back tomorrow with Tommy.