The Kevin Sheehan Show - The Mayor on the Name

Episode Date: June 12, 2020

Kevin opened with Mayor Bowser's comments on the Redskins' name on The Team 980 this morning. Ben Standig/The Athletic then joined the show for a good 45-min or so for a Skins' football discussion as well. 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.

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Register at lLS.org slash big climb. You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. Ben Standing from The Athletic will join us here shortly. I'm glad golf is back. Tom Lehman yesterday, 61 years old, shot 65 at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth. First player that old to shoot 65 or better in 40 years on the PGA tour. No fans. I didn't think it was much. of an issue watching it with golf anyway. I'm glad to see real competition in the sport that I follow closely back in action. By the way, the course where they're playing this tournament, just a few blocks from Texas Christian University, TCU, same neighborhood is the Colonial Country Club with TCU. Had some good times down there with my oldest son when he went to school there.

He graduated two years ago. His friends were great. The parents. of his friends. A couple of the families lived in that neighborhood. Man, TCU is a great spot. If you're a parent of a high school kid and they're starting to look at schools, TCU's become here in the last five, six, seven years, pretty popular for kids on the East Coast, Mid-Atlantic. Beautiful campus, good school, great football program. Gary Patterson, one of the best coaches, one of the best defensive minds in college football. It's a nice, nice place. I want to start with this. Muriel Bowser was on our radio station 980 this morning with Doc and Al Galdi. And there was a question. First of all, let me just say this about the mayor. She is a terrific communicator.

We've had a lot of conversation over the last few months about our leaders and their communication ability. DC's Mayor Bowser is a very good communicator. She has been throughout this pandemic. She has been the last two weeks with all of the protests. I also think that sometimes it's about how likable you are as a person, the perception from afar, you know, whether someone is likable or not, which helps in your ability to get through to a public. even if you have people that disagree with what you're saying, I think she is a great communicator, and I think Mayor Bowser is very likable. Now, with respect to the politics and decisions, I'm not a D.C. resident. I consider Washington, D.C., my hometown, because I'm part of the D.C. metro area, but I live in Maryland, actually, just barely outside of the district line. I'm a quarter of a mile from the D.C. Maryland line where I live.

But Mayor Bowser was on with Doc and Al this morning, and she was asked by Doc and Al about a stadium being back in D.C. And I want you to listen to the following exchange because she did reveal something that we haven't heard from the mayor in quite some time about the name, the Redskins name, that is. Here was Mayor Bowser on with Doc and Al earlier. Where are we right now regarding the Redskins' next stadium being in D.C.? Well, that's what we like to see happen. We know we have the best location for the stadium, and we'll continue to work on that. And is the name an obstacle? Yeah, we get a lot about the name.

The Redskins name. I know that's come up in the past. It is an obstacle. It's an obstacle for us locally, but it's a obstacle. it's also an obstacle for the federal government who leases the land to us. What is your stance on the name, Redskins? I think it's a pastime for the team to deal with what offends so many people. And this is a great franchise with a great history that's beloved in Washington.

There it is, Mayor Bowser this morning on with Doc Walker and Al Galdi. on our station team 980 saying, quote, I think it's past time for the team to deal with what offends so many people and that this is a great franchise with a great history that's beloved in Washington, and it deserves a name that reflects the affection that we've built for the team. Closed quote. Also the mention about it being federal land, and the federal government leases that land.

And it's an obstacle for perhaps the mayor and the council locally, but it's also an obstacle for the federal government. I think it's a non-starter still, even in this environment with the owner. I think the owner and I think a lot of people in that organization believe that when the mayor says it's time for the team to deal with what offends so many people, I think they disagree that it offends so many people. Certainly the people that matter the most, that being Native Americans. All of the polling suggests,

Otherwise, I want a stadium in D.C. I'd love it to be on the RFK site. I think it's where it has to be for the team to maximize, you know, eventually when we get fans back into stadiums, a season ticket, you know, base. Obviously, winning is going to be very important, but to me, a stadium in the city makes the most sense. But to hear that from the mayor this morning is new news from her. She's been very supportive of a stadium in D.C. And she really hasn't in the past weighed in against the name. That really hasn't happened the way it did this morning. Most of you know my feeling on it. I am open to the conversation, of course.

I would never want any group of people to be offended by an name that I'm using or supporting. But all of the polling and all of the data over a long period of time suggests that for the people that matter the most in this conversation, that the name is not offensive. My suggestion over the years has always been, or certainly in recent years, a second non-pejorative definition for the name. I think that makes sense. We have lots of multi-definitions for words in the dictionary. A second non-pejorative, non-racist definition, noun Washington Redskins,

the team that plays professional football in Washington. That's what the word has meant for a long period of time now for 75 plus years. Nobody refers to a Native American as a Redskin anymore. The word Redskin means a player that plays for the professional football team in Washington, D.C., or the term Redskins means the team that plays professional football in Washington, D.C. Language evolves, and in this particular case, the word Redskins has come to mean for almost everybody

across any demographic, any culture, certainly in this country, it has come to mean the professional football team that plays in Washington. That's my view. I'll always be open to it, always, to be convinced that this is. something that hurts terribly, a large group of people, but we just haven't seen that support for that position. I wanted to quickly read an email that I got, or at least part of an email that I got from a listener, because I wanted to address this real quickly. It came from Lawrence, who is a diehard Redskinned fan living in Los Angeles, and is a listener of the podcast.

I'm not going to read the whole email from Lawrence because it was long. And to be honest, it felt a little like a lecture at times, Lawrence. But I'm going to give you the first sentence because really the first sentence is a good summary of what the rest of the email was about. He wrote the following. Kevin, I've noticed that you have been silent and not using your platform to be a voice during these times. not one tweet from you related to the events of the day. I've been a huge fan and admirer of yours for many years, but am interested about how you feel,

and then it goes on and on and on. But that essentially summarized a lot of what he really wanted to get through to me. Well, first of all, you're right. I haven't been tweeting about any of what's been going on for the last several months. For two reasons, primarily, maybe a third as well. The first is I have a three-hour radio show and a daily podcast that follows the radio show that gives me a much longer form medium to talk about some of these issues with the proper context, the proper tone, the correct amount of words.

I'm not really a fan of Twitter for serious stuff. I'll engage in a good sports back and forth on Twitter, but for the rest of it, nah, not really, not worth it for me. You know, being misinterpreted on radio or on this podcast happens enough. It's a near lock that it happens on Twitter. I have talked about all of this with Tommy virtually every single time Tom's been on. So I've talked about it with guests on the podcast and on the radio show over the last couple of weeks. had a really interesting conversation recently with Jerry Brewer on radio.

So I've not been silent. That would be inaccurate. On Twitter, yes, but for the reasons that I mentioned. But I'll also just say this, too, that my platform isn't really for activism. My platform is an opinion platform, which becomes interactive a lot of the time, on primarily sports. You know, it's not an activist forum. That doesn't mean that I'm not involved in and active in my personal life,

but that's not really your business or anyone else's. I promise you one thing about me that isn't going to change. I'm not going to be the person that makes a donation or helps out with volunteer time for a charitable cause and then takes a picture of it and puts it on social media. and says, look at me. That's not me. You should know that about me if you've listened for a long enough period of time. I'm not out to prove anything to anybody. I'm out to help where I can on things that I believe in, but not for the purposes of being recognized for it. I do appreciate the long email. I just don't think it was very accurate because it's one thing to identify

that I haven't been super active on social media when it comes to these things. You know, unlike others, I've got three hours a day on radio and an hour plus on a podcast every day. And we've talked about a lot of those things. So you should have a sense through that as to how I feel. And if you don't, I mean, look, basically, I'm pro-racial equality. I'm anti-racial inequality. You know, I am pro-good cops. I'm anti-bad cops. I'm especially anti-bad racist cops. I'm pro peaceful, lawful protest. You know, I'm against non-peaceful, unlawful protest. So, you know, those are sort of some of the big things here over the last few weeks. One of the things I've said many times during the last two, two and a half weeks in particular, as we have

discussed these issues, is I really think the irony of all of this is that on the big things, all of us agree. Decent people all agree on the big things. You know, going back to the incident that sparked a lot of this conversation once again. Important conversation. And that is that George Floyd was murdered by a bad cop. So anyway, there you go. Quick word about hydrant.

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But, you know, it was one of those weeks, Ben, where, you know, the Redskins have been doing this here during the offseason. I don't know if this would have been the plan had we not had the pandemic, but we've had, you know, a series of Zoom conference calls with reporters. This is, you know, I don't know how many Rivera's done at this point. This is at least the second one he's done. So we heard from Rivera the other day. We heard from Haskins.

Yesterday we heard from Ryan Carrigan and Terry McLaurin. So four guys this week. What were the biggest takeaways? I mean, I think you and I spent some time talking about Jack Del Rio's conference call from like a week and a half ago. Was there any big news here in the last two days in your view? Well, you know, and obviously these things are in lieu of if we had OTAs. I think yesterday, Thursday, would have been the actual last day of OTAs based on the

calendar from last year. So every day, you know, we would have gotten Rivera, presumably along with some player. So, you know, sort of making up for that. I don't know. I mean, look, obviously a lot of the conversations, particularly with Rivera and Hapkins involved, everything is going on in the country right now, you know, with surrounding George Floyd and the other conversations, race and diversity, from the football perspective, what we got into, you know, I guess the one question that I asked, I'm not to bring this up because I asked

to happen to be a football question, was like, look, here's the reality. If we had, if you guys had OTAs all this time, we would have by now seen who's lining up a receiver opposite, Terry McCorn. Where, which, how are you positioning your linebackers and who's in which you know, who's aware in the rotation? Are you getting Chase Young, Montesweb, and Ryan Carrigan on the field together? And if not, who's with the first unit, all that stuff? So I said, but my question was basically, you can't see this either. So what's the biggest challenge specifically? And I mentioned left tackle in my question. And he went right there and said,

yeah, you hit the nail on the head. Left tackle is obviously going to be the big one for us. And no doubt. I mean, I literally normally, normally, when we have these discussions, Kevin, about, okay, who do you think is going to be the starting this or the starting mat. Like, you can kind of have some guess, even if you're wrong. I wouldn't even have a clue who would start a left tackle right now, because the three candidates are, none of them have any resume that would suggest that they're ready to go. Then he went down the list.

He went then right to left guard, the battle between the West's Martin and Schweitzer. He specifically mentioned Ryan Anderson, because I also mentioned linebackers, He specifically mentioned what to do with Ryan Anderson, not just, you know, all the group of him, specifically where to use him. And, you know, he just kind of kicked down the list from there, including quarterback, where he also reminds us that there is a battle. Yeah, I want you to hold off on that, because I'm saving that one here for a more significant conversation. But I did think that it was interesting.

This is the second time that Ryan Anderson, has been discussed by the head coach, where he has said something to the effect of, we've got to figure out how to use him. You, I remember, wrote maybe a month ago. Maybe it was longer than that. And it was sort of a surprise cut column or segment of your column. And you put Ryan Anderson in there. And I remember thinking, no way.

Ryan Anderson was the most improved player on that defense last year from my season. standpoint, but that doesn't mean that the new coaching staff feels the same way. Do you think when he says that Ryan Anderson is a guy that we've got to find a home for, did that make you believe that maybe you were on to something a month, month and a half ago as it relates to Ryan Anderson? For full disclosure, I don't remember what I did or said yesterday. Do you not remember that? I'm pretty sure it was you.

I think you said in a column, it was one of those, you know, subheadings to a subheading, surprise cuts, and you put Ryan Anderson down. Well, I mean, it doesn't surprise me if I did that because I have wondered it to a degree in that. If you look at the bigger picture, I know I'm actually going to write on this for Monday for the athletic, so I don't want to step on it too much. But basically, yeah, I mean, how does he fit in with this whole situation right now? obviously he had some pretty good moments last year. They're switching to a new defense.

I think he could make an argument. He's better served as a four-three outside linebacker than he was sort of as a three-four-edge guy. At the same time, you know, there's really no room form on the defensive lines. And the linebacker situation, you know, they've got a lot of guys. They don't have a lot of guys. They don't have a lot of guys. I'm sure they're curious about it. And also, look, he's a free agent. Ryan Anderson is after this season.

Right. Is he a guy you're definitely resigning? I don't know. I guess we'll have to see how the season plays out. So, you know, it just seems like he's sort of an odd. But here's the other thing, right? It depends. I've been saying for a while, this to me screams like they're rebuilding. They'll never say that. But this isn't a season where they're going, we're making the playoff. And so when you do it from that perspective, guys who you don't think will be here beyond this season,

and maybe are not as interesting to them as guys are looking to build with. And he, again, I'm not saying he wouldn't play, but, you know, some work from Ryan Carrigan to a degree. What's the, for the brain new coaching staff, what's the complete upside of having this guy take a bunch of snaps away from people you're more invested in long term? So I do think that's something to consider. But again, we've got a ways to go,

and I would argue Ryan Anderson that's the best linebacker they have right now, which is not necessarily saying a lot, but it's saying, you know, you had moments last year, and a lot of other guys are either on the long end of, you know, or battling father time like Thomas Davis, or still have yet to prove themselves completely like Cole Holcomb and, you know, Ruben Foster, if he was ready to go. Well, and to your earlier point,

if they had been having OTAs in many camps, maybe their impression or their feeling about Ryan Anderson would be, whoa. You know, we were thinking before this all started, we had to find a way to use them, We had to find a home for him. There's a home for him. He's really good.

For all we know, that's what they're missing out on now. And you mentioned left tackle. They've missed out on being able to work with Jaron Christian to see what Cornelius Lucas's, you know, possibilities are. Which is why I think one of the answers to a question the other day from Rivera about left tackle and wide receiver in particular was if they had had this time with their young players, they would know for sure whether or not they needed to go out and sign a veteran player. But they don't know that now. But it still sounds like they're going to give the young guys a shot before they go out and sign a veteran at either one of those two spots.

For sure. We obviously know how last year played out of left tackle. Donald Penn starts the whole season there, right? Right. He didn't get, he didn't join the team until days into training camp in Richmond, meaning they had already gone through all the time. mini-camps and OTAs, and, you know, Eric Flowers was being forced to play left tackle because Trent Williams is holding out and Christian wasn't healthy.

And obviously, Flowers completely flailed there, but, you know, turned into a viable left guard. But they needed to get a left tackle, but they waited that long, haven't seen what they saw. This group is going to have to go with the original. Let's assume it starts on normal time. I mean, how long can you wait to bring in, I know, like, let's just use this as a name argument like Jason Peters. I mean, I would imagine Jason Peters will get better situations, but, okay, whatever. Just to use him, you know, he's a guy that could come in

probably five days before week one and start, but nonetheless, you want him out there, you want him to be familiar with Wayne Haskins, you want to see what shape is. You know, you'll learn the playbook, all that stuff. How long can you wait? And that's the situation with this whole thing. I'm actually, the receiver ones, well, let me back up to tackle one more thing. if I said, let's project the 53-man roster. Just in terms of the number of tackles, four would seem like a reasonable number.

We already know, Morgan Moses is on the team. To think Charles is going to be on the team. They just signed Cornelius Lucas. And look, I would argue Jaron Christian is on the team unless he just completely flames out in training camp, having done nothing so far after two years. That's four right there. So where does the fifth guy even fit? Which is why, if you look at receiver, to me, that was a no-brainer that they

don't have to wait for, especially when you factor into Cody Latimer arrest situation. I still would, without, you know, we want to see how the court play out in his case, you know, innocent and so proven guilty, but, you know, doesn't seem like a great situation. And look, he was sort of a borderline call for me at the time. Right. So I think receiver, though, they could go out and sign somebody right now, because I would argue, other than the four guys, McCorn, Harmon, Sims, and Gandy Golden, I don't know who else is, like, a definite lock to make it seem

I'd argue nobody. So you could go out and find a veteran right now. I don't think that one would have to wait for it. Well, we'll talk about that veteran, the name that came up the other day. But back to left tackle for just a moment. I think when you have a new coaching staff, we get caught up as fans and as people

who cover the team with the guys that we think are absolute locks. Now, Morgan Moses is a lock. And I think they're excited about Cedeek Charles in his potential. After that, I mean, you know, it's not like Lucas got, you know, all of this guaranteed money. For all we know, Timon Perris, who by the way, I think Rivera's mentioned his name twice already in this offseason. He may be the guy that fits what they're

trying to do better. We just don't know. I mean, that's the thing. Whenever you see a new coaching staff come in with a new system, especially when it's a coaching staff with a level of confidence and resume, you know, and an experience. They're going to go with the guys that they think fits their thing, and they're not going to worry about who was here before, especially when you're coming in to a situation where teams been as bad as the Redskins of bad have been in recent years. So I still believe that the left tackle, that they're going to get to the point

where they're probably going to go out with all the money they have and make, you know, either bring a Donald Penn back if he's in shape and even wants to play, or maybe make a move for Jason Peters. To your point on Peters, there's probably going to be a better situation for Peters with a contender, you know, for him to choose. Now, on the wide receiver, who asked him about Antonio Brown? I'm just curious how that came up. I think there was a Scott Abraham question from WJLA.

And so he asked about Antonio Brown and veteran wide receiver, and Rivera gave this answer that wasn't like sure. He said, quote, I know who Antonio Brown is. I know he's a great player and an impact guy. He's a veteran guy, and we have some guys that we have to find out about. That's the approach. We want to see what we have. If we were able to go through OTAs in minicamp, we would have been able to judge that and say,

hey, we need to get a guy at this position or we need to get a guy at that position. These guys aren't really coming along, how we want them to do. Let's pull the trigger and bring a guy into our organization. That's the hard part about not being able to see our guys closed quote, which addresses what we were just talking about. But it didn't completely eliminate the possibility in terms of his answer of if they did bring in a veteran guy that Antonio Brown wouldn't be a part of the mix. In terms of his answer, I don't think he would be part of the mix. But what did you gauge from his answer and then what would be your guess as to whether or not Brown would be a legitimate possibility if they needed a veteran guy?

yeah he definitely didn't shut it down he definitely didn't say you know no no way Jose or anything like that he said nice things about Antonio Brown and if you wanted to do that as I'm sure people have done from that to guess oh maybe Antonio Brown's in the mix look I'm we have a colleague in town Chris Russell who makes ridiculous bets when he comes when he thinks that something is going to happen and make outrageous claims and it leads him to trouble for him I'm not going to that, but if I were Chris Russell, this is the type of thing I would say, I'll bet whatever that Antonio Brown isn't coming here, because it is the literally antithesis of everything Rivera has preached.

Right. I mean, my point for why, you know, you should maybe move on from Cody Latimer right now is all Rivera has done is preach culture over everything at this point, which is a totally, totally reasonable things to do. You're trying to reestablish what it means to be a winning football team. They were a three and 13 team a year ago. They've obviously struggled most of the last 20 years. We've talked all the time about this different high-lachs, positive identity, all these things.

And that's why, you know, I think this is more of a, you know, a four or five, six-win team than a playoff team because they're not focusing definitively on winning this year. It's the building blocks. It's the steps to get there. That's why I think they went, say, Kyle Allen over Cam Newton. Not the Cam Newton can't help you win, but there's a lot of distraction there. Ken Rivera wants the focus for everything to be on the little things. Antonio Brown is the ultimate distraction. He was incredible.

Everything that happened to him last year was nothing. And on the same, and on top of it, I guess the reason why Brown is mentioned with the Redskins is he practiced with Wayne Haskins during the offseason. I mean, good, you know, great. But unless you're telling me Antonio Brown turns to Wayne Haskins and Aaron Rogers this year, then there's no reason to, to make the move for anything like that. I mean, you need to get more receiver help, no doubt. If you had the real intent owner, you know, if we knew Antonio Brown was the best behavior

and performed with the guy on the Steelers, well, he wouldn't be a free agent. So, you know, there's a lot, there's so many question marks with him, I just couldn't comprehend for the life of me, based on everything Rivera has said and done that he would entertain bringing that guy in. Well, not to mention he's going to be suspended

the minute, you know, or certainly within minutes after somebody signs him. And it's going to be, you know, it's not going to be a game. It's going to be, you know, a significant number of games. So what's the point, really? Talking to Ben Standing from the athletic. All right, let's get to what Rivera said about the quarterback position. I'll read the quote. Really excited about the quarterback position. I think we're going to have a heck of a battle. It's going to be very interesting to watch. And obviously, we're Alex is as well. He, uh, there was another.

part of the quote. Rivera said quarterback's another one people have asked about when it comes to sort of the limited amount of offseason time. Was he telling you that Kyle Allen's a legit challenger for the job or not? Well, I think he has said that all along. I mean, back in February and March,

when we were still people were talking about Tzuatungo Viola is possibly coming here and Rivera made it very clear. hey, we're going to bring somebody in. It's going to be a real battle. You know, whether it could be too, I could have Cam Newton. Nope, turns out to be Kyle Allen, a guy he's obviously familiar with from his days in Carolina. But I think the reality is, for most people,

High Island doesn't seem like a threat and unrafted quarterback isn't going to come in here and just be given, you know, given the job over a first round pick from last year, who granted, Haskins struggles more than he didn't, but look better at the end of the end of the year. And look, new coaching staff, you know, all that stuff. So I think people kind of just look past Kyle Allen. But the reality has been this for Kyle Allen came on board at the point that the coronavirus had already started. And that meant he had a massive edge on Haskins because he's been there, done that in this system.

And if we get to late June or late July, start a training camp and the schedule remains the same, some former preseason, some training camp go to week. one. I mean, it seems reasonable to imagine that Kyle Allen will have a much, much better feel for the system than will havekins. And then you have to also realize, again, it's probably a new left tackle, a new left guard for this team. We have no idea right now who's playing the team for opposite to the corn, and the top four guys, we would imagine, are all going at best going into their second year. The tight end situation is fairly ugly. So, like, there's not a ton of

proven pieces to work with. Now, so you factor in the untraternity for Haskins and, you know, what's around him, and it does seem to me like Kyle Island has a very good chance to start week one. Now, that doesn't mean he's a starter for the season, but I absolutely think that, and I

think most importantly, I think Rivera thinks that because he's mentioned this, we think it's we are just ignoring it. None of us have asked about Kyle and Allen in the last few times Rivera's been on the call. It's only been Askins, and you know, I don't think I think that's on us more than him.

I think he's made it clear. He sees a competition, even if we all agree that Haskins is the, you know, the favorites ultimately wins any job. I'll tell you what, that's a hell of a door to open up. You know, on a team that more likely than not isn't going to contend for anything this year. Because if Kyle Allen were to start the opener and they beat the Eagles and he throws for 320 and three touchdowns and no picks and runs the offense flawlessly,

that image is never going to be lost from everybody's mind, even if they come back in week two against the Cardinals, is it? I think it's Cardinals Week 2, I forget. It's Cardinals Cleveland and Baltimore, I think. And Haskins is then ready to start. I would be very, very surprised if Kyle Allen started a game early in this season unless there's an injury. I think that Rivera is savvy enough, and maybe he doesn't know this market well enough, but he will find out very quickly that he, look, if Kyle Allen started a game and they won the opener and he was great, you know, in most situations, that would be like, wow, they're, they've got a great situation of quarterback right now.

but it would really be an incredible storyline from that point forward. First of all, there would be people saying, well, you got your starter. This guy's got to continue to start until he proves that he shouldn't be the starter. And if they went to Haskins in week two because at that point he's ready, or week three, because at that point he's ready, a really strong performance or two from Kyle Allen would be hard to shake from everybody's mind. I agree with everything you said, and like I said, I agree, the odds are Lika that it's asked.

But I would say this. I think for Rivera, you know, again, they didn't draft Dwayne Haskins. There are skeptics remaining with regards to whatever Haskins will be his upside and so on. And ultimately, one thing that has been discussed a lot, almost as much as the culture, has been just competition, Pet Rivera, Del Rio, and others. And obviously, that's a little bit of coach-speak, of course,

you want competition, one competition. But I do think for a new coach, if, you know, when people were clamoring for Haskins to start last, right off the bat last year, that would have been kind of crazy. He definitely was not the best quarterback in training camp, he was definitely behind the other guys. And I think if Kyle Allen goes out in training camp and does a better job, significantly better, not just borderline, like not just eye of the beholder, but like it's clearly he's the better guy, I just think the message he's going to send to the rest of the team

where he's telling the M, hey, there's no favorites here. You guys all battling for jobs and so on. I don't know if that's the message he wants to spend right off the bat when he's trying to get these guys to buy in to what he's selling. And granted the quarterback's a different position. I totally get that. And, again, I would imagine Hapke's as a starter, but I do think if Kyle Allen shows up,

again, he has significant, he has certain advantages. I mean, Dwayne has other advantages. Let's note that he's actually played with McCorn and Sims and Harmon. if Kyle Allen has, I don't even know if he's met these guys. You know, so he has some advantages on that front. But, I mean, I just think if Alan looks better in camp by a decent amount, I do wonder if it will be hard to say, well, we're going to have to pretend that it didn't happen and start this other guy, even though I'm telling everybody else, you need to compete for your job.

Yeah, I think, you know, last year is a bit different. You know, last year, they actually thought they had a chance, you know, early in the year. And so Case Keenham was further along and Colt McCoy wasn't ready anyway. And he was a rookie and it was not crazy to sit him. I wanted him to play from the jump because I didn't think they could contend for anything. And I wanted to see him. Certainly at 0 and 3, 0, and 4 I wanted to see him. And at that point, I think we should have seen him earlier.

This year's different in that, yes, you're right. You know, as a coaching staff, and I remember Mike Shanahan telling me this in so definitive, you know, passionate terms, the locker room knows. You can't fool the locker room. And once you try to do that, you can lose the team. It's a high-risk thing when you've got, you know, at quarterback like he had, a guy that's clearly much better than the other guy and everybody knows it, and yet you're playing the guy that doesn't give you the best chance to win. But this is, again, a guy that I think some of his teammates have. have confidence in after seeing late last year. And also will recognize the disadvantage he has been in

in an offseason where he didn't have time to adapt to a new coaching staff and a new offense, etc. It would be a hell of a door to open to say, you know what, Dwayne's coming along great. He looks awesome. Kyle's been in this system for a full year. He and Scott really know it. and because of the offseason, Kyle's going to be able to get us into the offense and get the plays called and all that stuff. So Kyle's going to start the opener and maybe week two until Duane's up to speed and then it's Dwayne's job. And then all of a sudden Kyle Allen goes out and lifts this team to a two and oh start with great quarterback play. That's toothpaste you're not putting back into the toothpaste holder. Right.

Here's, I guess, what the probably thing for me that would make it the most likely that Haskins started. You know, Rivera came in, you know, day one and made it pretty clear. He needs going to have to be more of a leader. He was going to have to be more focused. And, you know, from what we, you know, the little bit we hear, we can't see anything. And I do think that seeing on the field is different than just, you know, Zooms and playing on some high school fields. But it feels like Haskins is taking more responsibility. I think even going to the Black lives matter.

rally the other last week, I think shows some maturity on his part. He's the way he talked about it as well. He also dropped weight. We saw him on the video without him saying a word. It was obvious, oh, something's different here. And like I said, he said he's dropped about 20 pounds since last year. I mean, 20 pounds since he arrived, maybe 10 pounds, this calendar, this calendar. Yeah, 237 to 218 from Ohio State to where he is now.

Right. So for Verre is seeing Haskins buying in, even. even if he's struggling with the playbook is simply based on, you know, lack of time with the coaching staff. Maybe he says, oh, look, he's doing all the right things. I'm not going to penalize him for week one because of the coronavirus. I mean, he's doing all the right things. I'm going to believe that he's making all the right progress,

and I don't want to derail that by going with Kyle Allen, so we're going to continue with Wayne Haskin moving forward, even if it's clear for week one we'd have a better chance to win with the guy who knows the playbook, But I like the fact that Haskins is doing the right things. He's buying into what I'm saying. Rivera talks about the fact that they talk, they text, they're building a relationship. So, you know, that's obviously incredibly important.

And if you think, like I said before, with regards to whether it's Ryan Anderson or Antonio Brown, if you're Rivera and you're thinking long term, that all that has to apply to this to you. You can't just be thinking, who do I need week one? It has to be, what am I looking at week five, week 10, week one next year? and if you think Duane Haskins is that guy and he's buying into what you're selling, then you reward that and move forward to him. So I think that would be the best argument for why he would start no matter what. Something else about Rivera the other day that I wanted you to weigh in on. And I talked about this, I think both on the radio show and the podcast.

We saw him speak on behalf of the entire organization when it came to everything that's going on in the world, especially in the last two weeks. weeks, him speaking to Black Lives Matter, talking about the actionable items that the organization is involved in. And he even said, you know, I'm essentially, you know, the face and voice of the organization right now, which, you know, if you didn't have, if you questioned that after the introductory press conference back in January, I think that this was that three minute, three minute opening, you know, comment from him about the team and all of what's going on in the world right now, you know, sort of solidify that. Snyder's not going to be the person that even in a very serious situation addresses the public. It's not what he's going to do. But I thought of

something off of that. There's been conversation about Kyle Smith potentially getting the GM title here in this offseason. And, you know, there was the conversation, that Ron Rivera may have been considering somebody from outside the organization, but during the process leading up to the draft, he'd become very comfortable with Kyle, very impressed with Kyle. And then the conversation turned towards, I know Les Carpenter wrote about this, that almost as if Kyle Smith's elevation to general manager or at least getting that part of, or getting that designation as part of his title, was imminent.

I don't think it's going to happen in this environment. I think Kyle Smith, they're comfortable with who he is. He is the lead personnel voice in the organization, but to give him a general manager title in this environment, especially as it relates to the conversation around the lack of minorities in both head coaching positions and general manager positions in the NFL, I think that's on hold for right now. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Yeah, look, I mean, I think that, you know, Kyle Allen, he was the director of college scouting Kyle Smith. Kyle Smith. Yeah, sorry. Too many damn Kyle. He, you know, and by all accounts, is a very good job.

For people I've talked to me, he's well respected, and he clearly looked like he's on track to having a very interesting career in front office. Now, that's not the same thing, though, as being the lead executive for an organization.

And I think when, like, the general manager, like, you know, when we used to talk about, the Wizards with Ernie Grunfeld. While he was a general manager in the sense that's what we viewed him as, he was also the team president. And that is a different dynamic on some level. You are having to handle other responsibilities

and just deciding should we trade a third-round pick to get this player or resign this guy or what have you. There are other factors, and this was an example of that, in that Ron Rivera was the guy who had to make this statement. Nobody else was. And also the thing I wrote about, that was the lead for my story after that, was how Rivera made a comment

that he addresses the team as the George Floyd reaction to the George Floyd situations unfolding. He addresses all his players. And then after he's done, he realizes, oh, snap, I have a lot more people to talk to because I am, it's a coach-centric situation now. There is no team president.

It's not just the general manager. There's no team president. He is the guy that is dealing with everything. So he had to also address all the other people in the building. And I think that's an important factor. You know, when everybody is, I know, rejoicing that the rights can move on from Bruce Allen. But Bruce Allen effectively was the president and the GM. They had Kyle Smith replaced Doug William and Rivera replaced Bill Callahan.

But they didn't really replace a physical person with Bruce Allen. So they are one human being short in the setup they had, you know, in previous years. And, you know, again, nobody could have predicted coronavirus, which, by the way, they had to completely rejigger their whole plan. The IT department had to come up with solutions to that. Now they're going to have to redo the entire locker room possibly and the building as a whole to meet with NFL compliance with regards to social distancing. And I'm not saying Rivera is going to determine who, locker and out goes where or how they should do certain things, but he has to be involved because that's the get that he's the guy. And I do wonder on some level if at the point

somebody's going to say, hey, maybe under normal circumstances, we could get away with this. There's so much happening. Do we need to think of another person? Probably not. And I would doubt it would be Kyle Smith because he just hasn't been there. You would think more of a, you know, somebody who's up in there, done that type. But I do wonder if at some point somebody says, hey, even if it's not the GM quote-unquote, we maybe need another executive up here up front to deal with somebody things because there's a lot going on right now. And he hasn't done this before.

This hasn't been a part of his job responsibility before. But in this organization where the owner is not a participant in addressing, you know, big picture, big league stuff, it's unique. Because I can't think of another situation. in the league. I know that there are some owners that don't talk, but in those situations, there's probably a team president that at least handles the internal communication. But anyway, I don't think it's going to happen in this offseason, bottom line. I think we're going to see Ron Rivera try to deal with it himself. And then if we get to the end

of the 2020 season and Rivera says, you know what, that's an awful lot. You know, let's either give Kyle Smith this promotion and let him become, you know, not only the lead personnel person, but also take on some of the team president responsibilities. We'll do it that way or we'll bring in a team president. I don't think it's going to happen before 2021 is my point. Yeah, I would agree. I mean, obviously, everything is so weird now because of the coronavirus situation and it's hard to tell about some level how that affects any choices that are happening right now, whether we're talking free agents or this. But if I'm with you, it feels like if they were going to hire a GM,

it feels like nothing. It couldn't still, but it feels like that would happen by now. The draft was at the end of April. I mean, like just plenty of time has gone by. They could have made this announcement, this decision by now, and there's no signs of that happening. So I would agree with you. I would imagine at this point they go forward with what they have,

but it did, yeah, like you said, it felt like when Rivera made that comment that he was his first time on some level of recognizing, oh, snap. There isn't a lot to do. And again, so much of this is nobody could have predicted it. But that's also how life works, and you have to be ready for whatever happens, and they are one person short compared to whether it was an organization a year ago. All right, two more, and I'll let you run.

From the other two press conferences, Zoom conference calls yesterday, with McLorn and Kerrigan. You know, Carrigan said he wants to be here. He wants to finish his career. here. He was complimentary of Chase Young. He was complimentary of everything. He's been, you know, he's always been a first-class guy and isn't going to go down the path of being critical or even, you know, suggesting, you know, I'm not sure about my situation. What did you learn about his situation?

You know, I think that, like he said, he said all the right things. He said he said he would have taken Chase Young second himself. He recognizes that, you know, he's not. He's not. He said he's not, not, Rob, probably the face of his defense anymore for the first time in a while. I mean, maybe you could argue Josh Norman was on some sort of promotional level, but, you know, Kerrigan was from a, you know, play-to-play level. I'm sure opposing coaching staffs thought that, but that's not going to be the case now. And look, when he says he wants to come back, no, I absolutely believe him. This is the only place he's played, I believe him.

But here's the problem. This is always a problem with these circumstances. He makes a lot of money, and there's no way they're bringing him back without him taking a significant pay cut. They have to, they're distracted forward defensive linemen in the first round and fourth consecutive years. All those guys starting this coming off season with Jonathan Allen are going to have to get paid.

And there's no, I mean, unless Carrigan, look, if Carrigan goes out there and gets 12 sacks and, you know, is the best player on the team, I mean, maybe we have a different conversation, but, you know, things that have to really work out in his favor for them to even consider, I would imagine, giving him the kind of deal without him taking a pay cut, and then the egos kick in, no matter who you are, guys don't typically take big pay cuts to stay where they work.

They're like, well, that's not going to work. I'll go somewhere else, even if they take less money to sign with whatever other team. So, you know, I totally believe Kerrigan wants to stay. As an organization, I would imagine the Redskins would love him to stay because of what he's meant to them because he is a guy who is a team for does the right things. I mean, he stays in great shape. I mean, the fact that he played every single game of his entire career until the late last year when the injuries started to get to him,

I'm sure they want that guy around. But just the reality of the money and the egos that are typically involved in these things that make that seem, it just seems really hard to believe that that could happen. But I want to make sure I'm clear on this. You think he's going to be on the roster this year at $11.5 million or whatever it is. It's next year you're referring to, right? Yes. I mean, I would have, you know, if you would ask me,

was the complete I had this conversation in January or February and maybe we did. I would have thought, yeah, maybe if they go down a certain path, if they had gone down the Amari Cooper path, which I think would have changed how they had looked at other scenarios this off season. Now they probably have a veteran left tackle in hereby now, because if you're going to go spend money on Amari Cooper, you can't just have holes everywhere.

Maybe you have a better tight end, what have you. And at that point, when salary cap starts becoming a factor, you look at Kerrigan, they could have gotten out. from his contract without any dead cap. That would be very enticing to move on for him, especially with Chase Young, with, you know, you kind of knew you were going to take Chase Young, too, I would imagine, with Montess Wet and so on. But that's not what happened.

They still have a ton of cap space. They don't need, they could go ahead and sign, you know, Jason Peters and a couple other guys like that and still have room without dumping Kerrigan. So it feels like, you know, now the benefit is all the positives he brings us as a leader, as a guy with Eric can point to and say, do what he does. And he can still, you know, still play. I don't think he was as good last year as he had been historically, even before the injury.

But, okay, whatever, he can still play. So I would imagine he'd say this year, but yeah, after this year is when, I think it's Yeah, it'll be tough. That's for sure. Thanks. Oh, wait a minute. Terry McLorn. You know, in listening to him yesterday,

I don't, I can't remember the last time I have felt like the Redskins have had a super young player come off as so veteran and so mature. I mean, you're out there covering the team every day for, you know, the last year anyway, but, you know, at times before that, this guy really seems, you know, from a character standpoint, to be the real deal, right? Yeah, I mean, there's in my, you know, there's a lot of interesting guys, cover all of interesting guys over the years, but in terms of guys who were just coming into the league, as, you know, teenagers or in their early 20s and made me feel like I've done nothing with my life that I'm the most immature person on the planet.

One guy was Bradley Beale with the Wizards and the other guy was Terry McCorn last year. It was just ridiculous. I mean, it was almost annoying. Like, how, I think he's perspective on everything, the way he talked, he handled himself. And look, he's not just humble. Like, he's got confidence. He's got a little bit of talking to him. He was asked about getting all this media attention that he's getting now compared to when he entered the league or even at Ohio State.

He's like, yeah, you know, it's exciting. And look, I also feel like I'm ready to handle it. And I'm ready to show people that last year, you know, what I can do more. And, yeah, his maturity is off the charts when you talk to the other players, they were all blown away by it. And that's why, like, you know, a few weeks ago after the Trent Williams moved on and I wrote about who is actually the best player on the team, I went with McCorn. Because even if you wanted to tell me that somebody else is technically better, this minute, the overall makeup, not just the speed, not just the rat running, not just the

hand, but the maturity, I mean, the package is just pretty impressive. And, you know, and he did so much last year with such a wacky offensive situation going on with the quarterbacks and others. So, to me, you know, I don't say sky is the limit like he's going to be, you know, the greatest receiver in the league, but I just think he's really impressive on, you know, on and off the field on yesterday. Yeah, again, it was just a simple interview. with us. Wasn't anything dramatic. He didn't split the atom. But just the way he handled himself, talked about things, and on top of what he did before, yeah, it's really impressive to see all the things he can do for sure. Yeah, I agree with you. Thank you, Ben Standig, our good friend from the

athletic. Subscribe to the athletic. You've got an opportunity to do it right now for free to continue to test it. Ben writes a lot, like at least three, four times. a week on the Redskins and other things DC sports related. Check them out also on Twitter at Ben Standig. I'll talk to you soon. Appreciate it. Have a good weekend. Yeah, man. Peace. Thanks. Great catching up with Ben Standig. Always enjoy that with Ben. He does such a good job covering the team and has done a good job covering lots of our local teams over the years. It's been an interesting offseason they've had and the team's done a good job. And it's in their best to have players and coaches made available.

Now, they've got a significant emphasis on making these players and coaches available to the beat, as they call it, in more of a large Q&A gathering versus more one-on-ones, which is fine. We're getting a sense of things from Rivera and some of the players. They would have more access the guys on the beat if there were OTAs, and if there were mini-camp days because they would be in the locker room. But the way the teams get covered in the short term, certainly when we get to the season, is going to be much different.

The teams are going to be able to make guys available in a Zoom conference call setting because I don't envision reporters being in the locker rooms. I don't think that's going to happen. Quick word about Roman. If you were to guess on average how many days people in the U.S. have to wait to see a doctor. What would you say? A week maybe? Actually, on average, people have to wait 29 days to see a doctor in major U.S. cities. Basically a month. If you're dealing with a condition like erectile dysfunction, you want treatment ASAP. That's why our friends at Roman have spent years

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That's get-roman.com promo code Sheen for a free online visit and free two-day shipping. Wanted to mention that if you missed the radio show this morning, I interviewed Ben Gulliver from the Washington Post. If you recall, he was on the podcast maybe a month ago. He's really good and had some really interesting thoughts on the NBA, the return, how comfortable players are, what's on their minds, how this is going to look and feel when we get back to the NBA season at the end of July. Players not wanting potentially to show up in Orlando and be contained and there for like a minimum of 30 to 45 days. Even the teams that just end up playing eight regular season games, He was with me on radio this morning.

You can get that on the Team 980.com or the Team 980 app to listen to that. He was very good. One last thing before we go for the day. Not sure if anybody saw this. But Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said yesterday that he regrets not signing Colin Kaepernick in 2017. He also denied, by the way, a second meeting that Kaepernick was going to have with the team, but it was canceled, which came in 2018. He denied that that second meeting with Kaepernick was canceled because of the team's

uncertainty about whether or not Kaepernick was planning on kneeling during the anthem or not. He said that didn't have anything to do with it. But he also revealed yesterday that he got a phone call from a team asking about Kaepernick, and he said that that hadn't happened. Now, first of all, you're asking, why is Pete Carroll? getting calls about Kaepernick. Well, I guess Carol was the last guy and the Seahawks were the last team to legitimately be interested in Kaepernick. I thought the Ravens were one of those teams, but apparently it was Pete Carroll and Seattle. So Carol said that he got a call from another team.

He wouldn't disclose whom the call was from, but did say that it left him with the impression that at least one team is currently interested in signing Kaepernick. Now, I had Andrew Brandt, MMQB and former league executive with the Packers on the show the other day, on the radio show the other day. And he really felt that Kaepernick was not going to get signed. That, you know, the kneeling was not going to be an issue and that teams were going to come around and support, you know, protests during the national anthem, support the ability for, you know, people like to. Colin Kaepernick, players like Kaepernick, to bring attention to issues, worthy issues, like racial injustice by kneeling during the anthem. But he didn't think Kaepernick was going to get signed. Well, Pete Carroll's telling you yesterday that there's at least one team that's

sniffing around. Teams had a chance to do it last year in November, regardless of whether or not you think the league sort of set this up and didn't make it, you know, exactly perfect for Kaepernick in terms of timing and time to prepare. And then Kaepernick definitely turned it into a bit of a sham by changing the venue a few minutes before it was supposed to start, making teams travel 60 minutes to see a workout at another field, not at the Falcons facility. No one ended up signing them then.

But I was thinking about the teams that might be interested now. You know, it's two things that I thought about. One is an owner that's ready to make the move. And there are several owners that wouldn't have made the move. Some of those owners have been big-time Trump supporters. And other owners just, they don't think it's good business. So that's a consideration. And the offensive style of football is another consideration.

And I came up with a short list of, I think, eight teams that I thought maybe Pete Carroll was referring to. I thought of Andy Reed and everybody that's coached for Ante. Andy Reid first. All right. So the chiefs and the chiefs really don't have a legitimate backup to Mahomes. It's Chad Henney right now, at least based on the depth chart that I'm looking at our lads. So Andy Reid, who's always taken a chance. You know, he was the one that signed Michael Vick after all of his issues, which are not comparable. I'm not saying that they're apples to apples. But Andy reads a guy that, first of all, you know, has a system and makes, you know, the best out of the talent that he has, works the system around the talent that he has, that Kaepernick could come in

and back up Patrick Mahomes. I thought of Matt Nagy in Chicago, where they did sign Nick Foles and they do have Mitch Trubisky, but again, you're talking about a head coach that, you know, could potentially fit in a guy like Colin Kaepernick as a backup, or it's certainly given a chance to compete for a backup position. And then I also thought of Doug Peterson in Philadelphia. You know, Doug Peterson sitting there with Carson Wentz. They drafted Jalen Hertz. They have Nate Sudfeld.

But those were the first, you know, teams that I thought of because they're the ones that are fearless when it comes to that kind of thing. They're not going to worry about it. Not to mention that ownership in those three areas would be, I think, very supportive of it as well. certainly the Hunts and in Philadelphia with Jeffrey Lurie. I also thought about Arizona with Cliff Kingsbury. They've got Brett Hunley as the backup right now to Kyler Murray.

Also considered a team like the Tennessee Titans. You know, the Titans with Ryan Tannahill and the move they made last year, they don't have a backup. Marriota's gone. They've got, you know, a situation in Tennessee where they don't necessarily have an obvious backup quarterback to Tannahill. You know, what a situation that would be potentially for Kaepernick to go in and compete for a backup spot. And, you know, Tanna Hill had a great finish of the season and they have resigned him. But I thought of Tennessee as a possible landing spot for Kaepernick as well.

The Ravens, yes, you know, they were. was some interest there for a while. They have RG3 backing up Lamar Jackson. And then I also thought of Buffalo. Buffalo right now with that situation with Josh Allen and they don't have a guy that plays like Josh Allen does backing them up. Matt Barkley is there. They drafted Jake Fromm. Jake Fromm's had his own issues here the last few weeks. Those were the teams I thought of. I forget how many I just ripped off. I think it was like eight. Buffalo, Baltimore, Tennessee, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Arizona. That's seven teams. Those are the teams that I thought of. I may be missing one or two, but it'll be interesting to see if Kaepernick

gets signed here in this offseason before training camp. Obviously, he's going to have to work out, and he's going to show that he's going to need to show that he's in shape, that he's also hungry for it. You know, you're not going to do it just for for grins and giggles here. If you do it, you're going to do it with the intent of giving him a legitimate shot to compete for a spot on your roster. And he's got to show that he wants it, that he's hungry. We didn't really see that last November from Kaepernick. All right, that's it for the day. Have a great weekend back on Monday.