The Kevin Sheehan Show - "They're Not Changing The Name"

Episode Date: June 12, 2023

Kevin opened with his Top 10 Washington Football "What Ifs" list. It was a follow-up to the conversation he had with Fred Smoot on Friday's show. He then got to the Ian Rappaport comment from Friday's Pat McAfee show when he said about Washington's new ownership...."they're not changing the name". Al Galdi jumped on for the rest of the show to talk Commanders and Stephen Strasburg's legacy.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. My greatest player in What If history, and he did have a good career, so let's not act like he didn't have one. But if we would have played a 3-4 from the time he was drafted, LeVarie Arrington would have been a Hall of Fame.

Fred Smoot from Friday's show on the greatest what-if in Washington. football team history. Fred and I covered about 39 subjects in about 49 minutes, and most of you loved it. This from Ed on Apple podcast reviews gave us five stars, called it his go-to podcast daily. Kevin is the authority on the Washington Redskins football team, and I love his passion insights on the NBA. I'm a 52-year-old DMVer who lives in Atlanta. This podcast is how I keep close tabs on Washington's historic football team as if I still live in Upper Marlborough, Rockville, and Silver Spring, Maryland, from a toddler till 18 years old. Make Fred Smoot a regular contributor like you do, Tommy. Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the five stars, Ed. Appreciate all of you who have been doing that recently. If you follow us on Apple and Spotify as well, that's helpful. Rate us and review us whenever you can. Yeah, I enjoy Smoot a lot, and we will try to get Smoot like we will try to get Doc on the show as much as possible. These summer months, and I'm going to take some vacation this summer. I'm going to take some vacation when I won't actually have a podcast on a few days. I've done that the last few summers.

But, yeah, talking Mnicamp with Fred Smoot on Friday was great. If you missed it, it was just, it was. was epic with Smoot on Friday. It's available on Friday show. Now, the question he was answering about the greatest what if, I gave my greatest what if. He gave his greatest what if player as Levar Arrington and then came back and said the greatest what if coach was Marty Schottenheimer. And I said, because the conversation was primarily focused on players, and we both agreed that Sean Taylor was the greatest what if player in franchise history. I said the greatest what-if player after Sean Taylor was Jordan Reed.

And we ended up having a conversation about Jordan Reed. But anyway, I went back and put together after the radio show this morning, my top 10 what-ifs in franchise history. All right? Number 10 on the list of the greatest what-ifs in franchise history. is RG3 in the 2012 playoffs that were competed in 2013, January of 2013. Number 10, isn't RG3 overall? Because to be honest with you, I don't view him as the greatest what-if,

or even in the conversation of the greatest what-ifs. He was, you know, he was an issue, you know, with the coaching staff he had, and the owner ended up picking a different coaching staff. and every place he went afterwards was a total debacle and failure. He never had another year the rest of his career, no matter where he went, like his rookie year with Mike and Kyle Shanahan and the staff here. So my specific RG3, what if, is the playoffs of his rookie year. What if he hadn't gotten hurt in the Seattle game with a football game

with a 14-0-0 lead. And they had beaten Seattle. I think there's a chance they could have gone to Atlanta and beaten the Falcons. And then you would have had the 49ers in the NFC championship game in Candlestick. And I don't know that they would have won that game against the 49ers. But my greatest RG3 What If, which comes in on number 10 on the list, is not specific to RG3's career. You know, they together, he and.

Dan made the choice to move on from the Shanahan's who were the best thing for RG3. And the bottom line is he was incredibly injury prone anyway. If you want to say, what if RG3 wasn't injury prone, okay, but still there were all of the other shenanigans and issues related to him and his self-absorption and his lack of self-awareness that led to issues in other places too. And the bottom line was, you know, without, you know, exceptional coaching. He really wasn't very good as a professional quarterback. But that playoff run after the 2012 season had a chance had he not gone down in the Seattle game.

That's number 10. Number nine on my top 10 greatest what-if list in franchise history is, What if Carlos Rogers had held on to the ball that was right in his hands early in the second quarter of a playoff game in January of 2006 in Seattle? Washington had a 3-0 lead, and the truth was in that game at Seattle, they were dominating the early action. They had knocked Sean Alexander out of the game, and Carlos Rogers had a hassle-back pass right in his hands for a pick-six and a 10-9. nothing lead. And if he doesn't drop that, Washington, I believe, goes on to beat Seattle, and they would have gone to Carolina for the NFC championship game that year. A game that, quite honestly, they could have won. Now, you know, the playoffs in 1999, when they were within

a whisker of beating Tampa Bay in the divisional playoff game down at the big sombrero, they would have had to go to St. Louis to face the greatest show on turf. And I don't think they would have won that game. But in 2005, after beating Tampa and then being, I'm sorry, after beating Tampa, yes, on the road again, and having Seattle in early trouble in that game, who knows, if Carlos Rogers holds on to that pick six, maybe Washington goes to that Super Bowl instead of Seattle to face a rookie quarterback in Ben Rothesberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers. It's possible. They certainly would have had a chance at Carolina if Carlos Rogers picked that off

because I think they would have gone on to win that game. They were really good defensively. That was the last year's team was excellent defensively, and the best defensive team more likely than not before that was the 2005 team. They had a lot of bad defenses between 2006 and 2000. you know, 21. Carlos Rogers, dropping that pick six in the playoff game against Seattle is number nine on the list of the greatest what-ifs.

This is my list. Number eight, I actually have Jordan Reed at number eight, all right, because I came up with some other things, not necessarily players, but other things. So on the player list, it would have been Sean Taylor won, and actually it would have been Jordan Reed, too. but on the list of the greatest what-ifs, not, you know, that aren't player specific, Jordan Reed's number eight on my list. Jordan Reed, if he had stayed healthy, hadn't had the concussions,

I think he would have become the greatest tight end in franchise history. And he would have been one of the great tight ends of this era. And he would have been towards the end of his era because he would have been in his 10th year. Number seven on the list of greatest what-ifs. The Shanahan staff. What if the owner had picked the Shanahan staff over RG3? Well, what more likely would have happened had the owner, you know, taken a step back and allowed them to do their thing,

is you would have had Mike probably with RG3, but maybe with Kirk Cousins eventually because RG3 was injury prone. And, you know, we would have seen whether or not RG3 would have come around and been a little bit self-aware and not been what he was with the Shanahan's after the 2012 season. But even if it had been with Kirk, you would have had a run with Mike and then with Kyle and Kirk. And Kyle as the head coach, look what he's done in San Francisco without a quarterback, with nobody as good as Kirk Cousins. So number seven on the list of the greatest what-ifs.

The Shanahan staff, what if the owner had picked the Shanahan staff over RG3? Number six on the list. What if Sonny Jurgensen hadn't torn his Achilles in 1972 in Yankee Stadium against the Giants? Would Washington had gone on as a much better offensive team and a team that would have had the ability to throw the ball a little bit better than they could with Kilmer? Would they have won the Super Bowl in the L.A. Coliseum in January of 1973? Number five on the list is Marty Schottenheimer. What if Marty Schottenheimer had stayed? What if Dan hadn't run off Marty Schottenheimer?

You would have had a several-year period of many wins per year, division title games, playoff games. Maybe it wouldn't have resulted in the Super Bowl. Marty seemed to be jinxed in the postseason. but what if Marty Schottenheimer had stayed and Dan hadn't run Marty off? That's number five on the list. Number four on the list is what if in December of 1979 Roger Staubeck hadn't led a comeback from 13 down late in the fourth quarter

to beat Washington 3534 on the final regular season Sunday of that season. one of the greatest regular season NFL games ever played. Roger Stawback and the Cowboys against the Jack Party led Washington Redskins. The Redskins knew it kickoff in that final four o'clock window of the season's final Sunday, that if they didn't win that game, they were out of the playoffs altogether. That if they won the game, they would be the division winner and the top seed in the NFC playoffs. Chicago had beaten the St. Louis Cardinals earlier in the day by a margin of victory that was the tiebreaker for the wild card between Washington and Chicago if Washington lost the game to Dallas. Washington jumped out to a 17-0-0 lead. The Cowboys came back and took a 21-17 lead. Washington then came back and took a 34-21 lead.

It was one of the greatest back-and-forth big game heavyweight matchups in regular season history. And then with just over three minutes to go, Washington fumbled the football with a 13-point lead. Dallas scored a touchdown, and then right before the two-minute warning, they got a stop and they got the ball back, and they went down, and Tony Hill caught Roger Strawback's touchdown pass with 42 seconds to go in the game. Cowboys took a 35-34 lead. Washington got in field goal range, tried to call time out, but the timing of the clock back then was not very precise, and they let the clock run out rather than go back and review it. There would have been two seconds left on the clock, and Mark Mosley would have had a 57-yard field goal attempt, 58-yard field goal attempt to win it,

and he had the leg back then. They never got the kickoff. Washington lost the game. The season ended. John Riggins took a year off. 1980, the following season, turned into a disaster. They fired Jack Pardee, they hired Joe Gibbs. If they had won that football game and gone to the playoffs and maybe made a Super Bowl run, they would have had all the playoff games at home. The Rams ended up going to the Super Bowl that year

with Ray Malavesey as the coach and Vince Farragamo is the quarterback. Wendell Tyler was in the backfield. and they beat the Cowboys, by the way, the next week in the divisional playoff round. And went on to the Super Bowl as a 9-and-7 team losing to the Steelers in the final of the four Super Bowls that the Steelers won in the 70s. But Washington came back without Rigo, who called it the worst defeat of his career. He thought he was never going to have a chance to compete for a Super Bowl. So he took the year off.

and they fired Jack Pardee after a 6-10-1980 season. They hired Joe Gibbs, and he showed up in 1981, and the rest is history. What if Roger Staubeck didn't lead that comeback? Jack Pardee probably keeps his job for at least another couple of years. Maybe they would have won the Super Bowl or gone to the Super Bowl in that season. But instead, Pardee got fired after the following season, and Joe Gibbs took over. That's number four. on the list. Number three, on the list. What if Sean Taylor had lived? He would have become the

greatest safety in the history of the franchise and one of the greatest safeties of all time. Number two on the list. What if Vince Lombardi had lived? Washington had had their first winning season in 14 years in 1969 when they went seven, five, and two in the first Lombardi season. here in Washington. Everybody saw what was about to happen. Vince Lombardi was about to turn the Washington Redskins of the 70s into the Green Bay Packers of the 60s with Sonny Jurgensen at quarterback. But before the 1970 season, Lombardi died of cancer. What if Vince Lombardy had lived? That's number two on the list. And number one on the list, and I was reminded of this after the radio show, What if Jack Kent Cook had figured out a way to leave the team to his son, John Kent Cook?

That's the biggest what if in franchise history, because if he had done that, we would have never had the last quarter century of really one of the more embarrassing quarter centuries of any professional franchise in major sports history. And by the way, the result being that essentially one of the most famous and one of the most passionate fan bases in all of sports was chased away by one ownership period. If Jack Kent Cook had decided to figure out how to leave and will the team to his son, John Ken Cook, there's no guarantee that the winning would have continued or that they would. would have won as big as they did during the Jack Kent Cook era. Let's face it, the years after Joe Gibbs left, 93 through 98, that six-year run was terrible. But it wasn't an embarrassing terrible. It wasn't an incompetent terrible. Sure, there were some bad drafts. You know,

there were some bad picks in there. And, you know, Norv probably wasn't the best hire as a head coach. But they did have a winning season in 96. They were 9 and 7 in that final year at RFK. They didn't go to the postseason, but they had a winning record. They had a winning record in 97. Had a chance at the playoffs late that season in 97, going 8, 7 and 1. They weren't horrible the entire time between Gibbs leaving and Snyder arriving. They won the division in 99.

That really wasn't Snyder's doing. That team was already etched in stone by the time he took over in the summer of 99. fact, he tried to undo the Brad Johnson trade, which would have meant 99 would have turned into a disaster more likely than not. But number one on the list of the greatest what-ifs for me, Jack Kent Cook, not leaving. What if Jack Kent Cook had left the team to John Kent Cook. So there it is. My top 10 what-ifs in Washington football franchise history, number one on the list.

What if Jack Kent Cook? had figured out a way to leave the team to John Ken Cook. Number two on the list, what if Vince Lombardi had lived? Number three on the list, what if Sean Taylor had lived? Number four on the list, what if Washington had won the season finale in 1979 rather than losing it 35, 34? It's very possible that Joe Gibbs would have never ended up in Washington. Number five on the list, what if Dan Snyder hadn't run Marty.

Schottenheimer out of town. Number six on the list, what if Sonny Jurgensen hadn't torn his Achilles in 1972? Would they have gone on to win Super Bowl 7 that year? Number seven on the list, what if Dan Snyder had picked the Shanahan staff over RG3? Number eight on the list, what if Jordan Reed hadn't been injury prone, concussion prone? Number nine on the list, what if Carlos Rogers hadn't dropped the pick six in Seattle in the postseason following the 2005 season. And then number 10 on the list, what if RG3 hadn't gone down in a clump of dirt at FedEx Field against the Seattle Seahawks in the postseason following the 2012 season? That's my top 10.

I had a couple of others that I didn't include in that, but I'll save those for another day. All right, one guest on the show today. Al Galdi is going to be on the show today. Looking forward to catching up with Galdi, who's actually coming off of COVID. I did not know that until I talked to him late last week. So Galdi feeling much better is going to be a guest on the show today. We'll talk all things Washington commanders.

And I'll also ask Galdi about Stephen Strasbourg. A week or so ago, it was reported that, he is being shut down for good for this year. I think we've pretty much seen the end of Steven Strasbourg as a baseball pitcher. It's sad, but I want to have a conversation with Galdi about his legacy, because I think he's one of the great postseason pitchers of all time. The show today, presented by MyBooky, go to mybooky.orgie.com, use my promo code. Kevin D.C. to secure a first deposit bonus of up to $1,000.

You have to use my promo code of Kevin D.C. My book, he's got everything that you want for your sports betting needs. If you want to bet maybe the last game of the NBA season tonight, Denver is an eight and a half point favorite over Miami. I don't like a side. I gave out Miami on Friday's show plus the two and a half plus three. wherever you ended up getting it, plus three and a half. I'm sorry, plus three and a half, plus four. I did bet Miami plus four, and I lost on Friday night in game four. Denver was the better team.

Denver is the better team. Aaron Gordon was great the other night. Yokic was great. Murray was pretty outstanding. I'm not sure why Miami got away from what they did in game two defensively, which was pretty much going exclusively with Jimmy Butler on Jamal Murray. But the heat, you know, they are what they are. Their role players have to knock down shots, and they haven't in the last two games. They are 19 of 60 from behind the arc in the last two games after going 17 of 35 in Denver in game two. and that's been really a huge part of why they've gone down double digits in both of the last two games. I credit Denver's defense for a lot of it, but there have been a lot of open shots for guys like Vincent and Struce, et cetera,

and they just haven't knocked them down. But Denver's the better team. I expect they'll win tonight. I don't like a side with the eight and a half number either way, but you can bet it at my bookie right now. Again, use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they'll take really good care of you. Lots of NFL prop bets are up already right now in terms of the defensive rookie of the year odds. Where is Emmanuel Forbes on that list? He's down there, a ways for defensive rookie of the year. plus 1,900 or 19 to 1 for Forbes. That's ninth on the list for defensive rookie of the year at My Bookie.

Will Anderson is the favorite. He was the third overall pick by Houston, the linebacker from Alabama. Is it plus 400 or 4 to 1 to win defensive rookie of the year? Before we get to Galdi, I wanted to play this piece of sound for you real quickly. It's Ian Rappaport making an appearance on Friday's Pat McAfee show. He's asked about giving an update on the commander's sale. The Josh Harris information is fine, but I want you to listen to the very end of Ian Rappaport's

answer on the McAfee Show Friday. Josh Harris and his partners had a meeting with the finance committee on Wednesday. Yeah. Yeah, Wednesday. And basically presented his plan to kind of like, adjusts, move some money around. It sounded like the meeting went good. Should be all systems go.

And I would expect in some point in July, maybe like right around the start of training camp, have a special league meeting, voted in, be officially done, done, done. Like that is all where it's going. It's going to happen. Done, done, done.

All right. Well, congrats to Josh Harrison. And they're not changing the name. They're not changing the name. Never. Never. They're not changing the name. Ian Rappaport on the Pat McAfee show on Friday.

They're not changing the name. He just kind of threw it in there. Now, I doubt it was just a throwaway line. I think he got it from somewhere. You know, either the Josh Harris group or the NFL, the league, those are the two places he would have gotten that kind of information from. Is it possible that he was just, you know, projecting what's going to happen? I doubt it.

You know, Rappaport's been right a lot over the years. He's been wrong occasionally over the years when it's come. to reporting on this team. I think that he's got that from somewhere. And I'm not sure it really makes a difference where it comes from. But I hope, like hell, that the Josh Harris group doesn't just put this to the side and say, as some have said, not even close to a priority for us. We're leaving the name. That's just not even something we're going to consider. changing. We got to focus on stadium, we got to focus on winning, we got to focus on management, all of these different things, as if they can't do all of those things at the same

time. I think that would be a mistake. I think without question, the league and the new owner should recognize that this is something that fans, both current and past, care about. All of the anecdotal, all of the, you know, polling, you know, my Twitter poll from a couple of weeks ago, was clear, you know, the significant majority of fans list this as a priority for new ownership, and that is to change the name. Others in town have run the same kind of poll, and overwhelmingly, this is an issue. You know, the loud obnoxious people on Twitter that tell you that this shouldn't be a priority at all. Like stop it. Winning's the most important thing. Get your, you know, get your head straight here as if you can't do more than one thing at the same time. No, no, this is a priority.

Those people are in the minority on this issue. Fans care about this deeply. Now, I've said this all along. If they go through the process of exploring whether or not it makes sense to change the name and they come to the conclusion with really good reasons. It doesn't make sense to change the name. Fine. I mean, I'm not going to be happy about it, but at least I'm going to feel like they understood that this was a real issue. And they went through the process of looking into it from a branding standpoint, a business standpoint, a trademarking standpoint, every kind of standpoint. You know, and at the end of it, they'll say, we've heard from many of you. We understand that this. This is a big issue to a majority of you.

But this is why we're not going to do it. And I hope this makes sense to you. Like, I'd like them to be transparent when it comes to the process of looking into changing the name. Because if they don't look into it, I think that's a big mistake. I think they're not reading the room very well. Look into this. Be serious about this. Conduct, you know, a real process related to this.

and if you come to the conclusion with, you know, a lot of help that it just doesn't make sense. Or, by the way, if the league tells you that they're not going to allow it, or it's going to take you five years to change it. But let us know. Be open to sharing how you're handling this particular part of, you know, what should be on the list of things to do. along with a lot of other things, when you take over the team. All right. Al Galdi next, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right.

Jumping on with us right now is my good friend and someone who I'm sure seems like a good friend to many of you as well, and that's Al Galdi. Galdi, of course, has his own podcast, the Al Galdi podcast. He's got a Nats chat podcast with. Mark Zuckerman following Nats games. You can follow him, of course, on Twitter at Al Galdi. Galdi's been sick. He had COVID last week. How are you feeling? I am better. Thank you. I have rid myself of COVID. Thank goodness. Ended up hitting me pretty hard. I'm not going to lie. I mean, it definitely did a number on me for a few days. but I got it last Monday and I was feeling a lot better by like Friday or Saturday.

So it didn't take too long, thankfully. But I definitely felt it. I mean, it was not nothing. But you told me right before we started recording, it was minicamp. You had to post because it was mandatory no matter, you know, no matter what, how you felt. And so you posted and you did shows last week. I did. I talked to Chase Young and Montez to what they advised me to go ahead and show.

show off. Yeah, I'm sure that's what the advice was. And it did the show. So, yeah, we did do shows. By the way, I talked about this in the open to the show. But how about, you know, Ron Rivera, I don't know if you caught this last week, but at the end of his very last presser last week after the Thursday mini-camp day, or maybe it was before they practiced, I forget.

He said, we'll be back here on Tuesday. We're going to have a practice on Tuesday. And everybody, you know, suggested that this was an Eric Bienomi. call. And I actually said Al to, I think, Ben on Friday or maybe it was Sam Fortier, I said that it's going to be interesting to see how many of the offensive players show up for this one-off day that, you know, typically would have been, you know, essentially canceled in years past. But Eric B. Enemy wants it. Let's see how many of the offensive players, you know, show up because their new boss wants them to show up. My feeling is they're not having it because

they got wind that a lot of players more likely than not were going to post for this voluntary day. What do you think? I think it's possible and I think it's interesting that the day was going to be open to the media. I wonder if it was not going to be open to the media if they wouldn't have minded so much that people had not shown up, but they didn't want this to become a thing of it's open to people. Everyone would have known who was and wasn't there. And then, you know, it becomes a mini-story. just think it's funny that, you know, there aren't that many of these off-season practices. I think people kind of lose sight of, like, how many of these OTA practices there are. The team is going to end up only having six OTA practices and three mini-camp practices

that's off-season. That's it. It's nine total off-season practices. And then you have, like, you know, workouts and meetings, et cetera. But it's like, I don't know, would it have been that big of an ask to have people come in for one more day of practice on Tuesday? like you're about to have six weeks off until training camp. I don't know.

I just find that kind of strange. And the other thing is, you know, if Ron does want people attending these OTA practices, what does it say that he essentially wipes one out when you only have seven to begin with because you got docked to last off season? Like, I think that's kind of strange, too. I mean, why should people make that big of a deal of it if you're that willing to cancel or limit one of the precious seven OTA practices that you have in an offseason? Yeah, I mean, I'm with you.

I mean, this is just not a big ask of, you know, people who are in kind of this small group that's a very, you know, team-driven environment. And you've got to be on the same page. I mean, I understand what the CBA and what the players bargained for. They bargained for these, you know, back in 2011 to be voluntary. But we had 87 out of the 90 players show up for the. that they did have. But anyway, I mean, I feel like, you know, we go on and on, all of us do on these OTA things. I've made myself pretty clear.

I just don't think it's that big of an ask. And, you know, when you are a supposed talent and at one point, you know, a perceived leader, you don't give people a reason to question your leadership. But that's another story. Although part of the Chase Young story specifically that I think is interesting, is just how the Albert Breer report last week, Aldi, and I don't know how much you did on this, Breer reporting what a lot of us had discussed, you know, prior to the draft, which was Washington was making Chase Young, you know, available for maybe a blowaway offer.

Like they were listening to offers for Chase Young, something Albert Breer confirmed. And then what we've seen basically for the last week since he reported that is every team that, needs a defensive end talking about how much they'd give up for Chase Young. And every, you know, as Seth Walder called it, June musing of NFL topics, you know, where will Chase Young land? I don't think he's getting traded now. What do you think? I don't expect it. I do, though, find it really interesting that this is out there. And I think that maybe even more significant than the possibility of him being traded. I mean, from a roster standpoint, to trade him now, you're trading them at his lowest value point. You'd be

getting back pennies on the dollar, and especially from Ron Rivera's perspective, going into a season in which he almost certainly has to win or he's going to get fired. I mean, what would it say about what he thinks about Chase personally and professionally for Ron going into this winter L season to trade him for, say, a fourth round pick that Ron may not even be around for? Like, What would that tell you about where Ron is at with Chase? But specific to these reports, so I think it's pretty clear. Albert Breer has become a go-to guy for Ron Rivera. Breer's had a lot of stuff on the team in recent years.

Ron has spoken to Breer on the record. I think it's pretty clear that Ron has spoken to Breer off the record. And so, you know, I don't know if this is an Adam Schaeft or Mike Shanahan thing, but I think more and more it's becoming like when Breer has something on the commanders, I often say to myself like, hmm, okay, this may well be coming from Ron. And so you wonder like, well, did Breer get this Chase Young Intel on his own from someone other than Ron? Did Ron give this to Breyer? Did Ron at least confirm this to Breyer?

So I find that aspect of this interesting. Yeah, I do too. And I think you're right about Albert Breer. He has absolutely been a go-to for Ron Rivera. and, you know, I don't think that I think the actions themselves, not picking up the fifth year option, tells you a lot about where they are on Chey Shung. I just think at this point, at least from my standpoint,

I'd like to see what Chase Young can do this year. He looked, I thought he looked healthy in those final three games last year. But his mini presser that he held last week, the one area in which you got any sort of lively response was him being enthusiastic about the confidence level in the knee. And we know that there was some tentativeness to it last year. I think they wanted him to come back earlier, maybe as early as the Atlanta game last year. And, you know, it got spread out over a few weeks later before he finally came out. But I'd like to see this talent, you know, go after it one more year. And I think, you know, if it came with him turning the maturity

corner, then maybe there could be a really good season. I mean, do you want to see it or do you care one way or the other? No, I care. I mean, I think it's borderline depressing what has happened with Chase Young. I mean, number two overall pick in 2020, here we are just a few years later. the thing that should have been a slam dunk yes when he got taken picking up his fifth year option that thing ends up not getting picked up this is now a third consecutive off season in which we're dancing this dance of him not being at some or all of the OTAs and why is that and what's up with him and Ron and you know all this other stuff and he hasn't had anything close to a really good season since that really good 2020 rookie season so it's like a bummer what has happened here with this

This has almost been an exact duplicate of RG3. When you think about each guy was the number two overall pick, each guy had a great rookie season. Each guy suffered a serious knee injury, either toward the end of the rookie season or early or I guess at some point in the second season. And each guy, in Robert's case, he ended up never doing anything beyond that rookie season. We'll see what happens with Jace, but the parallels are kind of eerie in that way. And of course, when Washington took Chase at two, the last thing that you wanted was RG3, part two.

And yet, at least so far, it's sort of tracking along those lines. So I would love for Chase, you know, change the narrative, alter the course of the story here, and, you know, have this be a pleasant ending. But I don't know. I think it's really hard to have a lot of optimism. I'm certainly hopeful that he does well. I think that he could. I'm with you.

I thought that he played pretty well over those three games last season. But, you know, even with that, right? Like, Ron constantly talked about Chase has to trust the knee. Ron this off season has talked about Chase has to trust me. Clearly, Ron doesn't think that Chase is trusting the knee as much as Chase has needed to trust me. There's a disconnect with Ron and Chase that has been apparent. And I just wonder if that's part of this thing, just never truly working out here. Like, it feels like a lot of this since that rookie season, since the Tampa Bay playoff game of his rookie season,

It's been an uphill climb. It's been hard. Nothing's been easy. Nothing's been simple. And, you know, I would love for it to get back to that place. But I don't know how likely it is that we get back to that place. Yeah, and I think some of the things that Jack Del Rio said last week, too, are an indication that, you know, it is up to Chey Chung. It is a put up or shut up year. I just hope he has that put up or shut up year here. Because whatever they get back, as you said, would be pennies on the dollar. And the truth is that if they really still aren't sure about him and his future here, if he plays well and more importantly, he plays healthy for the first.

six, seven games. They probably could land more at the trade deadline than they can now. Yes. You know, obviously where the team would be at that point from a standing standpoint might matter. Because again, if you're on and you're trying to keep your job, or are you going to trade away at Chase Young is having a good season? But yes, I think there is validity to what you said that you maybe could get more for him at that point. But again, like, look at how we're talking. You know, this guy wasn't supposed to be a trade chip in year four. he was supposed to be a centerpiece of the rebuild. And instead, he's become, you know, not an afterthought,

but he's become this person who, you know, we all kind of agonized over and, you know, what is it deal with him? And I just, I hate that it's gotten at this point. But hopefully somehow he can change the conversation. That is in play. I mean, I don't dismiss that possibility. No, I think I said the same thing. It was before the draft and we were talking about, you know,

the very likelihood that Washington would not, you know, would field off. and if somebody blew them away that they would, you know, consider trading him. And I just said, think about what we're talking about here. We're talking about the number two draft and the defensive rookie of the year in 2020. And I'll tell you what, Al, and you always do a great job of breaking down these seasons, you know, quantitatively. But I don't buy into Chase Young just had a couple of really good games at the end of the year and a bad year for defensive rookies. I think Chase Young, even when he wasn't getting home, I think he was an impact player for much of the season.

Now, some of the game-changing players in 2020 came late. But I remember when there was a column when Baz. I think it was Baz wrote a column midway through the season about what a busty was, and Tommy jumped all over it and said, see what Baz is saying. I'm like, you guys aren't watching these games. He's a factor in these games. And by the way, he's a rookie, and they're going, and they're not very good as a team overall. But I actually thought, you know, the entirety of the season, look, a lot of the headline-making plays came late,

but I thought he was a pretty good player from the jump. He was. And if you look at a lot of the advanced stats from that year, the pro football focus metrics, the win rate metrics, He had a really good season. I mean, but that season, in a lot of ways, at least locally, became almost like a case study and how you can't just go by sacks to judge an edge guy. And it's not like he had, you know, a microscopic number of sacks, but, you know, he didn't have like a double-digit sack season.

But, yeah, if you watch the games, if you look at some of the more, I think, telling an important stat, Chase Young had a very good rookie season. There's no debating that, like, that was the case. It's just what has happened since then. But I actually think like Montez's sweat season last season is a lot like Jay's this 2020 rookie season from a standpoint of Montez last season did not have a ton of sacks. But if you watch the games, he had a very good season.

If you look at his advanced numbers, he had a very good season. I think most people know this by now, but you can't just go by sacks. Now, sacks matter, and the great edge guys do get a lot of sacks. That's true. You know, the Miles Garrett, the T.J. Watts, et cetera. but if a guy only has eight sacks, that doesn't necessarily mean that he's worse than the guy who had 12 sacks.

There's a lot more to what an Ed guy does than just getting those sacks. Yeah, and thinking about that 2020 season as well, I think Chase's worst game was the playoff game. I think he was completely manhandled in the playoff game against Tampa. Now, they had, you know, good tackles in that game, and they had a Hall of Fame quarterback on the other side.

But that was a game in which he was, really did not deliver, you know, as he had down the stretch that particular year. All right, let's move to another topic. All right, just real quickly, give me your overall thoughts as to where we are on the ownership front. I mean, I think it's going to be done here in the next month, month and a half in terms of the vote, you know, and any sort of thoughts on that area of the, you know, of the off-season conversation. Yeah, so I'm happy that it sounds like the timeline has been expedited to where, you know, late June or into July we might get this vote as opposed to August.

I never understood this thing of like it has to be in August that the owners vote on this. We got the purchase and sale agreement announcement from the Snyders and Josh Harris in May. So why does it take three months for the owners to vote on this, even if there are some financial structure changes that need to be made. So, yeah, I mean, I think we all are in the same boat of the sooner, the better, but of course, it's the what that matters a lot more than the when. And so whether this thing gets finalized in June or July or, you know, even if it does happen in August, like the fact that it's happening,

it's still incredible. And I don't think we should lose sight of that. Like, this was a pie in the sky dream as recently as November 1st of last year. And then on November 2nd, when Forbes came out with that report, and then the statement came out that transactions were being explored and the Snyders had hired B of A, that changed everything. And it still is remarkable to me that we are at this point. So, you know, to me it's like we should be thanking the football gods on a daily basis that we've arrived here. But, you know, I think it's going to be so interesting whenever the sale gets finalized, like what those ensuing days look like. Like, is there going to be some big press conference at where?

it's, you know, Josh Harris and maybe Mitchell Rails take questions for like an hour and just talk about all kinds of things. Do they not do a presser? You know, is there maybe some kind of launch event? And when it comes to actual immediate change, I mean, knowing what we do know about Harris and Rails, you know, they seem to be very measured, thoughtful, analytical people. They're not going to just rush into things. It feels like really the stamp and the impact of the new ownership may will not be felt until next off season, that, you know, this year is going to be kind of a transition year, an evaluation year. It's already very late into the off season for anything from a football-op standpoint to happen,

although, you know, I guess you could see a front office change. I guess that is possible. But it feels to me like come January, February, March of next year, that's when some real impact stuff could happen. It doesn't feel like that's going to have. It doesn't feel to me like the sale is going to get finalized. And like the next day, you know, Jason Wright's going to be fired and all kinds of things are going to come out.

It feels more like it may take some time for the big things to go down. I hope you're right about the end of June. I'm not hearing that, but I hope that I feel the same way you do. I don't know why. This is not one of those sales where the ownership is kind of lucky to be a part of it. This is one of those sales where the new ownership is lucky to be a part of it. This is one of those sales where the existing ownership should feel lucky that job. Josh Harrison, his group, stepped up and paid Dan Snyder $6 billion when no one else was willing to do it.

I think they should expedite this thing and give these guys, you know, as much of a head start as they can possibly get on a number of issues. Now, with respect to, like, you know, some of those issues, I don't know what's going to happen either. And I would probably side with you that, you know, there may be a period of time of just sitting back and figuring it all out because they're not able to do that right now. what would you like to see them do first? Well, I think when it comes to what needs, so there are things that need to happen, and then there are things that, you know, like you sort of want to happen.

So just in thinking about like what I think would be the appropriate approach here, I think they need to get to work on this stadium thing. And so I think in terms of something that you could do right away, and, you know, if you go by the Magic Johnson meeting with Westmore, that already kind of happened, but really try to get it to where we can get something figured out with the stadium before the end of this calendar year. You know, like, at least that can be something that happens before the end of this season. I don't know, like, who needs to be fired and who needs to be hired in terms of business operations.

I think there's a lot of evaluating that's going to need to go on from there. I mean, I think everyone needs to prove him or herself. I think everything should be on the table in terms of change. But to sit here and say, well, I would like for them to come in and on. day one, fire Jason Wright. Like, I don't know if that's the way that things should go. I think that that's something they're going to have to figure out. But I think the stadium thing, that needs to be addressed.

FedEx Field is borderline untenable. Even if you make some upgrades to it, everyone is like counting down the day in which you have a new stadium and you're out of that dump, and you can really sort of launch this thing in a proper way with a new venue. And so I think it would be really good if that could get figured out before the end of this year. I don't know how likely that is, but it does feel like this three-way bidding war, which the team has for long wanted, but it's never really had, you know, D.C. versus Maryland versus Virginia.

It does feel like the Harris group may well get that, at least to some degree. And so if you can get that, then maybe that can lead to a process by which you have something in place by the end of this year for the stadium. And I think that would be a good starting point in terms of something concrete you could accomplish before the end of this calendar year. And then like I said, next off season, we can deal more with, like, who's hired, who's fired. You know, if anything's going to happen with the name, I don't think that any decision on that is going to be made right away. I think that's going to be something, again, you talk to people about and they get a better handle on, you know, what they can do, what they want to do.

But the stadium thing feels like something you can get to work on quickly. Yeah. I hope that they really do, you know, address the name issue in a very responsible way. And if it ends up being that, you know, it doesn't make sense, explain to us why it doesn't make sense. You know, I talked about in the open, this Ian Rappaport, Pat McAfee appearance, where he just slipped in at the end of an answer. They're not changing the name. I think it would be personally a mistake if they came out and said, yeah, we're not going to even look into it.

We're going to keep the name. You know, there's a couple of years we'd have to wait to change it anyway, or whatever it is. I think they should be very serious in their response to this. And if the answer is we can't change it for this reason, this reason, this reason, and that reason, explain it to everybody. But it's too big of an issue for the significant majority of fans, both current and past.

I mean, you know, the people that don't think it's a big issue or the significant minority, even though they're the loudest, especially on social media. But I would like to see, you know, the Josh Harris group take it seriously. And I'm fine with the answer being it doesn't make sense for us to move away from commanders if they give us the reasons why and the reasons make sense. What do you think? Yeah, well, I think the Harris group would be nuts.

not to explore the issue. I would be stunned if the Harris group didn't explore the issue. In fact, I would be stunned if Josh Harris, at least privately, doesn't already have an opinion on what he would like to do. But of course, there's what you would like to do, and then there is what you should do from a business standpoint. And then, you know, if you're part of the NFL, there is what you would be allowed to do. But yeah, I think it'd be crazy not to evaluate that. Everything should be looked at here. You know, this is like the ultimate blank canvas. So there's nothing. too minor, that there's no issue that is too much in the way of minutia to where you should say, ah, that's not that important.

Like, no, you should look at everything. I just, I think with the name, I think what is so tough, and I always come back to this, is that there isn't an ideal, perfect, obvious go-to new name. There never has been, you know. The only name that this team could go to to where you would get a, maybe not universal joy, but you would get a lot of people happy, would be going back. to Redskins, and that just doesn't seem like that's going to happen. And so if you can't do that, there isn't another name that you could say,

okay, that's the name. Like, there just isn't. There never will be. People are always going to have a problem with whatever you do. Even if, you know, you go back to Washington football team or some version of that, people are going to have a problem with that. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of doing that as a permanent name. So, you know, I think that's always going to be tough.

But without question, you should evaluate that. That's been a huge issue for years, the name. and I think it does matter to a lot of people. I think it should matter to a lot of people. And the other thing, two of the name that cracks me up is when people say, like, let's not focus on the name. Let's focus on winning football games. You can do both.

You can do both. This idea, if you're that limited that you can only focus on one thing at a time, then what are we doing with you as our owner anyway? Like, you can address the name and you can improve football operations. Those two things can happen at the same time. No, it's the intellectually limited way of trying to shut down. anybody that thinks that this is an important issue. But I do agree with one thing that you said.

Whatever, if they were to change it, you're never going to please everybody. It's just if you went back to Redskins, which will not happen. I can report that. But you're just never going to please everybody. And that was part of the problem going into it. I mean, it's the one thing that I would give to Jason Wright and to Will Middlebrooks and all the people that were involved in it is it was a near impossible task. It's just the problem is what they ended up with was so poorly done and poorly rolled out.

It just left a terrible taste in the mouths of many. But anyway, let's move on to football. So I want to ask you three questions as it relates to the upcoming 2023 Washington Commanders season. and I'll answer these questions as well, and if they develop into conversations, that works too. But the questions are, what are you most excited about? What are you most concerned about? And what are you most curious about?

So let's start with the first one. What are you most excited about when you think about next year? Well, you may laugh when I say this, but I'm actually most excited about Sam Howell. I liked him a lot when the team took him. I recognize that the likelihood of a fifth round pick becoming a really good NFL quarterback isn't exactly sky high. But I'm actually really anxious to see him play. We all know that nothing matters more than quarterback.

And I think him working out would be so good that it's hard not to get excited about the possibility of him working. out. Now, I have no idea if he's going to work out. I'm not sitting here saying that I have this great certainty that he's going to work out. But, you know, I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I've talked about this on my podcast, as unlikely as it is that a day three quarterback ends up being a very good quarterback. We did have that happen here within our recent history. We have that happen. Yes, with he who we are not allowed to talk about it. And, you know, that person was taken only one round before Sam was taken, right?

2012 fourth rounder versus the 22-fifth rounder. We've seen some fourth-rounders recently, you know, like Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins. Not many fifth or later since Brady, but go ahead. That's true. You know, but now I also would say, though, like Sam at one point was viewed as maybe being the number one overall pick in that draft. I mean, I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest. that he fell to a degree that was a little ridiculous in the 2022 draft.

I mean, to bring the ball the fifth round like that, like he could have gone in the fourth round. And look, he and Kirk, they're two different quarterbacks, two different styles. The two situations are different. Kirk didn't become the starter until 2015, which was his fourth NFL season. He had already played a decent amount. He had some bad experiences. He had some good experiences.

So there's a lot that's different with the two circumstances. But I just, I say to myself, well, you know what? That did work out in a way that I know surprised a lot of people. And I, and we know angered a lot of people. And so, you know, you just sort of say to yourself, especially as a fan, right? You think logically, you're like, well, if that worked out, is it that far fat that this guy could work out? So I'm excited to see what he does. Like, again, I'm not sitting here telling you it's the guarantee he's going to be great.

But we've tried so many different approaches at quarterback. all of them have fallen on their faces. I feel like, why not this? You know, this is one of those things that's like, maybe it's so crazy it does work. And so I'm excited to see what he does. Again, he may become a punchline. You know, Sam Howell, instead of being Kirk Cousins,

could end up being John Beck. Like, that's possible. I recognize that. But I am actually pumped to see what he looks like, see how he does. And if he does do well, I think it's going to be really exciting. I think Beck was a second rounder, by the way, if my memory serves me correctly.

I could be wrong about that. But, yeah, so I'll answer the question and we'll do this together. I'm most excited about the defense, just in general. I think that this is year four for many in Jack Del Rio's system. He's got a lot of really good players entering their prime. They drafted a couple of players with some ability. They were a top 10 defense. They were ninth last year per DVOA's football outsiders DVOA.

I think when you watch that defense at times last year, it looked like a top 10 defense. And there's a chance it could be even better this year. And I'm excited, really excited about potentially watching one of the better defensive football teams in the league and to see if it takes a jump. Look, it could take a massive jump if Chase Young turns into a dominant pass rusher. And Montez Sweat builds on what he had last year, which was a very good season, but gets home more often, along with Duran Payne and Jonathan Allen now, really into the prime years of their career.

I'm really excited. And I'll get to my next question here in a moment, which is what are we most concerned about? And the last one is what are we most curious about? But to me, I'm excited to watch what I think will be the best defensive football team this organization's had in a long time. Like we may have to go back to 91 to find a better defense. I think the 05 defense was excellent. I think last year's defense was excellent. But it has the potential on paper.

And by the way, I would say with coaching, because I think Jack Delfts, Rio has done a really good job as a defensive coordinator. I think, by the way, his defensive players really believe in him. But I think defensively, this has a chance if they take another step to really push kind of the top five defenses in the league. So what are you most concerned about as we look forward to 2023? So it kind of actually ties in to what you just talked about. The defense, I think, could be excellent. I'm totally with you on that. I don't know how anyone really couldn't be. Like, the defense was awesome last season. The defense was very good in 2020. Even in 2021, overall disappointing, but really a lot of that was about a really bad

start to the season. The second half of the season, the defense actually played pretty well, fell off a little bit, you know, especially that Sunday night or at Dallas, but, you know, you also had the COVID outbreak, et cetera. But the defense, I think there's very much reason to be bullish on that. I guess what concerns me is this, though. In the NFL of right now, I think it's really hard to do the thing that Ron Rivera has talked about doing at least the last two seasons, and that is win with defense, win with the running game, win with an offense that doesn't commit a lot of turnovers, win with the formula. That's become the new F word in this city, the formula, right? And I just, I wonder if that's still going to be how they try to do things, or at least how they

feel like they have to do things. Because I don't think that that's a realistic path to success. Now, yes, you can win that way. And we have seen the team the last few seasons during these modest stretches of winning win that way. But that's not the way really that you do win. And the problem with trying to win with defense, especially right now, is that defense like never before is at the mercy of offense. And I think one of the really interesting things about the NFL in recent years is how even the best defense, defenses get got. And the best defenses have bad games and give up big plays and give up big performances by players. We've seen this, I feel like. Look at Philadelphia last year multiple times.

Yes. I mean, I go back to two years ago now, the Patriots ended the regular season as maybe the best defense in the NFL and then got shredded by Buffalo in that playoff game in which, you know, the game time temperature was like, you know, minus 30 or whatever it was. But it was embarrassing what happen to that Patriots defense in that game. It's an illustration of you don't win with defense anymore, or at least it's really hard now to win with defense. And so, you know, with this defense this season for the commanders, it's like, yeah, it might be great. But being great defensively in 2023 is a lot different than being great defensively in 1993. So the defense could be great this season, but the defense is still going to give stuff up. Every defense does. And so trying to

win, you know, that 17-13 way. I just don't think that that's a realistic way for trying to win right now. And so I just worry about is this team going to be capable enough offensively or effective enough offensively to win games 28-24, 3128, that kind of a thing. And, you know, I told you I'm excited about Sam Howell I am, and hopefully he's quarterbacking an offense that is capable of winning that way. But again, there's no guarantee. And so I just, I wonder if, you know, we're in store for another season in which

When this team wins, it has to be with a point total in the teams. And I just, I think we're all kind of tired of seeing that. And like I said, I don't think that's a way to try to do football right now. I think it's antiquated. I don't think it works. I don't think it's sustainable. And you can have a great defense that you feel good about, but that defense is going to give stuff up regardless of how good it is.

And that, you know, I don't think that there's really any avoiding that at this point right now. Yeah, the only, in this day and age, the only way to truly put together a run of sustained success is with great quarterback, and hence great offensive play led by the way in your ability to throw the football unless you're San Francisco, which is always the outlier because they have a brilliant head coach and offensive minds. So my biggest concern is just the quarterback position. There's not a close second for me. I don't have any confidence that they have the quarterback position figured out entering 2023. I hope. I think they're hopeful and wishing that Sam Hal ends up being the right guy. And that's obviously the best case for everybody that if they end up getting really good quarterback play in 2020,

that it's Sam How delivering the good quarterback play. But it's my biggest area of concern. I mean, I think I know what Jacoby Burset is as a fan. I mean, I thought I knew what Gino Smith was. And who knows? Maybe Berset has a Gino Smith kind of, you know, later career run in store. But I don't think so. And I think that Sam Hal is more of a long shot that it turns out that he's really a bona fide NFL starter.

Again, I'm hopeful. I am hopeful. But I keep reminding myself of the fact that at the end of last year, they had to be talked into playing him in a preseason, you know, field game against the Cowboys. And that they, you know, for all that they've pitched here in the offseason, Al, about how, you know, my God, I mean, offensive players in practice, you know, we're talking about how the ball was right there. And defensive backs couldn't believe the ball was right there. And all this bull, you know, this use car sales, you know, pitching all off season. And yet, and talking about the mock drafters.

And yet they could have taken them in the middle of the. the fourth round and they traded back. I mean, if they were so sure this guy was a first or second round grade and they wanted him, they didn't even take him in the fourth round where they took Percy Butler, you know, and they traded back

instead with that second fourth round pick and picked him at the beginning of the fifth. So I am hopeful, but I'm concerned that you know, we could have another season in which quarterback play really drags down.

the potential of the team, because the potential of the team in a lot of the other spots is pretty high, including on defense. What are you most curious about when we get to 2023? What piques your curiosity when it comes to this team in 2023? I'd say the offensive line. I think it's really hard to gauge whether this team has done enough with the line this offseason. We all entered the offseason saying this line needed to be rebuilt

and it for the most part has. I mean, the team is projected to have four of the five players on the offensive line. Be new starters. You have a new offensive line coach with John Matt go out and this expected elevation of Trevelle Wharton, which is taken forever.

I'm not sure why that hasn't happened already. But, you know, Offensive line play is always so difficult to assess anyway. To sit here and say, well, they've made all the right changes. I don't know how you can know that, especially with how offensive line play, like each spot is dependent on another spot. But I very much feel this. I don't know.

I might be in the minority on this. But I think the offensive line ruined last season. As much as the quarterback play got talked about and certainly was a problem, I'm not here to tell you that the quarterback play was great. I think if the offensive line had been better, this team would have made the playoffs. I really do believe that. I think the collapse of the offensive line last season, wrecked last season. I think it helped to wreck Carson Wentz with this team.

It certainly didn't do Taylor Heineckee any favors, and especially when you look at how close the team got to the postseason, if the line had just been decent, I think this team would have been decent enough in another game or two offensively to where a loss would have been a win, maybe even a few losses would have been wins, and this team would have been in the playoffs. I think what happened with the line last season stunned this team. I think it stunned a lot of us because, you know,

Mattsko especially had shown himself to be where these online coaches who, you know, could turn water into wine and could take whoever he had and make that work. It didn't work last season, and the line was a real problem. And so, you know, a lot has happened with the line this off season. Has enough happened, have the right things happened. Hard to say, you know, obviously they're going for a more athletic approach, you know, taking someone like Sam Cosby and putting him at guard, and, you know, maybe they fix center,

although the new center, Nick Gates is the guy who suffered an Alex Smith-like leg injury a few years ago, so, you know, his health is something you do wonder about. So, you know, if you told me at the end of the year, the offensive line ended up being a lot better, I could say, okay, I could see that. But I also very much could see the line being a problem again. And if the line is a problem again, you know, it doesn't matter, Sam Howell, Jacoby Brissette, whatever. I think it's going to be a really tough season.

I think what we saw last season was, like exhibit A of how a bad O-line can really just wreck you offensively. And I think that the O-line played a large part in doing that. I mean, I know people hear Carson Went, and it's like he was awful and he wasn't good. But if you remember early last season, in the games in which the past protection wasn't so bad, he actually did all right. You know, you look at what happened against Jacksonville. You look at what happened in the second half against Detroit. Even in that Tennessee game up until the pick late in the game. He made some big plays in that game. But when the protection was bad, he completely fell apart because he's one of the worst quarterbacks out there

when it comes to handling bad protection. And some of the bad protection was scheme, too. It wasn't just the offensive line. I think we know that now. But the line was really bad last season, and I think it's imperative that it'd be a lot better this season. I think the Philadelphia game, I remember Kooley and I, Kooley coming on and breaking down all nine. Was it nine sacks? I think it was nine sex. And a lot of those really were on the offensive line. They were immediate held as Chicago game. They were immediate.

They were getting absolutely blown up. And, you know, those are always hard things to figure out, you know, how much of it is scheme, how much of it is, you know, your center, calling out, you know, calling out the wrong protections, how much of it is the quarterback. But I think there were some games where the poor guy never had a shot. And I'd say the same thing about Taylor. I think it was a problem all year long. All right.

We're going to finish up, and I'm going to give you my curiosity for 2023, because I think it can lead to maybe a more robust conversation. And then I want to ask you about Steven Strasbourg to finish up the show. We'll do that with Galdi right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right. We'll finish up with Galdi with this. So I'm most curious about Eric B. Enemy, Al. Like, I don't know what Eric Bianemy is going to be as an offensive coordinator. I don't know what Eric Bianemy is going to be as a coach without Andy Reed or Patrick Mahomes as his quarterback.

I don't know how anybody can, you know, feel super confident in what Eric B. enemy is. Like with Sam Hal, I am hopeful. Now, I feel more confident in Eric Bianney. because he's been around Andy Reed for all of these years. And there are a lot of people that really like Eric B. Enemy. But I also know that no one offered him a job outside of Washington. And that's an offensive coordinator job, let alone all of the head coaching jobs that he was turned down for.

So I am most curious about what Eric Bianmi is. Like, will he be a good play caller? Will this scheme be the right scheme for the talent they have? We know he's going to be involved in making a lot of the decisions, if not all of the decisions on offense. Will he make the right decisions as far as the quarterback goes? What kind of developer of talent is he? I think one of the things we learned about Eric B. Enamey in Kansas City,

he was a good play designer. That was the one thing that was kind of consistent across the board. He's really good at designing plays. But there's a lot more to being an offensive coordinator than just designing plays. That for me is the biggest curiosity. How is more of a concern for me, or the position is, BNAMI's the curiosity. Yeah, I think that's totally fair.

I mean, he's never been an offensive coordinator with play calling responsibility before, so you can't be certain of anything. but yeah, the play designing thing has been talked about a good bit and so I think you feel reasonable with him in that way. I like the fact that he is this, you know, super attention to detail,

demand accountability kind of coach. Now, I know that that act can wear thin, so I do wonder if maybe, you know, come November, December, guys get tired of the way that he is and tune him out. But I think at least right now, that's what this team needs. You know, this team has been bad offensively for years.

And so I think If nothing else, he can maybe get them in good shape that way. I would think him as a play caller may be a bit of a work in progress. But, you know, he's not some NFL newbie, right? Like, he's been around one of the best play callers ever in Andy Reed for a while. You'd think that the enemy has in his mind a way that he wants to do this. And so I'd like to think that the learning curve on that can be moved through pretty quickly. And that he, at the very least, can be part of an offense that's decent.

I mean, that's the thing. we don't need this to be the chief offense of these last five seasons. It would be lovely if that was the case, but nobody's anticipating that. This has been a like bottom fifth of the NFL offense for years now. If you can just be in the middle of the parents. Since that the quarterback whose name we can't mention was here. Yeah, I didn't want to say it again because I know people get very angry. But yeah, the last, well, put it like this.

The last five years, okay, 2018 through 2022, this has been a really bad offense. And it's interesting because those five years lined up precisely with the enemy's five years as chiefs offensive coordinator. And so one of the things I've done at my show, you know, you look at what the chiefs were doing for those five years and what our team has been doing for those five years. And, yeah, I mean, it's night and day, right? And, and of course, there's irony there, too, because who do we trade for in large of 2018, the quarterback who had been the chief quarterback, but that's another conversation. But yeah, so it's like you don't need excellence. Excellent would be great, but you just need confidence. And I'd like to think that the enemy at the very least can help to get this offense to a level of confidence.

Because if you get that and you have the great defense, this can be, say, a 10-win team. I mean, I really do believe that. Yeah. I mean, if the defense is as good as we think it can be, we know that they've got playmakers. The offensive line, you know, can be schemed around, but hopefully it's better across the board talent-wise and production-wise. just, you know, like it's been the case here now for five years. How good and competent can they be a quarterback? If they can be competent, they can contend for nine, ten wins.

And it's a tough division, at least it looks like a tough division right now. But that's where, you know, that's where it lies, quarterback. And we'll, you know, we'll find out. You know, the Eric B. Enemy conversation has been an interesting one. and Tommy and I have been having it, and I've been having it on my radio show as well. And I think this is a really interesting thing for him. Look, it may be, Al, that it's not a decision. It's obvious that Sam Hal is just the better quarterback, so let's play him.

And maybe he's the long-term guy, but right now he's the best. That would be great. He's the long-term guy, and by the way, he's also the best guy for right now. That would be the best way for that to happen. But what if it comes down to, boy, Jacoby Brousset is much further. ahead than Sam Hal. Everybody can see it. And we've actually got a chance to be much better offensively or much more competent

offensively than we've been with the combination of Eric and Jacoby Brissette. And we're not so sure about Sam Halie's more of a project. Then it's a big decision for Biennesty. Because he could make progress towards being a head coach by developing a young quarterback from maybe a rough start to a great finish where it looks like at the end of the season, he's the real deal. But he could also make progress towards being a head coach, taking a team that's been wretched offensively for five years, as you described,

and turning it into a top half of the league offense on a 10-win team because they're good elsewhere with Jacoby Berset. I don't know which one he wins bigger with, although I would, because Sam Hal may lead. to a 7 and 10 record, but be a guy that has some upside when we get to the end of the year, or has people talking about the development from the beginning of the year until the end of the year? Yeah, the competing interests for this season are, A, fascinating, but be potentially so problematic when you have Ron who's coaching for his job,

you have the enemy who's coaching for his first NFL head coaching job, And then you have within the best long-term interest of the organization. Like, within the best long-term interest of the organization is to find out what Sam Howell is. If he's good, great, if he's bad, then that's almost further reason to keep playing him because let him be bad. Let the team bite him out. Let's get a super high pick in the 2024 draft. And let's get ourselves to Caleb Williams or Drake May. Jacoby Brissette feels like, hey, Ron is angling to keep his job.

the enemy is angling to get ahead coaching job. Sam Howell struggling in September. Sam gets bench. Jacoby becomes the quarterback, and the team ends up having another one of these, you know, seven and ten type seasons. That's, you know, middle of the road, that's the road to nowhere. And so, you know, you think about, like, all of these competing interests and how everyone is sort of doing what makes the most sense to him and his future.

And, yeah, I mean, things could get messy. You could have something that works well in the short term, but actually does long-term harm, i.e. benching Sam for Jacoby, you know, maybe even having, say, a nine and eight season in which you make the playoffs and lose in the wild card round. But is that doing anyone any good if that happens, you know? So there is no doubt there's so much that could go into this season. This is always the case with our team going into every season. But I feel like especially this year with the ownership situation and with this unique dynamic of a head coach fighting for his job and OC fighting for a head coaching job, There could be a lot in the way of competing interests, I feel like. I want to finish up with this. Steven Strasbourg, who was reported last week, Jesse Doherty from the Post. He was shut down once again.

I didn't have any real hope that he was going to pitch again this year, but I think a lot of people felt like this is it. He's done. His career is over. So first question, do you agree that it's probably? probably over for Stephen Strasbourg. Yeah. I don't want to do the doc thing, but I mean, I thought it was over when he got the thoracic outlet surgery.

I thought that the Strasbourg, who we had known, was gone. I certainly hoped that he would pitch again. But I've seen TOS just ruin so many pitchers, and I had a feeling then that it was over. I felt last season, especially when he made that one start and then got hurt right away that it was over. And yeah, he's done. He's not pitching again. I think that's pretty clear. He signed that $240 million or whatever deal, you know, after they won the World Series. And he has pitched, I think I read last week, 36 and a third innings. That's it. Yeah.

Since then. I think that's it or something like that. It's not a lot of innings. since then. What's his legacy? I was reading after I read that story a week ago, a week and a half ago, that a lot of people

would view Stephen Strasbourg as a bust. I would not. How would you describe his legacy? No, he's definitely not a bust. I mean, I think his legacy starts with him being one of the best clutch performers in Washington, D.C. sports history. I think that's where it starts. I think he's on the short list of the best clutch performers in the history of this city. I mean, I think, you know,

it's John Riggins, it's Steven Strasbourg. It's a few other guys, but like that's about it. Like Strasbourg is in that conversation. He's one of the best postseason pitchers in the history of baseball. I don't know if people understand that. His numbers from a playoff perspective, all time are outstanding. So it starts there. Now, of course, it doesn't end there. He was oft injured. He does end up having what is arguably the worst contract in not just D.C. sports history, but in the history of sports, this seven-year, $245 million contract is a special kind of awful in terms of the dollars spent and the production gained. I mean, eight major league regular season starts for Strasbourg since signing that contract.

That's horrendous ROI, as a phrase goes. Okay, so that is part of the conversation. But he had a very good career. You know, if you look at his regular season stats, they're not overly impressive in terms of the total, but if you look at the rate stats like his ERA, his ERA plus, his strikeout rate, et cetera, they're really good. And those rate stats over the course of more longevity

would have landed him in Cooperstown. He's not going to be a Hall of Famer because of the lack of volume of production. But the rate at which he produced actually was pretty good. And like I said, the postseason accomplishment is awesome. So I think that is kind of what his legacy is. I mean, I don't think you cannot mention the entry or not mention the contract, but it starts with what he did in the playoffs. And not just in 2019, what he did in 2017, and that game at the Cubs, you know, the mold game. I mean, that was awesome what he did. How about in relief in the wild card game against the Brewers? Absolutely, absolutely. And so

You know, Strasbourg, it's been a weird deal with him with the Natch. You know, he has not been around the team. He has not spoken publicly in a really long time since he made his start last season. You know, there's a feeling that he's really down about this. I mean, the Doherty report was alarming from a standpoint of, like, serious nerve damage. You know, he has two young daughters. I mean, you know, you wonder about basic things like can he pick them up and play with them and things of that nature.

So I don't know where he's at from, you know, you know, you know, like a mental health standpoint. But I do know this. He has nothing to be ashamed of with his career. He left it all out there. Nobody blames him for the injury. I don't think anyone thinks that like he's laughing all the way to the bank with what's happened here.

I'm sure he's embarrassed by this. You know, it's rough to have a contract like this, and for you to not perform to any real degree upon signing that field. That's a pretty heavy weight to have to carry. But I do think the legacy starts with what he's done in the postseason. Yeah, I mean, a 1.46 ERA memorable, you know, performances, individual performances in our city's history was him in game six of the World Series against the Astros. You know, by the way, you reminded me, correct me if I'm wrong, but when he signed that seven-year deal, 240 million or whatever it was, didn't people at the time feel like he could have gotten a lot more? Well, that was with the initial extension that he signed.

So it's a little confusing. He was said to be a free agent in the 2016-2017 off-season. He, in May 2016, stunningly signed an extension with an ad, which was stunning, especially because Scott Boris is the agent. So he signed at that point a seven-year $175 million contract. And that's when I think a lot of people said, boy, he should have just waited to go free agency, could have gotten more. He signed that deal.

That deal includes an opt-out. The opt-out ends up being at the perfect time for him after the 2019 season. He's the World Series MVP, and it's not just that. You know, Strasbourg for the 2019 regular season led all National League pitchers in innings pitch. He demonstrated a durability in the 2019 regular season that we had not seen. And so the thinking was when that gave him the $70-year $245 million deal that he maybe it sort of found himself from a health standpoint, from a durability standpoint.

You know, as you know, like, there are some athletes who are injured early in their careers and then do become more durable as time goes on. But, of course, with pitchers, it's different. Pitchers, arms break. And you look back on that deal, seven for two 45, you give it to a guy in its 30s, you give it to a guy with the substantial injury that Strasbourg had. You know, it's a contract that should have never been given out. And it's a lesson that these baseball teams keep learning.

I mean, Jacob de Grom, five years, $185 million. This is his 835 season. We find out last week he needs Tommy John surgery. You know, that contract right now, absolute debacle for the Texas Rangers. So these teams refuse to learn these lessons, I guess. Let me ask you one more. I know that they have, I think, the second pick in the Major League draft. And apparently there is another all-time kind of prospect.

as a pitcher that the Nats may have the opportunity to draft. Yeah. So his name is Paul Skeen, and he's being talked about as the best pitching prospect since Strasbourg. It is a really interesting draft. The top two players in the draft in terms of like widespread belief are two LSU guys. This guy, Paul Skeen, the pitcher, and this guy, Dylan Cruz, an outfielder. and Cruz is being talked about the way that people talk about like Mike Trout and Skeens is being talked about the way that people talked about Strausper going in his draft.

Although, you know, Trout, it's interesting. Trout was not taking with a high pick. He was taken to the 20s, but that's a different conversation. But the point is this, the Nats at 2 are guaranteed to get a stud. There's a third player that's outfielder from Florida, White Lankford, who's very well regarded. But what's going to be so interesting is this. So the Pirates have the number one overall pick. Most people think that they're going to take crews,

but there's some conversation that the pirates might actually not take cruise or skein because of the slotting system with the drafting and take someone who actually might cost less. And so it's possible than that's at two have their choice of cruise and schemes. So what would you do? So I would take cruise because I think position players, there's more certainty with them than there is with pitchers. But that would be a fascinating. conversation of like, do you take the position player who projects to be a stud, or do you take

the starting pitcher who projects to be a stud? The Nats in their farm system right now, their top three prospects are all outfielders, but to me you should ignore that when it comes to the draft. You should never draft based on what you already have in your farm system because needs can change, and you could always move guys around to different positions. But, you know, this Nats rebuild is on a nice path here because things are better than they were a year ago by far. in terms of the farm system. And they're about to add to the mix, a guy who, at least on paper,

projects to be really good. Like, this guy, Skeens, he could be pitching for them in the majors next year. If you remember with Strasbourg, he got drafted in June of 09, made his debut June 2010. This guy, Skeens, could be pitching for the NAC next season.

And at LSU, it's in the NCAA baseball tournament. Deans in these games is throwing these gems. He had another one the other day. he's throwing a hundred plus miles per hour. Like the guy is a freak of nature. He's a big kid, right? Yeah.

Like Strasbourg size in terms of height. Yes, and you don't have to be a baseball wonk to know like LSU is an elite-level college baseball program. The SEC is great and everything. We know that. But the SEC baseball now is really good. Games has been dominant in the SEC. and that the Nats could be getting him is so exciting, and you just hope like heck that the arm holds up.

And, you know, as we saw at Trosburgh, I mean, you can undergo Tommy John and still end up being just fine. But it's just what this would mean to this Natch rebuild, for this guy's schemes to be great and to be great, say, by next season, would be tremendous. Thank you, as always, for doing this. Great to catch up. I'm glad you're feeling better.

at Al-Galdi on Twitter, the Al-Galdi podcast, wherever you get a podcast. I will talk to you soon. Okay. Thank you a lot for having me. I appreciate it. All right. Done for the day.

Back tomorrow with Tommy.