The Kevin Sheehan Show - Three Reasons The Trent Saga Is Important

Episode Date: August 14, 2019

Kevin opened with some Nats-Reds, Terps Football, and then got to the reasons the Trent Williams saga is so important to the Redskins. Then it was a follow up to his conversation with Albert Breer/MMQB on TheTeam980 this morning which revealed that Williams may be upset about more than just one medical/training issue. Kevin closed with a request of Jay Gruden for tomorrow night's game against Cincinnati. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, I am here. Aaron is here. This show's presented today by Stamps.com. It's going to be quick today. We bailed on yesterday at the last minute because Tommy wasn't feeling well. And I just said, you know what? We'll wait for him to come in on Thursday. I'll do something tomorrow. So we bailed. And I told you guys, and I appreciate the feedback, by the way, some of you saying, I'm can't. canceling my subscription. Well, there's nothing to cancel. We want you to subscribe, but you're not paying for it, so don't worry about it on that front. But thank you for caring so much. But we did mention, and I'm going to mention again, between now and Labor Day weekend, we are going to take a couple of days off of the podcast, even though I am doing the three-hour radio show

every morning on 980 again, if you didn't know that. Tune in for that, too. In fact, I'm going to playback part of an interview that I had this morning with Albert Breer on the radio show. A couple of things to get started with. First of all, the Nats won again. Huge win for them. They've now won three in a row after those real painful losses against the Mets on Friday night and Saturday night. And how about Joe Ross now? Joe Ross just set the season record for the most consecutive innings pitched without giving up a run.

17 in the third innings before he finally gave up a run yesterday. It only gave up one last night in a game in which he went into the seventh inning. It really is amazing. We were talking about possibly you need to trade for a starter a few weeks ago. And if they make the playoffs, it's going to be a big contribution is from Joe Ross and Eric Fetty. I know. And think about this. Like even if Scherzer is back, right?

Well, no, you've got your four starters. with Scherzer back. But if Scherzer's not back or if somebody isn't ready to go in the postseason in a best of seven series, you could easily. Well, look, you could see Scher pitch a wildcard game and then you get two a day off and then three. That's the way the best of five first round goes, I believe, is that you get two. No, two and then the final game at home. Right. So more likely than not you wouldn't ever get to your fifth starter in that particular situation, nor would you really in a best of seven either. But if Scherzer's not there, they would have a decision potentially in a best of seven

between Ross and Fetty against the Dodgers if they got there. It's amazing to see Joe Ross, the big thing for it and something that you kind of have to look at the real closely at the advanced numbers. Like his velocity is way up, especially on that two-seem fastball. Do you remember, I said this to Zuckerman on the podcast, Joe Ross started a game a few weeks ago, and it didn't turn out well results-wise. And I'm going to go back and find exactly the game that I'm talking about. It was the game that he pitched against the Braves. All right? It was a game that he pitched against the Braves on the road. And he gave up, ended up

giving up two runs in the first, but then battled through and got into the sixth inning in that game. And I remember saying to Mark Zuckerman, I'm like, you know what? I thought he pitched well. I mean, you know, from a casual observer standpoint, I wasn't really into that game. I had not seen Ross pitch a ton in previous games. He had a terrible outing in his last game before the one I'm talking about. But Zuckerman said, yeah, he talked to Davy Martinez, and Martinez was actually very encouraged with Ross's start there.

Then he came back and got shelled against the Dodgers. And then since then, three incredible starts, three wins in the first. three starts against Arizona, the Giants in Cincinnati, he's given up a total of nine hits and one earned run. That's it. Right now in the month of August, he's got a 0.50 ERA. That's his ERA, and he's literally lowered his ERA from 9.85 to start the month to 5.91 in three starts. There's something about him, and I mentioned this to you. I think he looks very calm and confident. I know he doesn't always get the results, but I like Joe Ross, and I'm happy that he's doing this, because I think he's much better as a starter than coming out of the bullpen.

At least that's the way it's appeared to me in recent years. So they can finish off the sweep this afternoon against Cincinnati, which would be really good. The Atlanta won against the Mets, huge series there, so the Nats are still six-back, but they're game clear now of St. Louis for the first wild card. And they're not. nine games above 500, which correct me if I'm wrong, I think this is the best they've been. I think they were nine games above 500 a few weeks ago, and now they're back to that with a chance to get 10 games above 500. I said this morning on the radio show, we're now in the midst of a good season. They're now having a good season. They're nine games above 500,

119 into this right now, right? So 23 games left, not 23, 43 games left in this season. and they've got a chance to turn this into a really good season. You know, it would be exciting to be in that one-game wild card. They haven't played that. Be more exciting if they came back and won the division, you know, and had a first-round series with the Cubs or the Cardinals instead of having to go to L.A. And play the Dodgers in a first-round series if they were to win the wild card.

You bring up that one-game wild card. And, you know, we've obviously in this town been through game fives, game seven. in other sports. And we know kind of that nauseating feel. I can't even imagine what a one-game playoff with the best starters on each teams on the mound would be like. Be so dramatic. How about this is a possibility, unless you're going to tell me that they've changed this and that there's some sort of tie-breaking procedures.

But it's possible with this backlog in this race right now that you could end up having teams, three or four teams tied for the wild card and end up with a, playing to the wild card playing. I mean, you could have that on like a Monday and a Tuesday. How about this? You have a tie for the NLEs, end up in a tie for the NLEs, and then you have that, and then you play the wild card. Right, and then you play the wild card.

Or at that point, then you're tied for the wild card, and you're playing somebody to get into the wild card. I'm assuming that at some point you could have one of those crazy two or three-day sets to figure out the final eight teams. We had that, I feel like a few years ago with the AL, yeah. But I'm wondering, did they, I mean, look this up. Did they actually build in some tie-breaking rules? I don't think so overall.

I don't think they did. You know, because before they had it where they could decide the division based on tie-breaker because you could just go to the wild card, but now that the division versus wild card actually means something, you got to play it out. Yeah, here, I actually am interested in this. So let's two-way tie for the division or wild card. one-game tie-breakers are played between teams tied for a division championship or a league's second wild-card birth.

These games are to be played the day after the season is scheduled to end. Home field advantage is determined using the rules listed below, which would be some sort of head-to-head winning percentage. And then there's a bunch of tiebreakers after that. from the implementation of the wild card in 1994 through the end of the 2011 season, a different rule was in place. Two teams tied for a division did not play a tiebreaker if their records were better than all non-division winners in their league. Basically, if both teams made the play off anyway. Exactly.

But starting in 2012, it was, yeah, it's all, you have to play elimination games. Right. That'd be fun. What about the second wild card? What if there's a tie for that? I mean, if there's multiple ways, yeah, it's just you got to play elimination games. League second wild card birth. That's what it's for. Exactly. Okay. So we could have a lot of drama. By the way, both leagues this year. Look at the

standings in both of these leagues. In the American League right now, you know, you've got two essentially runaway winners in the Yankees and the Astros. But then, you know, you've got a division race between Minnesota and Cleveland that's virtually tied at this point. And then your wild cards, you've got Tampa, you know, Cleveland, Oakland, and still, I guess theoretically, you still have, well, you've got the Minnesota Cleveland division loser, then you've got Oakland, then you've got Tampa, and I guess you still have Boston, but they've really fallen back here recently. And then in the National League, you've got the Braves, Nats, Phillies, and Mets,

all in contention for, you know, the Nats, Phillies, and Mets for a wild card. In the Central, whoever doesn't win it, there are going to be two teams in the race for the wild card. And then right now, the Diamondbacks are in a little bit of a role. they're two games above 500. They're still in the hunt. So it'll be exciting. I actually have watched a lot of the Nats here recently,

and I'm flipping around on the MLB network to see some games, especially the Mets recently. It's been fun to watch them. But some exciting things down the stretch here for the home team, and hopefully the crowds will show up. Only 22,000, I think, the other night for that first game against Cincinnati. I don't know what it was last night. Do you know what the...

I don't know what the crowd is off the top of my head. Attendance was last night. because it was only 22 for the game back. And then last night, do they have it at the bottom of the box score here online? $30,000 last night. $30,000, $1.30. Not bad last night for the Reds. An afternoon start today to finish up the series,

and then they get the Brewers, I think, after that. At home, the brewers were hot, now they're not. But anyway, baseball really heating up here. Okay. A couple of things. Number one is this. I'm thrilled that Maryland's bringing back their scripted Terps helmets from the 80s. I actually texted back and forth with Loxley yesterday.

I told him, this is unbelievably said, Kevin, we've got to get back to our roots. And I said, that's what you're doing. This is exciting to a lot of people my age. That's when I was at Maryland, was during the Bobby Ross years from 82 to 87, 86, actually. His first four years at Maryland, he was 34 and 14 with three ACC championships. The uniforms changed with Bobby Ross. He was the one that brought in the uniform change in 1982. Boomer Ossison was the quarterback.

It was red and white bottoms at home. It was white and white on the road. Most of the time, although they did do white and red pants on the road occasionally. And they had the script terps red helmets. It was red helmets with script terps and white, and they're going to bring back that uniform for homecoming this year. Did you see what the homecoming game is? Yeah, I got a little problem with this.

Yeah, I do too. But so what? The homecoming game is November 2nd against Michigan. That's not a homecoming game that they'll be favored to win, more likely than not. Two weeks prior, they have a home game against Indiana. Indiana, I know. That's middle of October when homecoming is supposed to be. Yeah.

I don't get this. I don't either. It doesn't make any sense to me why homecoming would be against Michigan. And to your point, you know, well, sometimes it's in November. But anyway, I am really excited about Mike Loxley. And the reason I'm excited about him, more so than Durkin or more so than Edsel, is that he knows what Maryland football can be. And I'm not saying that Edsel and Durkin didn't have some sense of the history of the program.

But if you go back, Maryland in the last 40 years has essentially had two winning periods, And that's it. It was Bobby Ross in the 80s and then Ralph Friesian in the early 2000s. Ralph was there for 10 years, went to seven bowl games, one five of them, had an incredible start from 2001 through 2004, where he won, actually in his first three years. I think he won 33 games, something like that in his first three years. They averaged over 10 wins a year. And you're talking about in Freedin, a guy that really understood what Maryland football could be. Loxley was on Friesen staff. Loxley grew up going to Bird Stadium and watching the Bobby Ross teams.

He was a teenager during those years, went to the games, grew up in D.C., was a big Maryland football fan, and I love the fact that he remembers all those players, Boomer Assison, Frank Reich, Stan Gelbaugh, Maryland was quarterback you in the 80s. They had great running backs, you know, Alvin Blount, Willie Joyner, Neil, Badannick. They had receivers, Greg Hill. They had big-time defensive players like Keita Covington and Chuck Fawcett. And I'm missing a lot of them. But it was a great era.

It was the ACC and there was no Florida State in the ACC when Bobby Ross was making his run. But Maryland football was, you know, Ross had a couple of top 10 teams. The 1985 team came back as the preseason number one team in the country in Sport Magazine. Now, I think in the AP and the UPI at the time, I think they were ranked sixth and seventh, respectively. They opened up with Penn State and lost at home in a game in which they fumbled like three times in the second half. But there were memorable games, obviously the game in the Orange Bowl and the 31-0-0 comeback against Miami. Bernie Cozhar was quarterbacking that team. You know, for 20-some years, it was the largest comeback in college football history with Frank Reich leading it.

I just have a lot of memories, and I have a lot of every, you know, every so often I get excited about the prospect that Maryland football could get back to where it was in the 80s with Ross and in the early 2000s with Ralph. That's what I think its potential is. It's in the Big Ten now. I don't know if their potential potential is greater or less than what it used to be, but it used to be that you could win nine, ten games and play a New Year's Day bowl, you know? and be a consistent, you know, eight-win or more program and be in bowl games. Could you compete for a national championship under Bobby Ross and Ralph Regian? Well, Ross did it at Georgia Tech after he left Maryland. You know, he had Maryland in the top 10 a couple of times as a really good football team, but they were probably a step below, if not two, from national championship caliber. But still, it was a, you know, football, which always took a back seat to basketball.

Basketball will always be number one at Maryland, but football there for a period of time, you know, was a borderline top 25 football program in the country. So it has the potential for that. Look at the recruiting area. Loxley's tapping into that, all of his relationships. He's beloved in this community by parents and football coaches and people in the football community, especially. I'm excited to watch Maryland football and watch Mike Loxley build it. We're going to get him on the radio show. we'll probably get them on the podcast once or twice during the course of the season as well.

But good for them to go back to a uniform look that really reminds some of us of what Maryland football can be. I mean, I know Kevin Plank put together all those uniform combos. I can't stand all that stuff. Can't stand the flag helmet. I don't like all of the different uniform combos. Give me red and white or white on the road. And that script Terps helmet, which always, stood out too. It was a cool looking helmet. Do you think it is now? You're much younger, obviously.

I like, no, I do love the Terps helmet, and they still had the Terps helmet. I feel like as late as when I was there. Yeah, Ralph had it. Yeah, Ralph had it. So I always like the Terps helmet. I do love the flag helmet, though. I really do love. The uniforms I can do without, but the flag helmet I love. Yeah. All right. Anyway, all right, I want to get to a conversation about Trent Williams. since yesterday, or since Monday, especially for podcast purposes, because we didn't have a podcast yesterday. There have been a number of reports. Adam Schaefter reported that the Redskins have been contacted by multiple teams, but the Redskins aren't budging. I had Adam Schaefter on the radio show yesterday. He said, look, as of now, they're not going to trade him.

J.P. Finley came out yesterday, said multiple teams have expressed interest. One of those teams is the Patriots. Others include at least two other AFC teams. Jason Lock and Forre tweeted out from CBS Sports yesterday that it's only a matter of time before Trump Williams gets traded. And then this morning, the ESPN.com reporter that covers the dolphins reported that the dolphins have reached out about Trent Williams. There was one other report that I said that could tie into this.

John McLean, who covers the Houston Texans, was saying that the Texans are going to be looking for a left tackle and they're possibly shopping around Judeavian clown as part of the return. So let me, yes, two things real quickly. get to the crux of what I had planned to talk about today. Number one, Schaefter believes that the Redskins could get a first plus. And he used a couple of comps. The Gary Zimmerman trade back in 1994 from Minnesota to Denver brought a first, second, and sixth. Jason Peters was a first, second, and fifth or sixth also, I believe, in 2009. Dwayne Brown basically brought back a

second and third for Houston. Seattle got a Brown and a fifth rounder. So you're talking about recent deals. And my good friend Al Galdi pointed out that it's hard to use a lot of these past deals because it's always about circumstance and always about context. And he's right to a certain degree, although it's not always about that. I've had enough conversations with people like Charlie Cassarly and Bobby Bethard over the years to know that when they start thinking trade, they're looking for a comparable trade to gauge value. They're looking for an analogous trade. So in this particular situation, whether it's the team approaching the Redskins or the Redskins talking about it, you know, inside the building at Ashburn, they're looking at deals like the Jason Peters deal or

the Dwayne Brown deal. The circumstance and the context is different. And trust me, the Redskins have leveraged because multiple teams are interested and somebody may get desperate here as we approach the season. That's part of the context and circumstance as well. I personally have said all along, I think they can get a first. I think they might be able to get a first plus. I don't think they'll get any less than a second, third, and a conditional. And I would be looking to trade him. Now, you mentioned Jadavian Clowny. You threw him into the conversation. I do not think the Redskins want Jadabian Clowny. I also think that Houston might require more than just Trent Williams for Clowny. Clowny is younger and he is clearly a top five havoc-reaking defensive player in this league.

He's also a bit of a problem. He also wants a new contract. He's also only got a year left in his deal. Trent's got two. It may be a straight-up player trade if they talked about it. Personally, if I were Houston, I'd want a tad more than just Trent Williams at 31 years old. But I don't think the Redskins are going to make that trade for this reason. The Redskins are not a team that piles up on areas of strength like the Giants did with pass rushers and defensive linemen there, you know, in, you know, basically from 2007 through 2012. And they believe the strength of their football team is John Allen, Duran Payne, Ryan Carrigan, Ryan Anderson, and hopefully Montez Sweat. So I don't see them adding a player that they're going to have to pay big money to next year versus getting,

you know, a first and a fourth back from someone else or Houston. So I think the clowny thing won't happen. That's my, I don't know anything. That's my gut feel on that. I do think if the Redskins play this right, they can absolutely use what I believe to be, you know, legitimate leverage. You know, some of you have tweeted me saying they don't have any leverage.

This guy's 31 years old. He's been suspended in the past and he doesn't want to play for them. You guys are wrong. Once you get multiple teams that are looking for a player of his caliber at a position that is very difficult in the league to fill with a player of his caliber, you've got leverage. You know, they don't have to do anything, number one. Number two is that, again, he's really good at a position that is very hard to fill.

And three, you got many teams, many teams that are going to be interested in a player like Trent Williams. The Redskins are going to have a lot of leverage, especially if a team loses a key player here over the next month or two, and they get desperate. I really believe that. Anyway, so I had Albert Breer on the show today, and before I get to that, I was going to respond real quickly. I did this on radio. For those that have heard it, I'll go quickly for those who haven't. You'll get the gist of why I want to lead into this Albert Breer conversation, and why I want to continue with the Trent Williams conversation. I got a tweet from Stephen. He said, enough about Trent Williams, Kevin. I want to hear about the guys that are going to play for this team,

not the ones who don't. And my answer to Stephen is this. You should care about the Trent Williams situation. It's very important to this franchise right now and to the future of this franchise. It's not more important than the development of Dwayne Haskins. It's not more important than if this year, hopefully, is the last year of the Bruce Allen era, but pretty much more important than anything else right now. First of all, his holdout so far, is another reason for many, including players and coaches around the league, and perhaps even players in their own locker room, to think that this franchise continues to be dysfunctional,

dumb, dishonest, stupid, stubborn. You know, these are the things that are going through the minds of the rest of the league as they watch this Trent William's situation from afar, and it may be going through the minds of players in that locker room. Whether it's true in this instance or not, perception is reaction. And the perception is that the Redskins have fucked this up just like they fuck everything else up. That's the perception right now. Personally, I really would love to get to the truth on this one.

But I don't really know what it is. I actually believe in my gut that while the organization is totally stuck on stupid and dysfunctional, my gut is that this situation has a ton of nuance to it, a ton of it. And that more likely than not, this could be as much on Williams as it is on the Redskins, if not more, if not more. Now, it doesn't change the fact that most think that this is a Redskins, you know, gone wrong situation again. It's the Redskins being the Redskins again. And that continuing narrative is hurtful to the organization. It hurts their chances to attract a future high-quality general manager.

It hurts their chances to attract a future high-quality coach. I think it has been hurting their ability to attract really good players through free agency. We went through this before. Landon Collins is here for one reason more than any other, and that is he wanted to be Sean Taylor. It was his dream to be Sean Taylor in Washington. The discussion of Trent Williams shouldn't end also and doesn't need to end, and it should continue, because it's a very important.

because it's important to look at this team without him, especially with a rookie quarterback that needs him. Adrian Peterson said, you know, he's uncomfortable, that he's not as calm, that all the quarterbacks, they need a left tackle. We saw what happened to Geron Christian last week. It was just a preseason game. They're going to chip.

They're going to bring a tight end over. They're going to help against a really good pass rusher on that left side. You know, if they've got Donald Penn out there and he can't handle it. But my God, the team's impact. acted by his absence. And then lastly, this is an interesting situation to continue to talk about, because it's going to be another evaluation point for Bruce Allen. How does this thing get resolved? Does it get resolved with a trade? And if it does, did they get a good deal? Did they settle for too little? Did they screw it up? Did they comb rosters for players instead of acquire picks?

the team needs to handle this right. The team needs to get this right. It would certainly appear at this point as if Trent Williams ain't ever playing for the Redskins anymore. And if he's not, they should be trying to trade him. They can totally take the public stance that they aren't going to trade him, and that's the right public stance to take.

You don't want to look desperate. You know, you want to be patient on this thing. This may go right into the regular season, but they need to handle this one right because if they don't handle the trade part right, or this doesn't get resolved in a way in which people view the team favorably. Like, hey, you know what, they made out pretty well? They got a first and a fourth versus what?

They only got a third and a conditional seventh. Or they got a third and a player we've never heard of? You know, this is very interesting to watch play out. From my standpoint, it is. I asked the following question on the phone lines today on the radio show. Would you prefer that they trade him and get a first right now? Or would you prefer that somehow this miraculously works out? They forgive, forget.

It's kumbaya between Trent Williams and the organization, and he's back suited up for Philadelphia. I want the first round pick. That's what I want. I want to build for the future. future. Trent Williams misses games. Trent Williams, you know, has been suspended twice. The Redskins have been loyal to him in the past when he wasn't necessarily reliable with the back-to-back suspensions. I personally want to move on from Trent Williams. And I like Trent. And I think

he's an outstanding player. But I think the team's done a lot. I think the team's been loyal to him. But this situation has gotten out of control and I'm ready to move forward. I was ready to move forward before this at the end of last season. Now, as it relates to what's going on here, I had Albert Breer from Monday morning quarterback on the radio show this morning. And I thought he said something that was really interesting. It caught my ear. Because he mentioned another injury here. I asked him basically, what do you know about the Trent Williams situation? How does this get resolved? Listen to this exchange between Albert Breer and myself. because you said that Trent may still be exploring his legal options.

You know, the situation ultimately turned out to be benign. How, I'm just curious. I don't think it's just that, though. Well, was there, was there negligence? I would just tell you that I don't think it's just the cancer scare. There's some more stuff there. And I, you know, look, I mean, I think that there's that piece of it, Like, you know, it's just, you know, I hesitate to kill the Redskins over this because there's natural distrust.

Right. Between medical staff and players all over the league, right? Like, that's a common thing. Players, like, a lot of times don't think the team's medical staffs have their best interest in mind. That, you know, there's, you know, obvious reason for guys to be pushed out there, push through things, you know, that may not be good for their long-term well-being. And so that exists all over the NFL. But I don't think it was just the cancer scare. I think there was, if it was just one event, I don't think we'd be here.

I just think it's sort of a string of different things that have kind of come together to put everybody in this situation. And it'll be interesting to see where it goes next. Boy, I'd like to follow up on some of that stuff. But we got to run. We got a break right now that we've got to get to. But that is interesting because if it's beyond just the cancer scare, what was the other event? You know, when you say exploring legal options, that almost implies negligence.

He had a shoulder, I think it was. Yeah. So, I mean, again, like, these things are pretty common, but a lot of times there can be one thing and then the next thing and then the next thing. And before you know it, you're adding one to the next to the next. And, you know, a player in the player's mind a lot of times, it could be, well, you know, this was the sort of straw that broke the camel's back,

but there was also this and this and this and this. I think this is one of those. All right. That was really interesting to me because he brought up something that I don't think that most of you considered. I didn't anyway. Maybe you did. And that is that it's more than just the cancer scare, the benign tumor. Because the conversation started off with him saying that, you know, he believes,

that Trent Williams and his people are still considering legal action, which to me means they think the Redskins were somehow negligent with some sort of medical issue, which led me to, you know, the whole cancer scare, the growth on his scalp and it turned out to be benign. And I asked him, you know, ultimately it was a benign tumor. Like why would they be considering legal options? And that's what he got into a lot of this other stuff. And he mentioned the shoulder. And look, Trent Williams has had a hell of a lot, a hell of a lot of injuries, right? over the years, a lot of injuries over the years. And so I just Googled Shoulder and Trent Williams because I was trying to pinpoint when

this was. I mean, Trent Williams remember also had a bottle broken over his head in Honolulu during that trip to the Pro Bowl, you know, four or five, six years ago, whenever that was. But the first thing that popped up was interesting, and I think this is what Albert Breer was referring to. On Thanksgiving Day last year, the Redskins played the Cowboys, if you recall, it was the first game after Alex Smith got hurt in the Houston game. They were six and four. It was a huge Thanksgiving Day game. Redskins lost the game 3123. And Trent Williams was back in the lineup

after missing the previous three games following thumb surgery. Now, that isn't the shoulder. I'll get to the shoulder in a moment. First of all, let me just mention, like, I can't remember that much from last year. Last year was an utterly forgettable season after Alex Smith's horrific injury and the six and three start. It's like the rest of it, that final month and a half was painful and forgettable. But anyway, I went back and I read the story from the Post written by Kareem Copeland on the day after the game, a day after Thanksgiving game. Trent Williams made his return Thursday after missing the last three games following thumb surgery,

but he left AT&T Stadium in an ambulance. Now, when I read that, I'm like, I sort of remember this, but why? So I read the rest of it. The six-time Pro Bowler left the 31-23 loss of the Cowboys for one play, and then returned the following series after he fell to the ground awkwardly and happened to brace his fall with the injured hand, which was in a cast. He played the rest of the game. Coach Jay Gruden didn't mention Williams is injured during his post-game press conference.

That could have pissed Williams off. And a team spokesman later said he left in the ambulance. for precautionary reasons. The team said he got hit in the chest on the play that he got shaken up. And then there was also the mention of a shoulder, of a bruised shoulder later on in the story, as it relates to Trent Williams. So he's coming off three games following thumb surgery. He leaves AT&T Stadium in an ambulance.

He's got a sore shoulder. he fell to the ground awkwardly, braced his fall with his injured hand, had a chest, got hit in the chest, had a bruised shoulder in the game, and Williams doesn't even mention, I mean, Gruden doesn't even mention him during his post-game press conference is injured.

This may be another piece to all of this. I don't know if it's the major piece to it or not. And it could be another shoulder injury from another period of time. That was the first thing that popped up, that the shoulder from the cowboy game. Now, he's had, he had a minor procedure on his right knee early in the season last year. Last year in September, he went, he underwent a minor procedure on his knee right after the New Orleans game, which was the by week, I think. And it was reported that it was a minor surgery, nothing to be overly concerned about.

But this guy's had a lot of injuries, and maybe ultimately he doesn't like the way a lot of them, because it sounded like Albert Breer was building up and said it was, he said, quote, it was a string of events. And he said that the cancer, if it was a one-off event, that we wouldn't be here right now. So it sounds like Trent Williams had a bunch of issues that he, for whatever reason, doesn't trust the team's medical, training staff, combination of both in the way these things were handled. But anyway, I thought it was interesting that Breer mentioned that if it were just the cancer, we wouldn't be here and that there were other things, including a shoulder.

And then you go back and you read about the cowboy game and you can find all the other injuries from last year, man, he's been injured a lot. And then, of course, my good friend Doc Walker, who cracks me up this time of year, because all he wants to talk about is, you know, the last four spots on the roster and who's battling for those last four spots and ends up spending, you know, 30 minutes a day on players that don't even make the roster. I love them, though, and I'm saying that with tongue placed firmly in cheek because he is my favorite. But he said today, he said, I'm listening to Sheehan this morning talk about Trent Williams in all of his injuries. He's totally devaluing Trent for any team listening. And I'm like, wow, that's a compliment that other

NFL teams might be interested. But I guarantee you that somebody, if they were listening at the park this morning, is like, God damn it, will they tell Chan to stop talking about how injured he's been? We're trying to get a first for this guy. But anyway, I don't know. I don't know any of the reasons. I don't know how it's going to play out. The conversations that I had that I shared with everybody here on the podcast two weeks ago

is that this was about Trent Williams having this great. two years ago and the team not communicating the seriousness of it. And the irony of is ultimately it turned out not to be serious. Like it turned out to be benign. He's okay. The scare, while it must have been terrifying, turned out to be, you know, unnecessary in terms of the growth on his head being benign, not malignant. And he's going to be okay. I know I've heard some things that he's got a a big old scar on his head, and he's not happy about that. But somehow, some way, the urgency of it wasn't communicated to him. But again, like I think about this, and I think about all the health care that's available to these guys,

whether it's through teams or through their own access. And some of this should be on him. But again, we just don't know all the details. I mean, we're going round and round on this thing. That's why personally, I'd love them to just trade them. I would have done it before I heard about all of this. I'd love for the Redskins to get back a first and a fourth. Right now, I'd run with that.

And you start to build for the future because really it's going to be more about 2021 and beyond and who's running the organization and who's coaching the team, etc. One last thing before we leave you for the day. Jay Gruden said yesterday, the Colt McCoy is still not 100%. You know, and there's the possibility he won't play in the preseason game Thursday. night. And then he waffled with J.P. Finley, questioning him on who would start if Colt doesn't go. Sounds like Case. I want Dwayne Haskins to get first team reps against the Bengals if Colt McCoy's not playing. If we're not going to go to traditional, hey, the projected starter is going to get a

quarter or a couple series. And then Case Keenham, who's really in a legit competition with Colt is going to get the rest of the quarter and maybe some of the second. And then we'll get Dwayne. if Colts not playing, I want Dwayne Haskins to take first team reps. He doesn't have to start the game. You could go one series with Case, one series with Dwayne, one series with Case, one series with Dwayne, and then all the starters sit. And maybe Dwayne continues after that with the backups so he can get more reps. But I want to see him with the ones.

I think they need to take advantage of these opportunities to see how much progress he has really made. And I know they learn a lot from that in practice. but these competitive environments, I liked some of the stuff I saw last week from Dwayne Haskins. I thought he looked like he was up to the occasion. I thought he looked competitive. I thought he bounced back from a couple of bad plays well. I want to see more of that.

But I want to see it with the ones against the Bengal ones. I'd like to see that. I don't know about you guys. I get the sense that he's far behind Case and Colt. It would be great to see what that looks like with the ones. ones on the field because if Colt really is banged up and can't go, that is interesting, man. You know, we're talking about, you know, a long period of time. I know he's taking reps in practice, but they don't want him out on the field. Darius Geis, same thing. Geis apparently hasn't been

cleared to play in a game. It's been over a year since he tore his ACL against the Patriots now. It's been like a year and a week. Anyway, Jay did say that starters are going to get more work on Thursday night, which is good news. All right, that's it for today. We're going to keep it short. The show is brought to you today by Stamps.com. We use Stamps.com. Small businesses all over the country

are using Stamps.com, including over 700,000 small businesses. I would urge you to do the same. You save big, including time. Stamps.com brings all of the amazing services of the U.S. Post Office right to your computer, whether you're a small office sending invoices and online seller shipping out products or even a warehouse.

Sending thousands of packages a day, Stamps.com handles it all with ease. Simply use your computer to print official U.S. postage for any letter, any package, any class of mail, anywhere you want to send it. Once your mail is ready, hand it to your mail carrier or drop it off in a mailbox. It's that simple.

Stamps.com, you get $5 cents off every first class stamp forever, 40% off priority mail. And if you're one of my listeners, you get a four-week trial, free postage and a digital scale without any long-term commitment. To get that, just go to Stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in Kevin DC. That's K-E-V-I-N-D-C. If you're a small business, I promise this is worth the try. Go to Stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and use my code, Kevin

DC. All right, back tomorrow with Tommy. If you're listening on iTunes, continue to listen that way and don't forget to rate us and review us that really helps us. And subscribe as well. It doesn't cost you a thing. Have a great day.