The Kevin Sheehan Show - Time To Get Aggressive?

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

Kevin opened with talk of whether or not the Commanders should be aggressive prior to the trade deadline. Former Skins' QB Brad Johnson joined the show to talk Jayden Daniels and more. Some Dan Quinn from today's press conference as well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Chean Show. Here's Kevin. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Window Nation. Give them a call 86690 Nation or head to Window Nation. If you need new windows. Brad Johnson's going to be on the show today,

the Washington Redskins quarterback of 1999 and for much of the 2000 season. We've had Brad on the show before. Always enjoy having him on. One will get his thoughts on what Washington has been and specifically get his thoughts on what Jaden Daniels has been. Remember, Brad Johnson's son, Max Johnson, was the starting quarterback at LSU the year before Jaden Daniels arrived in Baton Rouge. More high praise from Dan Quinn today about his quarterback. You'll hear that in the final segment of the show. We start with this from Carl the Truth.

I would assume that that's short for Carl the Truth Williams. Remember him? He fought Tyson back in the 80s, I think. I think he got knocked out in like 30 seconds. Carl the Truth writes, Kevin, I'm with you now. Forget next year. Our team has a chance to get to the Super Bowl this year. Adam Peters is on the spot.

He got the quarterback right. It would be ridiculous to put off now what can be done today. He's got to find Quinn some help on defense. If he does, there might be a rematch with the Ravens in New Orleans. Okay, Carl the truth. Not sure you're speaking the total truth, but we should talk about this. By the way, the Super Bowl is in New Orleans. But let's talk about this.

Let's talk about recalibrating the recalibration. So it starts with this. It starts with recognizing the reality of the moment, the reality of the here and now. What do I mean by that? I mean that the reality right now is that they are a better team than anybody thought they would be at this point. And that's been learned earlier in the season rather than later in the season, rather than later in the season. so something can be done about it if you want to. If you want to be aggressive and you want to add players to your roster because you think

you have a chance to achieve something that maybe you didn't think you could achieve before the season began, you have the ability to do that because you've learned this early enough to do something about it. If they had started the season slowly, then gradually improved as the season went along and maybe at the very end of the season became a decent team, there would be a very end of the season, there wouldn't have been a reason to have the conversation about improving the team right now in October. But they haven't started slowly. They're four and two. They're atop the NFC East. They have the best offense right now in the NFC. You could argue that, you know, one of the top

two to three offenses in the league. That's not stretching a truth to try to fit a desire. You know, Washington right now is an elite offensive football team with a quarterback, playing at an elite level. You could actually describe the quarterback right now as just elite rather than just playing at an elite level. You know, you add to that, the division is crumbling around them. Dallas isn't very good. Philly's talented, but underachieving.

Underachieving for reasons that may continue unless they move on from their head coach. And if they do that, that rarely works in season. So the reality of, you know, the moment is that they're a good team. They're good sooner than anybody thought they would be. And the reason they're good is the quarterback right now is playing as well, if not better, than any other quarterback in the conference. The division's not very good. So the opportunity to win a division and host a playoff game is reality.

So do goals change? do you recalibrate the recalibration six games into the season because of these things? You know, there are probably several things that they are thinking about out there. I would think there's, you know, Adam Peters certainly is thinking about these things. You know, first of all, you got to say to yourself, if you're Adam Peters and you're the organization, is just winning a division and hosting a playoff game worth going after a player or two at the trade deadline to make that a better possibility. Or does the end game have to be more than that to justify being aggressive? You have to decide what do you think you can achieve if you

upgrade the talent on your team? And then is that worth going for? And by the way, upgrading the talent on your team, I think we're all talking about upgrading the talent on defense. Personally, I would say it's more than just a division title and one home playoff game. I'd say you've got to be thinking about at least making it to the NFC title game. And you've got to evaluate, you know, after you've identified the goal that would be worth being aggressive for, let's just say it's the NFC championship game. You need to understand recent history. You know, what do final four teams have in common?

You know, a final four team, meaning the two in the NFC championship game, the two in the AFC championship game, one game away from the Super Bowl. You know, because if you believe right now, let's just say that the offense we've seen in the first six games, that's what we're going to get the rest of the year. We've got a top, you know, two, three, four, top five offense, worst case. And they're going to continue to play at that level. If you also believe that the defense, without any roster additions, will continue to play at their current level, which is bottom three to five. By the way, right now, per the DVOA metric, Washington's number two in the league on offense, number 28 in the league on defense.

If they believe that what they've been through the first six games is pretty much what they will continue to be, if they don't change their role, roster, then you have to know organizationally that based on history, you can't achieve the title game without improving defensively. You know, I've already given you, by the way, kind of the, I'll give it to you again, but no rookie quarterbacks ever won a Super Bowl, no rookie quarterback has ever participated in a Super Bowl. And the five rookie quarterbacks who have started all season long and then a championship game, they had very good defenses. But I'll take you beyond that. Let's look at the last four years in the NFL. Let's keep it more recent. If you want to get to at least a championship game, AFC or NFC, over the last four seasons, the 16 teams that played in the

AFC and NFC title games. There's only one team to have a back half of the league defense. The 2021 Chiefs, all right? They were 22nd ranked DVOA-WIs on defense. Every other team, the other 15 teams the last four years, had at least a top half of the league defense. Remember, too, the Chiefs, you know, the 2020. Chiefs. They actually lost at home to the Bengals in the AFC title game. They also had Patrick Mahomes,

and Mahomes was not a rookie. So defensively right now, Washington has to improve a lot based on recent history to make a title game. Offensively, they're good. You know, if they believe that their offense is going to continue to be what it's been, they're number two in DVOA. All right? The Lions last year were fifth with Jared Gough. You know, Hertz in Philadelphia in 2022, they were third on offense. Brock Purdy, the last two years, San Francisco was fifth in 2022, third last year. The Rams in 2021 with Stafford, they won the whole thing. They were eighth on offense. So Washington's current DVOA ranking as number two in the NFL offensively is great. They just have to improve defensively because none of those teams, again,

other than the 2021 chiefs were back half of the league defensively. In fact, the worst was Detroit last year at 13th on defense when they made the NFC title game and lost to San Francisco. So to achieve the recalibrated goal of winning two playoff games, if that's the recalibrated goal, and advancing to an NFC title game, Washington's defense has to improve significantly. So then, you know, if you believe your offense is legit and will continue to be legit all year long, but you also believe that your defense isn't going to improve with your current players, then you have to assess whether or not one to two good additions on defense will get your defense at least into the top half of the league.

If you don't think that being aggressive and adding a player or two will improve your defense to the level of being in the top half of the league, probably shouldn't do it because you can win the division right now with what you have. To change the goals to the NFC title game, you have to improve your defense significantly. You know, you've got to know that one to two players can make a drastic difference. And if you decide that one to two players can make a drastic difference, along with, let's just say, the development of the players that you have, then you have to figure out, if there are players that can help and those players are available. You know, if you get to the point where you think a few players on defense

makes you an NFC championship contending team, then you've got to determine if there are players out there who are available that you can get. You know, and to me, this is where you get to, you know, okay, we've decided this is the goal. And we've decided we think we can improve our defense significantly. if we add, you know, one to two significant players where we can get to an NFC title game. But then you've got to, you know, look at the field of available players, and you've got to say, are they the right players? Are they available? You know, to me, it's not about the cost to get that

player at that moment. It really isn't. You know, it's about whether or not the player is a difference maker. The player will help you achieve the goal. It's always about the player. If the player is great, you don't spend a lot of time worrying about what it costs to get them. You know, it's important to get a fair deal, but you know, you don't want to be Bruce Allen, who got one fair deal after another for players that were never very good. The player or players have to be the right ones, and they've got to be available. If not, again, this is a conversation that's a waste of time. It's like, if you come to the conclusion that even if you added two really good players,

you can't get a defense into the top half of the league this year, which means you can't really win multiple playoff games based on history. Well, then you shouldn't do it, right? If you believe that the player, if you believe that you can achieve an NFC title game with the addition of two really good players, then you got to figure out, are those players out there?

And are they available? You know, the solutions are, you know, going to be manyfold, I think, as we get through the next couple of weeks. I mean, there's so many rumors flound. around now, like Max Crosby being available, Miles Garrett being available, Denzel Ward being available, like Cleveland's in cell mode. You know, Zadarius Smith, we know that Hassan Reddick is available. You know, these are the kinds of players that could potentially move you from, you know,

bottom three to five in the league to top half of the league, and then you've got the offense, and now you've got a chance to really do something special. My personal, my personal view is, you know, the compensation part, let me just address that. Washington's got a slew of picks. They've got plenty of cap space. You know, they already have right now nine picks in the draft for next April, four in the top 100. They're in great financial shape. They've, you know, got top five available salary cap space right now and next year. I'm concerned more about the player or players being the right players. You know, there's also the idea of what about rental versus long-term rentals? No. You know, the 2021 Rams traded for Von Miller on an expiring contract. It paid

off. They won the Super Bowl. He was great. Eight sacks, eight regular season games. Four sacks in four postseason games, including two in the Super Bowl. Von Miller was, you know, an addition extraordinary. And he was on an expiring contract, so it was technically a rental. Amari Cooper, when the Cowboys traded for him, he was great that year. They won a playoff game, but that was it. They lost in the divisional round. But he was outstanding, and he was on an expiring contract. Now, they did sign him.

You know, I'm not going into a 9 to 10 game rental scenario, but you don't have to think of it as a rental if you decide, hey, this is a guy we would have pursued in the offseason anyway in free agency or via a trade. So if we acquire him, let's sign him to the contract extension now and get the benefit of having him for this year's run too. You know, the bottom line is this. You know, they've got a quarterback on a rookie deal.

He's playing at a level that you would have never predicted six weeks ago. You know, you'll have other years to take advantage of the rookie contract and the significant cap space. But why wait? You know, he's already playing at that level. That allows you to think big and compete for something big. If Adam Peters decides he's a player or two away on defense from two playoff wins and an NFC championship game appearance and those players are available,

he's got the quarterback right now, go for it. Absolutely go for it. Clearly more conversation on this in the coming weeks. but the flurry of trades yesterday, you know, the Amari Cooper trade, the Devante Adams trade, it just has made this a more pressing topic. And look, the NFL trade deadline is becoming more like the MLB and the NBA trade deadline. It's gotten exciting. I mean, not that the NFL needed it, but we've seen, you know, a lot of big moves in recent years. And again, to me, it just comes down to, does Adam Peters think one or two significant players could get them into?

an NFC championship game, and are those two players available? If they are, go for it. And you don't worry about the cost. And if they are on expiring contracts, well, you can sign them now. If these are players that are good enough for you now, you would have probably pursued them next year anyway. All right. Brad Johnson, next after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, no man wants to lose his hair. But for men, it's actually. very common and now with Hymns the solution is simple try Hymns hair loss solutions you'll be joining hundreds of thousands who got their flowback HIMS provides you with convenient and quality access to a range of hair loss treatments that work all from the comfort

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Again, to order your Navaj free cleaning kit and for full product details, go to N-A-V-A-G-E-com slash Sheen. That's promo code Sheehan at navage.com slash sheen. All right, guys, best time of the year is football season. It is back, NFL Sundays, college football Saturdays, football on Monday night, Thursday night. And of course, the glorious grind of fantasy football lineups. This is where your inner GM comes alive, setting the perfect fantasy roster, screaming at your TV, and making sure that those last-minute waiver moves work out for you

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of your grooming game and be ready for anything this season throws your way. This segment of the show brought to you by Window Nation. Give them a call at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com if you need new windows. Right now, Windonation's offering two free windows with every two purchased, with no money down, no payments, and no interest for two full years. It's getting cold, Tommy. You're going to be in the 30s at night the next couple of nights. Great time of year, if you like four.

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Two very interesting seasons. As we say, every time Brad is on the show, one of the great individual quarterback seasons in franchise history in 1999. Brad Johnson, that season, threw for 4,05 yards. 24 touchdowns was a pro bowler. and finish second, by the way, in the comeback player of the year. Do you remember that part? I didn't remember that part except for the last time I talked to.

Do you remember who did win comeback player of the year? It might have been Chad Pennington. Nope. Who wasn't? It was Bryant Young, the 49ers defensive tackle. Okay. Yeah. Yep, I didn't know that.

I needed some more votes. By the way, I'm looking at this right now. for comeback player of the year. So you were obviously injured in 98. Yeah, in 98, I actually, at the end of 97, I had a neck injury. And so I lost a major neck injury. I lost all my hand strength from my forearm down to my hands. I couldn't hold up.

I couldn't palm a football. And then in 98 the same year, I actually broke my ankle and broke. And then after the second game, then I broke my thumb in week nine. It's only got to play three games that year. I had about a 12-month run of just crazy injuries with the neck and the broken foot and the broken thumb. Well, 99 was a great year. In fact, it really is the last time this team was that close to an NFC championship game. Of course, you remember the playoff game in Tampa.

13-0-0 lead. You know, Brian Mitchell had returned the second half kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. And then there was that crazy play where there was a, a, you know, there's a fumble, and the running back for Tampa picked it up from behind the line of scrimmage and ran for a first down. I'm blanking on his name here for a second. Yeah, he had Mike Allspot. Work done. It was work done. Yeah, work done. Yeah, picked it up and ran for a first down. And then, of course, you got us in the field goal range. And there was the snap that was not a very good snap from one of the Turk brothers. I think it was Dan. And we

never got the field goal off. But anyway, Brad Johnson is with us. Always. He's loved to talk to Brad. Brad follows the team from afar. Brad's a big college football guy as well. And you've got to follow Brad on X on Twitter at Brad underscore Johnson underscore 14. He does these trick shot things. And you said that it's a trick shot Friday thing. You call it Big Bad Brad Fun Friday.

And are they all basketball trick shots? No, it's football basketball. I've been making trick shots for about three or four years. over 250 to 300 videos, just trick shots of multiple three, four, five shots in a row kind of thing. And it's wild. So it's not usually just a one trick shot thing. It's a multiple sequence of shots.

It's football, basketball, kind of crazy stuff that takes place. You have to follow it. But every Friday, put out new stuff and just try to have fun with it. I try to make it challenging where I can, you know, it's hard enough to even just accomplish it. it goes, it's true tribulation when it goes in and things. And just share it with people all these years. Well, two things.

One, you were an excellent basketball player and played at Florida State a little bit in college when you were the quarterback there. Two, you've got incredible hands. Like, when watching these videos, you clearly are, you know, a hands athlete. And three, you'd be held a beaten horse. I mean, that would be, I bet you don't lose a horse much. Right. No, the only, I mean, it sounds crazy.

The only one that ever beat me was my two people, my grandmother and my dad. So my grandmother, she beat me. This sounds really. She beating me when I was a young kid because she shot those granny shots, okay? I didn't know how to shoot those at the time, and my dad could shoot shots. So that was the kind of true shots of themselves. Then after that, I kind of had a full go of horse. I've been having pretty good wins.

So, I mean, let's start with the obvious. Your thoughts on Jaden Daniels through six games. Yeah, man, it's fun to watch him. I've watched him, you know, obviously the last couple years when he played at LSU. Exactly. You know, and I think when he came from Arizona State, everybody was trying to really figure out who he was, and he's more of a runner, those kind of things.

And then he went to LSU, and I actually saw him play a game in person. The first year is the LSU, and I said, man, he is really. really, really fast, and he throws a hard fastball. He's either going to hit him or he's going to miss him. That's what I thought. And then the second year, he put it all together. That year, he only threw 17 touchdowns, three picks, and then LSU. The next year at LSU, he won the Heisman, threw over 70 percent, 40 touchdowns,

four picks. He was making decisions. He had different throws besides just the hard fastball, and, you know, had a spectacular year, obviously. And then being drafted, second-picking draft, you know, the commander, and just it's kind of fun to watch him. I think what separated for him for me was, I think he was a little bit older than those other quarterbacks

with Caleb Williams and Treg May and Bo Nix is the same age. But I just felt like there was a level of maturity. He had an age-wise. And he came in there. I think he came to the perfect time with Washington. Obviously, Dan Quinn's under his second stint as far as being a head coach, and he knew what he wanted. He got that, and Cliff Kingsbury,

who's now a second-time play caller. you know, in the pros and kind of figured out the way he wants to call it. But when you watch Jay and Daniels, like, I mean, honestly, you know, I think Cliff has done a great job with him from the standpoint. They're not throwing the ball 40 times a game. They're in that range of throwing 25 to 30 times a game. He's throwing a high completion percentage.

Like, when you're throwing over 70%, Kevin, it's incredible at that level, especially being a rookie. I mean, he had three games in a row, three games in a row where, I think, as Arizona is 26 or 13. and Cincinnati is 21 to 23 and the Giants 23 of 29. Like that's unheard of for any quarterback, not alone a rookie. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I think those are the separating things from me, you know, with him. And what gets lost about it? Like, I really think with Jayden, like, you know, the touchdown is a completion percentage, but not only he can run the ball, but they're not using him as a pure runner. he's running on design plays for him. He hasn't gotten crazy with his eyes or down the field, making the passes they need to, but he's had five rushing touchdowns at the same time. So he is a lethal threat at all levels, and it's just fun to watch a seasoned veteran rookie play,

if that makes sense. He's played that much of all through college and now. Yeah, he really does seem to be advanced. You know, there's been a lot of conversation about him. I think he is, you know, I talked about this this morning on my radio show that I can't remember the last time. Actually, I can, but they've been few and far between. RG3 and 2012 was kind of anointed as the next thing, six games into his career. And this has happened with Jaden Daniels, six games, just six games into his career. Everybody

seems to be convinced Washington got it right and that he's the next big thing in the NFL. Is it too early to come to that conclusion after six games? Well, it's definitely a small sample size. I mean, that's for sure. You know, I think with, and I don't know, because I wasn't there, the whole thing wasn't really keeping up with RG3, but you felt like they had with Mike Shanahan, and they felt like they had to, even though he was a rookie of the year,

it felt like they had to kind of orchestrated more towards his strengths. Right. And I think, I think probably, you know, I do think Jayon is probably more developed as far as in the passing game. And the drop-back game now, they've gone to the RPO system. They did in college, and he's used to it. It's just kind of a – it's just been a smooth transition for him. So he looks natural back there.

It looks calm. He makes great decisions. I mean, when you go back to what he did in college football, he threw 89 touchdowns and 20 picks. So he's not a guy that turns the ball over at a high rate, you know, and then he makes plays with his feet. He's on a high completion. I think they, it looks like they, you know, not throwing too many attempts. Like it's just a great amount of run-pass ratio.

So I think it's just a great job as far as handling him. And, you know, the other thing, you know, to be honest, Kevin, like, you look at, you got to always look at who you beat and who you lost to. And, you know, the four teams they beat, none of those teams have winning records. And Cleveland and Arizona and Cincinnati and the Giants. They're all good teams. And the two teams that are really the top of the level are Baltimore and Tampa. They lost those games, and those are kind of the gauging point.

Like, we're comparing almost Jane Daniels to Lamar Jackson, I was a rookie, and a two-time MVP. So they're right on the cusp of doing great things, and the next thing will be what level can they get above to start beating those winning teams as a season progresses. But it's just fun to watch a guy orchestrate an offense, play with calm, and people, the organization believes in them, and the fans believe in him.

That's a big deal, just getting the people to play, you know, behind you. When do you know? You played the position in the NFL. When do you know this guy really is the real deal? Like, how long does it take? I think you've got to watch it over, you know, two or three-year period. I mean, you know, and then what, you know, because you can win some games this year,

and then did you make it to the playoffs? Did you win a game in the playoffs? Did you, you know, did you go through injury? Like, I just still think, I think it's, you know, I think it's. I think definitely you have your guy in Jadenos. Like that's, we got the right guy is what, you know, the owner is saying and Dan Quinn saying and Clifford, you know, the team is saying and the fans are saying. So you feel very confident in that and that's fun to see. But I think to be that next level, like you've got to be, you got to start winning the playoff games and hopefully make it to run at that Super Bowl to, you know, to etch it and stone just over time.

I think it's just a bigger sample size more than it was now, but it's an awful. exciting right now to see him play at this level. I mean, I'm trying to think, like, were you ever on a roster with, like, a young quarterback that had high expectations? I mean, I know you were on a roster with Culpepper, but wasn't he already kind of a veteran at that point? Is there a young quarterback that you were on a roster with? Never really was.

Dante was probably the youngest quarterback that I play with. And the other one was Tony Romo. Right. And he was kind of that caliber, too, but then they both put a ginormous numbers, you know what I mean? But then can you win deep in the playoffs and those kind of things? And that's unfortunate you hate to be evaluated that way. But to be on that next level, that's what it takes. And then it takes over time to do it too, not just to want to a two-year-run.

With Romo in Dallas, when you were there, was that the first year he was playing? Or was it like the second year he was playing? I came in the year after, you remember the, basically the first year when Wade Phillips took over his head coach. That was really, a year before he had made the playoff. That's when they had the mishap in Seattle on the field. On the whole, yeah. Yeah, he'd taken over for Drew Bledsoe during that year. During that year.

I was really in the first year of him being the starter from the beginning of the season and then throughout his career. So it was fun to watch him play. He's extremely competitive and just a great point. player of, you know, and obviously the organization was behind him. And that's a big deal to get the organization behind you. Was it obvious to you that he was a legitimate upper tier starting quarterback in the NFL the first time you were around him? Well, it took me a while to figure out who he was with Tony. But the more I was with him, I was like, wow, the guy, he was very, very smart in the classroom, tremendous competitor, made all kinds of plays. Probably didn't get enough

credit for, when you look at his numbers, touchdowns, interceptions, it's really, It's pretty phenomenal. Didn't turn it over as much as people think he did. And he was a great teammate, and I was a huge fan of Tony. He was a great, great playmaker when things broke down and had a great field for the game. So I enjoyed being with Tony. You know, and just thinking about your career, I mean, you've been around some interesting teams. You know, you're around the disaster here with Snyder.

You were in the Dallas organization, which isn't the most, you know, well-oiled machine with Jerry running it. And oh, by the way, you won a Super Bowl with Tampa. You really did have an interesting career. What was it like to be on, you know, we've talked enough over the years about your time here, you know, in 99 and 2000. You were here for Dan's first two years of ownership. But what was Jerry like? What was the Dallas situation like back then? Yeah, you know, what's interesting about Dallas, it's just more.

It really is more. You're going to have six night games, national TV games a year. That's the most you can have with Sunday night or Monday night games. You're going to be on the 4 o'clock game. It's going to be a national TV game on the sidelines before warm-ups you're going to have. It feels like a Super Bowl with all the celebrities and just the people on the sidelines during warm-ups. Like it's just more. Friday, there will be a bunch of people at practice and those kind of things.

And then, you know, training can't. You're going to have loads of fans that come out of nowhere. and there'll be trucks out there selling paraphernalia. And so it's just more. But in the building, it was a great group of guys in Dallas. I played for Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett was the coordinator. One year, I think we were the first year there was 13 and 3. The next year, I think we're 9 and 7.

But I enjoyed it. But it's definitely, you know, ESPN is going to be there in the building. And it's going to be the story of the day just about every day. Just the Cowboys, the Lakers, and the Yankees of the three organizations to get all the hype, you know. I mean, I forget the answer to this, so forgive me. But growing up in North Carolina, were you a Redskins fan? Yeah, the whole way, man.

Yeah. I grew up. I mean, I loved the Redskins. I was, I mean, I was all into it. And so was a dream come true for me, honest, for the play for, you know, the Redskins of that time, the commanders now. But it was, man, that was the only team, honestly, because he didn't have to kill on a... I grew up in Black Mountain North Carolina.

He didn't have to kill on the Panthers, Tennessee Titans. Jacksonville wasn't a part of it, Atlanta wasn't any good. And every week we'd see that time the Redskins play. They always had the, you know, the game was always on TV because we didn't have satellites and other things at that time. Yeah, no, you know, the Washington Redskins radio network back then extended all the way down. I mean, when the first, before the Falcons arrived in Atlanta, there's still a lot of Georgians who are Skins fans from way back in the day. but into Carolinas for sure. Are they the team today after you had the long NFL career that you had?

Do you root for a team still? Yeah, you know what? Now I'm kind of way off, you know, I root for more people than I do. Right. You know, as far as teams, I don't know if I'm into that. I'm into like, I was like, I like seeing good football games. I like to see the two-minute drills take place and those kind of things. So I root for all of football, but Washington is definitely a team.

I've kept up with all these years and just definitely pulling for now. Did your paths ever cross with Dan Quinn? They did not. They did not. But I've always had a lot of respect for Dan. I mean, all those years, he, you know, head coached in Atlanta, and then, you know, had success in doubt for the coordinator. But I think what I see in him, I just feel from him, it's like he tries to build a culture,

he gets to know his players. And he plays to, you know, I don't think he tries to interact on both sides of ball. let's his coordinator on the offense with Atlanta. It was Kyle Shanahan that took off with it, and now with Kingsbury running. He let those guys do their side of the ball, it seems like, and it's had much success doing it that way. Did you, have you watched the other,

have you watched Caleb Williams, too, so far this year? Yeah, I watched him a little bit. I sure have. So what do you make of his, you know, start to his career? Yeah, you know, I think he's, I think it's going through a little bit more of transition. He had a huge week last week, had some kind of some shots who kind of came open. But I think what kind of goes unnoticed is really just when you're a rookie

and you're thrown into the spotlight of managing a whole team, organization, it's a lot on your plate. And having to deal with it and be great every day in practice, be great in the interviews, be great on game days. It's a lot to take in. So it's impressive to watch him do it. as a rookie. I couldn't imagine when I played, you know, coming out as a rookie,

just caught up playing in a huddle not alone, you know, running a team. But I do think guys are more prepared now from playing in middle school and high school, all the year-round camps that take place growing up. And then he has, obviously, he was in the spotlight playing in Oklahoma and Southern Cal. So all those have benefited him now just being ready to take over. Just like Jayden Daniels did. Jaden got five years in college of college football being in the spotlight. and being out of a handle a situation like this.

You know, Max, your son was gone, you know, at that point, right? When Jaden came in from Arizona State, he had, he left to head to A&M. Yeah, yeah, Max had already transferred at the beginning of, at the beginning of it, so we never passed, never crossed with Jaden. Right. All right, so real quickly, in the NFC, Washington's leading the division in the NFC East with a four and two record. Do you like the team?

Do you think they've got a chance here in his rookie year to be, you know, a threat out of the NFC? Yeah, there's no doubt. I think with Washington, I think, man, I mean, being at four and two already, and then you look at what's coming up for them in the next four weeks with, they get the Biden, and they get Carolina, and they get, then you get the showdown with Chicago, with Caleb Williams. That would be a great match up. You get the Giants and get Pittsburgh.

Those are teams that really are not scoring a lot of points, to be honest with you. And so the commander's got a great chance of coming out of that with a big sweep. And then the division, when you look at your division opponents, like Dallas, they're a mess. They're kind of up and down all over the place. And Philadelphia, you're not really sure what you're getting week to week. And you feel like Washington has the best chance as far as coming out of there. And so it's going to be fun to watch it take place, you know. So I'm pulling for them.

I mean, a couple of your former teams in the NFC, Washington, Minnesota's undefeated, Tampa looks really good. who else do you really like in the NFC? You know, I think, I mean, really, you got to take Atlanta into this whole process now. Atlanta, I mean, with Kirk Cousins there, they're going to have a chance to win every week. And then San Francisco, depending on when Christian McAfee comes back,

that's a loaded team. So that will, you know, I think you're kind of looking back kind of group, you know, hopefully late in the season. You know, the NFL is always about, you know, healthy and injuries. You've been through it as an injured player. I mean, McCaffrey means so much to that team. Do you remember playing on a team that would have been much better had they had like one player healthy? Specifically, like, does anything jump out?

You know what? Honestly, our team in Tampa, after we won the Super Bowl, we were a loaded team. And then the next year, we lost six or seven guys. We lost Mike O'Sthott and Joe Jarevicious and Brian Kelly and Shelton Qualls. And when you start losing players, it matters. It's like that's the reason why, you know, why guys start, why guys are making Pro Bowls and, you know, those kind of things. So players do matter. You can't just, it's just not the color of uniform.

It's just going to win games. So I, but Christian McCaffrey, man, he's, he is, he's, he is. the ultimate weapon from, you know, in the back field and in the passing game and just the heartbeat of that team. So they're already a loaded team. So it'll be interested to see how he comes back. Brad Johnson, everybody, check out his trick shots on Fridays on Twitter on X at Brad underscore Johnson underscore 14. He had one of the great seasons the quarterbacks ever had here in D.C. And then it got all messed up when they decided, as Vinny told me, last week, inexplicably, well, not inexplicably, the owner decided that he wanted to sign Jeff George.

We've gone through that before, so we won't do it again. But always good to catch up. Hope you're well. Hope your boys are doing well. Yep. I appreciate Kevin. I'm pulling for the commanders this year, man. It's a lot of fun.

But I appreciate reaching out to him and keeping me in the loop. Well, best of luck also to Max, you know, in his injury recovery. I know he got hurt earlier in the year. He did. He actually snapped his steamer. They put a rod into it. And so it's going through rehab and all those kind of things down. And look forward to having him be healthy to go again in spring.

All right. Good to catch up. Take care. Talk soon. Okay. Thanks, Kevin. Thanks, buddy. Brad Johnson, everybody.

Rate us and review us if you get a chance on Apple and Spotify. Follow us as well. That's always a huge help. We'll finish up with something that Dan Quinn said today about, of course, Jaden Daniels. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, I feel healthier, younger, and full of energy, all things being said about mitopure, the newest sponsor on the podcast, and the first product to offer a precise dose of urolithine.

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I wanted to play the very last question of Dan Quinn's press conference today. And I want you to listen to him talk about Jaden Daniels. I don't know who asked this question. I apologize for that. But here it was. You've coached Matt Ryan. You've coached a team that had Dak Prescott, now Jaden Daniels. What does it do for an organization or franchise?

Would you get that position right? When you know that you have the quarterback who is your guy. Well, yeah, I think everybody, that's the name of the game to say at a position that, you know, affects the outcome so much decision-making and processes to go. There's so much that goes into it. And so for me, getting a chance to be around excellent quarterbacks and seeing what it looks like and knowing that we have an excellent quarterback here, it's fantastic. I would say the common thread on that is relentlessly.

work ethics. And I've seen it with Jaden and going back through DAC and Matt and on the way down the line. That is a trait that definitely sticks out to me. There's just so much preparation that can go and finding the right balance of decision-making, competing, you know, making the plays go right, speeding up throws. It doesn't just get seen on just the way he's throwing it. It's in the way that he's playing the position. And oftentimes, things that don't show up on the stat sheet are really a big deal. You know, dirtying a ball that's in a two-minute that wouldn't go for anything. That was an incomplete.

Well, it was actually a really good play that, you know, like we didn't do a hell of a lot of coaching on. It was like him being like really smart to go nail that. So those are some of the traits that it does. And definitely, you know, knowing that that person's there and fighting shoulder to shoulder with you. I love Jaden what he brings to us and I can't wait to see him grow. Man, he is absolutely relentless about it. So Quinn did go back and talk about the play at the end of the first half that we've been talking about all week where Jaden threw the ball into the ground near

Echler rather than completing the pass. What I loved about this is, A, if you were watching it on YouTube, just how passionate and how thoughtful Quinn is and you can tell how I think how sincere he is, how excited he is, but there's a line he used, and it's similar to a line that he used the other day. He said that there's so much preparation that can go and finding the right balance of decision-making, competing, making the plays go right, speeding up throws. It doesn't just get seen on just the way he's throwing it. It's in the way that he's playing the position. and he said the other day, and I'm paraphrasing now, that, you know, he's not just throwing it, he's playing quarterback.

And it's the intangible part that they're so impressed with out there. I don't want to say that they're surprised. I think they knew what they were getting. And I think certainly after they had spent the spring with them, they knew what they had. But to see it kind of manifest itself so early in his career in his career, games is just, I think that part of it might be blowing them away a little bit, that it's happened so quickly, that it, they see it actually in the games. They see it in the meeting rooms, they see it, you know, on the practice field, but they see it in the games. I mean,

you can see it. The dude's playing the position. He's in control. He's at the line of scrimmage, and he's in total control. He sees it. He checks to it or doesn't check to it. It seems like every time he checks to a play, it's the right decision. I mean, we wouldn't know for sure, but the result of the play usually is a good one. All right, enough gushing about the quarterback. We have been doing that all week long. All right, that's it for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy.