The Kevin Sheehan Show - Top 100 + Scott Turner's New Spot

Episode Date: August 15, 2022

Kevin today with more on Washington's first preseason game against Carolina. He also discussed Jon Allen being the only Commander on the NFL Network Top 100 list. Sam Fortier/Washington Post joined Kevin to talk about Scott Turner calling plays from the sideline instead of the booth. A lot more than with Sam as well along with Kevin's thoughts on the Terps not getting a single Top 25 vote, the Nats' weekend, and more from the NFL's first preseason weekend including the strange story about Jimmy Garoppolo.  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. One guest on the show today, Sam 48 will join us from the Washington Post. Also, there was a story over the weekend about a quarterback in the NFL who started in one of the two championship games last year that I found to be surprising and really intriguing in terms of his current. situation. I will finish the show with that. That's what we call in the trade a tease. Although

really in podcasts, you don't need teas because people can just fast forward ahead. I did a podcast Saturday night or Saturday evening after the game. Santana Moss was on it. If you haven't listened to it, I would urge you to go back and listen to it. Santana's great. Santana's also, and somebody made this point to me after listening to you. to Santana with me on Saturday, that he's gotten so much better and so much more comfortable as an analyst, as a broadcaster. I totally agree. You know, I've done a lot with Santana over the years. We did, you know, occasionally the Channel 4 show together. And, you know, early on, he was, like a lot of players are, when they first get into the media when their

career is over. You know, they've got to figure it out. And he was still figuring it out. And he was still figuring it out. But he, I have watched him more and more. I've had him on shows. I think he's, I think he's really, really good and really insightful. And by the way, a hell of a nice guy as well. And not afraid, not afraid to answer and speak to the tough issues and even be critical, you know, which is important for former players. It's hard for a lot of former players to be constructively critical. But that's really the job when you're an analyst is to be positive when you really think it's positive, but to not fear being constructively critical

when you think something isn't right. And I think Santana's been really good at those things. Here in the open to the show, I'm going to read a few emails. And then I am going to talk a little bit about a few things that I missed from Saturday and briefly mention the top 100 NFL. network list of the best players in the NFL voted by the players. There is a big omission in the top 50 that has a lot of you, I'm very angry. But the first full NFL preseason weekends in the books, you know, and the, it's a different

time for the NFL. I mean, everything is big. You know, the off-season's big, pre-season's big, even though it's a dreadful watch. but the overreactions from the preseason weekend are really amusing to me. And for our team, excuse me, that was a hiccup, not a burp, for our team, and I might have the hiccups, and I may have to stop here briefly. But our fan base, or what's left of it, it's amazing some of the reactions. Yes, I have the hiccups right now.

probably edit this right now and I'm going to. I'm going to just pause for a moment and I'm going to try to get rid of the hiccups, but I'll be right back. All right, I got rid of the hiccups, so I edited out all of the dead air. So I'm just leaving it in as it is. I wanted to say that some of the responses that I got to the game, to the reaction after the game, I mean, so many You were so, so upset that I didn't include Carson Wentz as a player who had a great game. He didn't have a great game. He didn't have a terrible game. He didn't have a great game.

But I wanted to read a few emails. This one came from Neil, not Neil and Rockville. Sheehan, the depth at tight end is obvious. None of their top three played, but you can see with Rogers and Hodges that this is a position of strength. I'm so excited with the job our personnel department is doing. Okay, after a preseason game, I liked Rogers and Hodges. I really like Rogers, actually, and Logan Paulson gave us a heads up on that on Friday's show, on Armani Rogers, the former quarterback, college quarterback from Ohio University.

But come on, Neil, man, it's a preseason game. What do you mean, a position of strength? So excited with the job our personnel department is doing. We don't know anything yet. I like Logan Thomas a lot. I hope we don't see Rogers or Hodges on the field because I really like Logan Thomas, and I think we're going to really like Cole Turner. But anyway, I don't know if it's a position of strength or not, nor do you.

You might be right, but you're not right because of what they did in a preseason game. This from Joe. Gibson is done. They have to trade him. Now he's clearly got a major fumbling problem and he doesn't see the field. Get rid of him now. I love the people that say the player's terrible, trade him as if other teams don't know he's terrible. Now, I'm not using Gibson as an example because Gibson's not terrible.

But I don't think Gibson is done. We're going to talk to Sam Fortier a lot about Gibson when Sam. joins us. I clearly have seen all of the, this is why they drafted Robinson. And, you know, Ron Rivera had a very telling quote about that I did not have on the Saturday podcast. This is what he said about Gibson's fumbling issues. Antonio's got to run harder. When he starts to shuffle and go sideways, that's when he struggles. You know, that's criticism. You know, there's no doubt that, You know, they drafted Brian Robinson, Jr. for a reason. There was some concern about Antonio Gibson.

Not about his upside and not about what he could become. It's more about whether or not he will become that. Rivera also said about Antonio Gibson on Saturday night after the game. Sometimes, or Saturday afternoon, sometimes he tries to make a big play. Every play is designed to score, but when it's not going to score, you have to get what you can and try to make more out of it. it, that's when you run into trouble. You've got to understand. If it's not there, just stick my foot in the ground and get what I can and protect the ball. Ball security, as many people have said in the

past, is job security. Yeah, I think Saturday's actually kind of a big game for Antonio Gibson against the Chiefs. That was an email, or that was a tweet from Joe. This was also a tweet from Kevin. Kevin, the trade back for Dotson's already the best trade this team is made in years. Sam Hal, Brian Robinson, Cole Turner. And then he went on to, you know, talk about various trades and why this one's going to be, how he had predicted it from the beginning. Fine. Kevin, you might be right, but you're not right after one preseason game. And you might be wrong because Chris Ilave might turn out to be one of the great receivers in the history of the game. And if Jahan Dotson and all of these guys turn into just, you know, nice contributors,

instead of one of the greatest receivers in the history of the game, well, you don't know. You don't know what Alabe is going to turn into. I mean, again, it's the preseason people. Haven't we learned? I mean, it's unbelievable to me. You cannot start making these kinds of declarations after a preseason game. You do realize, right, that Sam Howell was playing against, like, guys who aren't going to be in the league in two and a half weeks. So, you know, I liked the tradeback.

I like Jehan Dodson. I like Cole Turner. I like Brian Robinson. I'm not a massive fan of Sam Hal. I wasn't at Carolina. And I watched them a lot. A lot of you guys don't watch college football. I do.

I was not a big fan of Sam Hal, as you might remember me talking about. I'm sure, of course I could be wrong. And maybe they found their future starter in Sam Hal. And maybe what we saw on Saturday was just the beginning. But if he ends up being great, it's not because he was great or really good in the game on Saturday, which you could debate anyway. He was playing against dudes that aren't NFL caliber players for the most part. Lastly, I wanted to read this tweet from Leonard.

And this, you know, speaks to my reaction to the Jason Wright tweet from the other day. Kevin, it sounded like you and the other reporters in town got bitch slapped by Jason Wright with his tweet on Friday. He was just defending his starting quarterback from an unfair and savage setup question by the chance. Channel 9 interviewer. Grow a pair! Exclamation point. By the way, Scott Abraham works for Channel 7, not Channel 9. Thank you, Leonard, for the tweet. You can tweet me, by the way, at Kevin Sheen, D.C. I mean, I guess I would start with this, Leonard. I would say that anybody that described Scott Abraham's questions as unfair and savage should really look in the mirror when you say to anybody grow a pair. I mean, seriously, savage? I'd love to live in your Nerf world. That's a Daryl from the office reference when he said to Mike, Mike, you live in a nerfy kind of a world. Um, but seriously, dude, man up. I mean, there was nothing wrong with those questions. Now, the intro, as I mentioned in my response to the Jason Wright tweet from Friday, the intro to the second question could have been

finessed better. But you've got it backwards, Leonard. I wasn't triggered by the questions or by Jason Wright's tweet. Apparently you were. The criticism of Jason Wright for me had a lot less to do with the threat of denying access, you know, reporter access to Scott. Because I don't, I'm not a reporter. I'll get to that in a moment.

but it was more about that I thought he was overreacting by snapping back publicly the way he did to what was a fairly uneventful interview. It's the opposite of what you were tweeting me about. My response was, man, that was an overreaction to something that was pretty uneventful. And by the way, if he hadn't reacted to it, would have been totally uneventful. And by the way, I believe, I really think this is true. If, like, national reporters had asked the same question, or if, like, a former athlete had asked the question that way,

I don't think we would have heard one word from it. I mean, you know, Carson Wentz, people, for those of you triggered by any criticism or any tough questions of Carson Wentz, as Leonard was, you know, was, obviously. calling him savage. I mean, seriously, dude, you really need to grow a pair. But Carson Wentz got shown the door in back-to-back seasons by two decent franchises at extraordinary expense to both of those franchises. If you don't think he's going to be asked about those things, or even worse, if you think that if he is asked those things, that it's mean,

or insensitive or savage or unfair, you're really soft. Really soft. These were big boy questions in a big boy market. And by the way, responded in a big boy way by Carson Wentz. Everything that came after that wasn't so big boy, including your dumb tweet. By the way, also, as I've mentioned before, I'm not a reporter. I love when people, and Leonard did not write this in his tweet, but I love when people will send me a note and say,

She and just report the news. I don't care what your opinion is. Just report the news. Actually, just so everybody understands, there's a big difference between what Scott Abraham does and what Ben Standing does, and what, you know, I do. do or, you know,

Galdi does, or anybody that hosts any of these shows. The job description for a sports talk show host is to give opinions. That's the job. You know, to have opinions and to be passionate about your opinions

and to have long-form conversations like you would with friends if you're at a bar talking sports. That's the job. I'm not a reporter that adheres to journalistic standards. The job description is actually the opposite of that. And I know most of you understand that, but I always get a kick out of the mention of reporters.

And be a reporter and be, you know, journalistically behave with journalistic integrity. That's actually not the job. Now, I am one that prefers to steer clear much of the time from personal attack versus professional attack when I am constructively attacking. That's kind of the way I've been most of the time. You know, I would have phrased the intro to the second question to Carson Wentz a little bit differently. I would have. I wouldn't have said they didn't want you. They didn't want you.

I would have said something like it didn't work out in India. It didn't work out in Philadelphia, that kind of thing. But the bottom line is Carson handled it well, very well, and it was a non-thing that was made into a thing. That's all. And when they continue, if they didn't have a history of turning non-things into big things, it probably wouldn't have, you know, garnered a reaction for me and others as an aftermath. But they've got a history of turning things.

that should be positive or uneventful into much bigger things. I mean, they really, as I said the other day, win on the field, eliminate the unforced errors off of it and things will change. They will. But anyway, I wanted to quickly mention before I get to this top 100 thing that last year in the preseason, because I just went to, went back and made sure that this was accurate. Last year in the preseason, Washington played their starters in the second preseason game, second of the three. And then in the third preseason game against Baltimore, Ron rested

all of the starters. So we may be on the verge Saturday at Arrowhead, by the way, as they are, you know, slamming drums and spearing the field and doing the tomahawk chop. How ironic. But I think the game in Kansas City will be a game in which they'll play the starters, you know, Fitzpatrick, I think in the second preseason game last year, played like three or four series, and then none of them played. I mean, Heineke didn't even play in the third preseason game. They were protecting him.

So this is going to be it Saturday. I mean, I kind of love the fact that the preseason really, you know, gets shortened up here. I can't wait until it's a two-game preseason. But I just wanted to point out that Saturday in Kansas City, if they stick with the same plan they had last summer during the first three-game preseason schedule, this Saturday will be the last time for the starters and the frontline players, and we won't see them again until September 11th against Jacksonville. Okay, one other thing to get to here in the open.

Actually, I wanted to mention one thing real quickly because I saw this right before I came back into the studio to record the podcast today. So the NBA Christmas Day schedule is out. And, you know, the NBA has kind of owned Christmas Day except when the NFL is played on Christmas Day. and it doesn't always, you know, line up where the NFL plays games on Christmas Day. Because if Christmas Day is like on a Wednesday or a Thursday, the NFL won't play games. But if the NFL or, you know, Tuesday or a Wednesday. But if it's on a weekend, they'll play a game or two. And this year they've got a triple header scheduled for Christmas day and night.

Remember that, you know, that week, and what is that? I think that's week 16. So it's not the next to last weekend of the season. It's the third to last weekend of the season. But on Christmas Day, there's a triple header this year. Packers, Dolphins at 1, Broncos Rams at 430 bucks at Cardinals at night. Christmas Day is a Sunday. I mean, you've got Aaron Rogers against the dolphins.

You've got Russell Wilson against the defending champs. And you've got Brady against... against Kyler Murray and the Cardinals. The NBA is going to be meaningless this Christmas day. But the games are Buck, Celtic, 76ers, Nets, Knicks, Suns Nuggets, Lakers, Mavs, Grizzlies, Warriors. And it's always a big day when the NBA announces their Christmas Day schedule. Last year, and I saw this tweeted out, the NFL played a double-heder. They played Green Bay, Cleveland, and Indie, Arizona, because it was on a Saturday.

And the first afternoon game, the Green Bay Cleveland game, did 28.6 million viewers. The NBA game that it was up against did 5.1 million. And it was Golden State against Phoenix. And then the night game Indie Arizona, Carson Wentz played well that night, and they beat Arizona on Christmas night. 12.6 million viewers watching the NFL 5.7 watching the NBA. So this year, with Aaron Rogers in the first game, with Russell Wilson and the defending champs in the second game, and Tom Brady in the nightcap against Kyler Murray, I mean, come on, the NBA is going to get absolutely creamed. Of course, we could get to that Christmas Day, and maybe all those quarterbacks will be hurt and done.

Who knows? Last thing, okay, of the day. The NFL network started last night with their top 100 list. This is the list that comes out every time this year where the NFL players cast their votes to identify the top 100 players in the league entering the 2022 season. And because Terry McClarnsman such an offseason conversation with respect to, you know, where he ranks, etc., it doesn't look like he's going to be in the top 100. And why do I say that? Well, C.D. Lamb came in at, hold on, where did he come in at on this list? He was in the 90s, I think.

C.D. Lamb came in at 95 on the list. 95. I don't see a massive difference between C.D. Lamb and Terry McClarn in terms of what the players would deem to be. I actually like Terry McClearn. I've mentioned this before a little bit more than C.D. Lamb. CD Lamb has yet to be a number one wide receiver target, which he will be this year with Amari Cooper gone. So who knows.

I'm actually kind of surprised that CD Lamb made the list. And I do think that Terry McCorn should be maybe a little bit ahead of him on the list. But the bottom line is he's not going to be on this list. Because if you go all the way up to Holman, where is it here? Mike Evans, sorry, I'm slow in opening up this list. It's just sort of slow on the internet. Mike Evans is somewhere between 51 and 60. And so I don't think he's going to be ahead of Mike Evans. That would be my guess.

So Mike Evans came in at 53. Yeah, I don't think he's going to be ahead of Evans. I think Evans is a receiver I would take before McLauran. So more likely than not, McLaurin's not going to be in the top 100. Now, when it's all done, and I don't know when the second, when the top 50 comes out, because they've only given you numbers 51 through 100, we can go through the list and see what the players believe are the top receivers in the game. You know, we can check that out.

Now, there is one Washington player on the list, and it's John Allen. John Allen came in at 88. Oh, here's what's written on NFL.com. So now we know for sure Terry McCorn's not on the list. John Allen at 88 is the only Washington player in the top 100. Alan's been a key part of the commander's defense since 2017 when he was selected with the 17th overall pick. The 27-year-old Alabama product registered nine sacks last season,

earning his first Pro Bowl selection. he's definitely a top 100 player. I think he should be higher than 88. I really do. But that will be the only player from Washington in the top 100 on the list, John Allen. By the way, I was also thinking about the game on Saturday. There are a couple of players, and John Allen's one of them. We don't need to see him.

I don't think we need to see J.D. McKissick, unless they think it's important for Wentz to have the players that he's going to have out on the field in the opener. And so if McKissick's out there for that purpose, I understand that. But we don't need to see John Allen. We don't need to see Montez Sweat. We don't need to see some of these players anymore. Do we?

We certainly don't need to see John Allen again. Don't risk any of the guys that you need. I do think it's a good test Saturday against the Chiefs, against Mahomes and company. You know, they went out there, Mahomes did in their first preseason game, and they ended up winning the game, or losing the game, I'm sorry. They got off to a quick start. They had a 14-0-0 lead at half, and then they lost in 1914. Again, the final scores of these games are ridiculous.

But the Chiefs opening drive with Mahomes, 11 plays, 72 yards, touchdown, and that was it for him. He left the game. He was 6 of 7 for 60 yards. touchdown. So if you want to put the first team defense out there against, you know, an incredibly explosive offense and, you know, debatably the best quarterback in the game and you feel like they need the work, that's fine. I wouldn't disagree that they need the work. They need the work. They gave up three of three on third down on the opening drive, actually three of four after Mayfield botched the second down snap. And that created the third and super long, which forced the field goal, but really it was kind of a self-destruction on Carolina in that drive. And, you know,

they kind of picked up where they left off. Those were starters against starters because Carolina played their starters and the defense couldn't get off the field on three straight third downs. I did kind of like the pressure, though. I thought they got pretty decent pressure throughout. But again, it's the preseason, no game planning, et cetera. All right, Sam 48 from the Washington Post next. And actually, Sam revealed. something that I didn't know about the game on Saturday. You'll hear that next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the podcast presented by MyBooky, go to mybooky. AG or MyBooky.com. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they'll double your first deposit all the way

up to $1,000. They've got all of your preseason lines. They've got all of your regular season prop bets available. They've got all of the week one lines for the NFL that are up already. I did notice because I was on there earlier today. The biggest line change so far is Buffalo. Buffalo is up to a two and a half point favorite in the opener at L.A. in the first game of the season. That game was Buffalo minus one. I think maybe the health of Matt Stafford has something to do with it. But Buffalo two and a half point road favorite in LA in SoFi for the regular season opener on Thursday night September 8th. MyBooky.com, mybooky.ag. If there's anything written already when you sign up in the promo code, erase it and write Kevin D.C. and they'll double your deposit all the way up to

$1,000. All right. Joining us right now is Sam 40A from the Washington Post. Sam, a reporter, Sam, a columnist for the post, covers the team. He wrote two different columns, one on Saturday about the scene at FedEx Field for the first ever commander's game, even though it was a preseason game, and then wrote a column yesterday about the team and its performance. And I want to start with that. We'll come back, Sam, to what the scene was like on Saturday to be there. But you wrote something that I had not read anywhere else in a lot.

I did not notice in watching the game. It may have been mentioned, but it sailed right over my head. And that is that the offensive coordinator, Scott Turner, changed his location during the game compared to where he typically is during a game. I'll let you explain what the difference was between Scott Turner, the offensive coordinator the last two years, and Scott Turner, the offensive coordinator on Saturday. Scott Turner for the first two years here,

and even at the tail end of his tenure in Carolina, when he became the offensive coordinator, he called plays from the booth, and that was kind of seeing that view kind of was how he liked to operate in the game. But during the preseason game, we saw him on the sideline, walking around, talking to Carson a little bit,

not as much as quarterback's coach Ken Zempi, but he felt like he needed to be on the sideline for some reason. And I caught him as he was walking out of the locker room, on Saturday afternoon. And I said, hey, why the switch? And he just for communication, just for communication. That's what we're trying to do here. So to me, it was sort of an interesting response.

I didn't get to ask him much more. You know, I don't know if this has anything to do with the change at quarterback. But to me, it is notable that Scott Turner has decided to make that move. I think it is too. I think it's notable too. I think it's interesting. And I didn't, you know, again, this was the first time that I read about it. and I didn't notice it during the game.

Do you think it's permanent? I'm not sure because I asked him, you know, I sort of asked him as he was walking out if he was going to continue doing this. And, you know, I didn't get an answer. So to me, Scott Turner is supposed to talk this week, so we'll have a chance to ask him whether this is going to be a permanent switch. But if it is, that to me, you know, kind of prompts the question, why make this move?

Because the offense last year, while it wasn't very good, I think it was inarguably better than 2020, and I think you could argue that the starting quarterbacks that Scott has had wouldn't necessarily lend his offense being good. And when your top, you know, your top acquisition and Curtis Ambles in place, basically I think a lot of things have been stacked against Scott Turner since you've been here. And when he uses a lot of play action, a lot of motion, he's sort of maximizing the tool, you know, or getting close to maximizing the tools that he has been given. So for him to say, hey, not only, you know, after we've retooled,

this offense, am I going to make a change? That was a very interesting decision to me, and I hope that we get to ask him about it later this week. Yeah, because it's possible it's just experimental for him. And, you know, early in his, you know, relationship with Carson Wentz, he just wants to make sure that the communication is great. Maybe, you know, on Saturday at Arrowhead, we'll see him back in the booth. You know, I was thinking about it after I read it. I don't know the answer to this. What percentage of offensive coordinators, play callers, call plays from the booth versus the sideline? I think the answer is a majority, if not a significant majority. What do you think the answer to that is?

You think a majority call it from the booth? Yes. Yeah, I would tend to agree. I mean, I have a pretty limited sample size. I only covered the chargers before this. But Ken Wizz and Hunt, when he was there, he called it from the booth. And my sense, just in watching games around the league is that the percentage is fairly high, I don't have a specific number and I wish that were tracked.

But to me, it just makes sense, right? Like, when you're the offensive coach, you're trying to see what the defense is trying to do, you will inherently have more or better information if you're seeing those 22 players from that boost advantage. Yeah, I mean, if you're a head coach calling the plays, obviously you're doing it from the sideline. And I think about his father. I'm pretty sure Norve, when he's been an OC, has always been in the booth. And obviously when he's been calling plays as a head coach, he's on the sideline. Yeah, I'm looking, as we're sitting here talking, I think it's actually an interesting question.

I mean, I don't know why, you know, I would, I bet most offensive coordinators feel like they have an advantage from being up above. But who knows? What do you think? By the way, last year I agree with you to a certain extent, but would I really agree with you on the offense? I don't know if I'm agreeing with you or not on this specific point. I think Scott Turner did well. I think Scott Turner called good games and good plays.

I've been kind of a fan from afar, and I think with talent, he's going to prove to be a guy that can really do. this? Do you have a sense one way or the other or not? I think this is the year where we kind of find out, though I will say that those hints, those early indicators where caveats abound, I think he has impressed. I mean, last year he hit a quarterback who admitted that he was uncomfortable throwing left. He didn't throw a ton of passes left. If you look at the breakdown, I think only like, you know, 30% or lower than that went left. He didn't have great arm strength. And yet he deployed play action in motion

to give him enough layups to keep that offense moving. And Taylor obviously did, you know, a lot himself with his legs, with his ability to improvise and making some throws, like I'm thinking about that Cam Sims touchdown in Carolina. But, yeah, I think he has sort of made the best of these difficult hands that he's been dealt. And, you know, the nerds love him because of the motion and the play action and some of the personnel that he runs.

But, yeah, to me, like, I think, I think, be really interesting to see how he does with sort of a level playing field almost, though I know that that might not get some agreement from some fans, depending on their opinion of Carson West. You also wrote, and I think it was notable, that we saw Curtis Samuel out there. We saw him targeted, you know, more so than the rookie Dotson. And, you know, it was just a week and a half ago that there was some concern about, you know, his readiness because of how they were kind of, you know, taking it easy with him,

you know, with him missing some practices and them admitting that maybe his conditioning wasn't great and that there were a couple of other injuries that were new. But I thought it was a good sign that they had him out there in the first preseason game. And not only that, you know, he got in a bunch of action. Absolutely. I mean, he had nearly half of his production in all of last year in this one preseason game. And to me, sort of, you know,

even more than just the couple catches, I believe it was 14 yards, but even more important than that is, I think, what he allowed Scott Turner to do, because if you watched it, he was the guy in motion most of the time. That was the guy that Scott Turner

would say, hey, defense, you need to pay attention to this guy, and, you know, he has the positional flexibility. He has the explosiveness. And obviously, with Curtis Samuel, the question is always,

can he do it again tomorrow? Defense question. since he got here. And we don't know that. You know, we don't know if he'll play in Kansas City. But as of right now, it seems like the plan Ron has talked about has been pretty effective because he has been participating in team drills regularly, not every day, but regularly, and he's been participating so far in the preseason game.

So if that continues, it seems like he might be able to put last year behind him, though I'm wary of being too optimistic because I've been burned a few times. All right. Let's stick with the game on Saturday and stick with the offense. Before we get to kind of a Carson Wentz, you know, first gut from his first game, tell me what you think they're talking about. Just guess what they're talking about behind the scenes about Antonio Gibson's fumble and Brian Robinson, Jr., looking really solid.

Yeah, I think behind the scenes, it's probably a similar tone to what Ron Rivera had podium on Saturday afternoon. Ron Rivera was, I would say, harsh. I would say, you know, that is probably the most aggressive we have seen him, or most emphatic, maybe, that we have seen him in an interview about, you know, criticizing a player in his tenure here, other than, you know, I think a couple of reasons, a couple notable examples from your test. But this is, yes, and I think that, I think that for him to come out and say he needs to keep it high and tight, he needs to keep it to the ground, and he can't dance in the backfield. He can't, you know, try to bubble things outside. hit the hole, run hard, and get down, and hold on the ball. For that, his tone really kind of struck me,

and if you notice Charles Leno and a couple of other players went over to Antonio on the sideline. I think everybody realizes what a big deal that is for him to put the ball on the ground again. Brian Robinson looks good. He played one series. I think that that is a natural running back who has the vision, who has some of those, you know, just the built-up years of reps that Antonio can't have. I think you see some of that polish. I would still expect Antonio to be the number one back,

to be the guys they want to flex out into the slot to create mismatches against linebackers or smaller corners. I think they still want that. But when you see that issue bubble up, that he addressed this off season in Katie, Texas, where he was carrying the weighted football around with him everywhere, he tried to address this, and then to see the same result,

you're saying at what point are we, you know, just repeating the same thing, expecting different results. I mean, you don't expect, and you just said you expect to see him back there. But let's just say, I mean, I think he's going to get carries against Kansas City. Gibson, I'm talking about, you know, and a chance to redeem himself like they did by keeping him in there with the twos on Saturday. What if he put the ball on the ground again? Could anything dramatic happen between, you know, Saturday against the Chiefs and opening day? that is a really tough question

I can't imagine after giving him as many carries they gave him the last two years as much as he has done that him putting the ball on the ground again in a pre-season game

would ultimately merit a benching or a position change or I mean that dude is still one of the only people in this roster capable of taking a screen

to the house like he did against Buffalo last year and he has while it's been imperfect he has done a lot for his body to get slimmer, to get more explosive. And I just don't see them saying, hey, this really talented guy who might finally be able

to put all of these reps together from the last two years and play running back, yeah, he's put the ball on the ground a couple of times. We can't, we're no longer entertaining that possibility. I think they've invested too much to give it away, even if he fumbled against Kansas City. But I think that if he does do that, you start talking about, okay, if he fumbles once in the regular season or you just put yourself on a very, very, very shortly. Yeah, I agree with you in that there are just a few players on this team and, you know, there are three or four of them where their upsides are elite, like star potential. And I think Gibson is that in terms of his potential.

But we all know as NFL fans, if you can't protect the football, you're not going to be on the field with a chance to kind of realize that upside. All right, what did you think of Carson Wentz? And what do you think they thought of Carson Wentz? I think that Carson Wentz in three drives was probably, he looked probably better than he had in any of those practices. I thought he navigated the pocket well. It looked like he had good timing.

You know, his time to throw, like the average, I think it was like 2.3, 6 seconds. That's a pretty good clip. He was making quick decisions. he protected himself. I thought he looked, that was some of the best football I've seen him play over three weeks of,

of, you know, practices and training camp, and maybe that's just, you know, a guy turning it on. But I don't want to, you know, there were still a couple errand passes. But the thing that struck out to me was that out to Terry McCorn, and the crowd got into it at that point,

because I think it was the only completion between Wednesday and McCorn, but he threw it out with just the zip and the timing that I have not seen, from a quarterback here in the last two years. And so at his best, he looked good. I'm a little hesitant to buy too much stock in a preseason board, but I thought he looked about as good as I could have expected.

And obviously, there are still things to iron out and ways for the offense to improve. But to me, when Ron Rivera was talking about seeing the communication between Scott and Carson on the sideline, getting into a rhythm of play calling, him picking up the playbook fast. personally what I saw than Ryan Fitzpatrick did. He looked more comfortable in this season. Maybe it's because he has better weapons. But it, to me, looked fluid. And if you're an optimist, I think you saw a lot to like about what Carson could be heading

into the season. All right. Let's flip it over to the other side of the ball. You know, you talked about their use of Danny Johnson as their nickelback. You know, St. Juice was out with the hamstring, which is fine. And he might be, and I guess they're expecting him to be kind of that fifth defensive back. They're starting nickel. But they've liked Danny Johnson since the moment he's gotten, you know, since the moment they signed him.

He's been a guy that's always been on the field. And as fans, you're like, hmm, they really do like him because he's out there a lot more than you would have anticipated. There have been a couple of players like that. So I'm assuming that you think that Danny Johnson is a lock to make this team and actually be a contributor, yes or no? Yes, I think he will be a contributor. I think there are reasons to not like his game. I think there was a stopping go that he got got on on Saturday. There was a third down, a long third down, where, you know, he wasn't playing tight enough coverage and they got, you know, they got over on.

He had another nice pass breakup. But when you think about Danny Johnson, it seems like they evidently do like him a lot, and I would expect him to make the team. Is there going to be a Buffalo Nickel kind of player this year in defense? Yes, and I think it's going to be, unless Benjamin St. Juice is able to take a bigger role than I certainly expect him right now, I think it's going to be Cam Curl. When you saw them go Big Nickel subpackage, Cam dropped from safety to Buffalo Nickel into the slot, and they had Derek Forrest come play safety alongside Bobby McCain, Ron, after the game,

said that they really like Derek Forrest's physicality. He talked about Derek Forrest in the way he used to talk about DeShayzer Everett. And that was notable to me because Percy Butler, fourth-round pick at a Louisiana Lafayette, he was with the second team. He wasn't playing Buffalo Nickel. He wasn't that safety was on the game. Maybe he can make a push throughout camp, but as of right now, when they go Buffalo, it seems like it'll be Cam Crull there with Derek and Bobby behind him.

That's interesting. I think also Derek Forst, what you, the DeShazer-Everett comp is a good one. And the coaches know more so because it may not always show up in practice or in team meetings, but they see the limited action on the field and how physical the players are. You know, things they can't do in practice, and maybe they only do for a, few moments on the field and a few plays, but they see it. Derek Force is a physical player. In the same way, by the way, DeShazer Everett was.

All right. What else from the game on Saturday? Go ahead. What else stood out to you positively, negatively? I hate to say third down defense because it's a preseason game. But when Ron talks about second and long, becoming third and short, third and medium, I did buy that because, you know, this is the sort of thing. I thought they did make some tweaks because on those third downs, you saw William Jackson

the third playing press man. And I think that's something that you didn't see him do a lot early last season. And, you know, we've talked about him getting more comfortable in his own scheme, but it seemed like they were playing to his strengths a little bit more and saying, okay, you know, William Jackson, go take this guy out and then we'll play, you know, some sort of off coverage or combination behind you or opposite you. But they were saying, hey, our best player, or, you know, our best corner, you know, go do what you do best. And it still wasn't working. So, yeah, preseason caveat.

But the usage of William Jackson and but in the repetition of the same results you saw last year sort of were curious to me. Sam Howell on offense? Summer legend. I mean, he looked really good, you know, leading, leading that big scoring drive, especially late. And I think that that was really positive for them because the day before, or two days before the game, at practice, they had him run a two-minute drill or a one-minute 30-second drill from the 35. And the offense looked terrible. I mean, they did not cross midfield until they only had 22 seconds left and ultimately two keys into the end zone fell and complete. So for him to show up and kind of show that in a game situation, I think was huge for him.

I'm not saying he'll be QB2. I'm not saying he'll start, certainly. But I think that was a promising development, considering some of the practice context that this team had. All right. You were there on Saturday, the first ever game for a Washington NFL team named the commanders. What was the scene like?

The scene, to me, was sort of a discomfort, sort of a getting used to, a feeling out, I guess, of what this new team was. was going to be. I really saw the past and the present collide when in the fourth quarter they played Hale to the Commanders. And after a touchdown, and you saw people, I think kind of the new rendition is more trumpet, less drum, it's jazz. I think the people at first didn't realize what was happening after the touchdown. That song has not been played in the stadium for two years. And I think people were like, what is it? And then they caught on. And even though they were

projecting the lyrics on the screen, you know, fight for our commanders instead of Braves on the warpath. People were still singing the old lyrics. And I think that to me, going to be the uncomfortable coexistence of what rich history this team has and what the current administration has decided to make it going forward. And there's never going to be, I think, a moment where you'll have 100%, you know, one way or the other as we go forward, but it was sort of, it was an emergence from cultural purgatory of not having any fight song, of not having any of these things as they were the Washington football team before. So to me, it was just sort of a three out process.

You wrote in your column yesterday that they had, and I didn't see this, but they had an announced attendance of 44,855, which announced attendance reflects the number of tickets sold. There obviously were not 44,000 people in that stadium. I had people who, you know, people who were there for the Saturday night practice that was free that said there were more people there for the practice than there were for the game on Sunday. But I think you may have hit on something there. You and I talked a little bit about this before recording this interview, but I want everybody to kind of jump in on it in terms of what we were talking. talking about. Paid attendance means that's, you know, how many tickets were sold for the game,

which incorporates the season ticket base and then people who just bought single game tickets. Now, there were Carolina fans there. You could see it even on TV, the, you know, the Carolina jerseys and the colors in the crowd. And there may have been, you know, a few people. I don't know what percentage of people that wanted to be there for the first ever game and bought single game tickets to a preseason game, although that is very unusual, especially for situations where you can get regular season tickets. There was a day, Sam, a long time ago now, where the only chance people had to go to a Redskins game was to go to a preseason game.

But, you know, those days are long gone. You and I were trying to figure out the season ticket base, and I think it was like 30,000, something like that last year. And I'm going to guess like 35 to 38 right now. What's your guess? That to me sounds like the right range. And if you kind of think about that attendance number, I sort of see it as a byproduct of a larger mindset in the business office.

We met with Jason Wright, the team president before the game. And he spoke very glowingly about the team's business progress. He said this is their best year in sponsorship revenue since 2005. They've renewed 30% increase on their suite. They've sold more tickets this year already than they did all of last year combined. And so to me, I asked him, will you provide specific figures? And he said no, because he thinks that he doesn't want to get ahead of his team telling the story.

he doesn't, you know, want to really pull back the curtain on the resurgence of the fan base because he's one of the year so away. I think that if you are skeptical about those things, you have plenty of reason to be, and I understand that, which is, you know, I think the thing that we're talking about with the 44,000, but if they really have made progress on selling more season tickets, 35 to 38 sounds right to me because if you look at it, they average 52,000 fans per home game. last year. And obviously that they reported that. And Jason went on the

radio, it might have been with you. I can't remember, but he said, hey, you know, it looks like there's a precipitous decline. Basically, that's because we were not telling the truth before and we're telling the truth now. So if you believe that, and 52,000 were, you know, per game last year, and you could factor in the opposing

fans, I would say that the season ticket holder base was probably somewhere in the low 30s last year. And if they have made the progress that Jason says they've made, then 35 to 30 sounds like the right range to me, and that would be sort of reflected in the attendance number. So that, I think, is where the season ticket base is at based on all the information that we have. Yeah, and remember, that 52 was paid last year.

That couldn't have been the actual, you know, average attendance. I think there were games last year where there was maybe 20,000 in the stadium, and half of them were the opponents fans. But, you know, remember, the percentage increase game. is a nice way to present some forward momentum and some optimism. But for basically two years, you couldn't sell tickets because we were in the middle of a pandemic. And so, of course, it was going to be an increase from where they've been the last two years. Even though last year fans were back, there was a hesitance among a lot of people to still,

you know, when you go back a year ago, August, September, to attend, you know, large gathering events. So that percentage was going to increase. I'm not trying to knock them for it. I, you know, I think they've probably done things and presented themselves in a much different way than the last group did. But I still think that the, you know, the attendance number when we get to the opener, you know, is going to be a paid number somewhere where we saw it last. year. But anyway, enough of that. Sam Fortier, everybody, from the Washington Post. New Hampshire, raised, upstate New York educated. Thanks for doing this, as always. Let's catch up soon. Of course. Thanks as always, Kevin. Up next to finish up the show, there was other sports news from the weekend, and there was, I thought, a jaw-dropping story about Jimmy Garapolo. I had not heard this before.

I'll share that with you right after these words from a few of our sponsors. College football starts a week from Saturday. The first full-fledged college football weekend will be two weeks from Saturday, Labor Day weekend. But both polls are now out. The coach's poll came out last week, the AP today. Maryland didn't even get a vote. I am very surprised that the Terps with what they have coming back on offense and how good of an offensive. they, I think, have the potential to be.

I'm surprised they didn't get a vote. I wasn't expecting them to be in the top 25. I wasn't expecting them to be in the top 30 or top 35 when you start counting the other teams receiving votes. But I thought they would have been sort of at the tail end of the coaches poll and the Associated Press poll where, you know, you see, like right now I'm looking at, San Diego State got two votes, Nebraska got one in the AP. in the coaches poll, UTSA, U.T. San Antonio got a vote.

Coastal Carolina got two. Louisiana University, that's not LSU, got two votes. I thought the Terps might get a vote or two preseason-wise. But they didn't. So look, that is unfortunately a result of playing in the Big Ten East, where Ohio State's number two in the AP and the coaches poll preseason, Michigan's number six in the coaches poll, number eight in the AP. Michigan states in the top 15 in both polls. So, you know, in Penn State is just outside the top 25.

That's the issue with playing in that Big Ten East for the time being. Maybe it'll change when USC and UCLA enter the league. Maybe they'll go to different kind of divisions or maybe just one big league. Who knows? But when you got to play against Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State every single year, it's tough to end up in the top 25 of a poll. I do think that this is the best chance since Loxley's been here for a seven-win regular season. They won six last year, won their seventh game in the bowl win over Virginia Tech. They've got a start to the year, which includes Buffalo, Charlotte, and then,

SMU at home. They will certainly be big-time favorites in the first two games. They're 21 and a half-point favorites in the opener. They'll be a big favorite at Charlotte and they'll probably be a favorite to win over SMU at home, even though SMU's had some good teams recently.

And at 3-0, if they can start 3-0 over the first three weeks of the season, they would then go to the big house on September 24th to face Michigan as an undefeated team. I'm not saying they would be in the top 25 at 3 and 0 with those wins, but I think at that point

they'd at least be other teams receiving votes, especially if the wins come with this high octane offense, which I think it will come with. I think they're going to be really good offensively. I think they've got a chance. I understand they haven't been close against a lot of these teams in the Big Ten East, but I think Leah Tunga Viloa has a chance to be, you know, an upper echelon big 10 quarterback. They've got receivers. in, you know, Deemis and Jarrett, and, by the way, Copeland, the transfer from Florida, and J. Sean Jones returns. They may have the best overall receiving group other than Ohio State in the Big Ten.

And, you know, they've got talented players at other positions on offense as well. Can they stop anybody? I don't know. Can they, when they have to run the football, do they, are they big and strong enough and athletic enough up front? I don't know. but I do know they're going to scheme up some offense with a good quarterback and very, very good team speed in playmaking ability on offense. And I do think they've got a chance this year to win seven regular season games, be back in a bowl game, and, you know, potentially win an eighth game for the first time in a long, long time.

But I was surprised that they didn't get any votes. Before I get to this Jimmy Garapolo story and one other note from the NFL's preseason this weekend, or maybe two notes, what a weekend for the Nats and Padres attendance-wise. How about the reception for Juan Soto and Josh Bell coming back to D.C.? Incredible. I think it speaks on some level a little bit to what this sports town really is. We're a frontrunner town, a bandwagon town with every team now, the football team. It never was the football team.

And we'll see what kind of bandwagon's created for the football team if they start to win. But obviously, you know, while the football team still draws exponentially more eyeballs and interest than the other teams, you know, it is a shell of its former self. But with the other teams in particular, you need a star or you need a legitimate championship caliber team. And they don't have the star anymore, but the star was back in town, and that place was packed all weekend long. And I have friends that went on Friday night that said it was an incredible scene on Friday night for Juan Soto's return. And apparently the team handled it very, very well. By the way, this Menosis dude, Joey Menesis or Minosis, I think it's Menesis.

He had two more hits yesterday against the Padres. He set a franchise record for 14 hits in his first 10 games. He had his fifth straight game of two plus hits in a game. That is the third longest stretch this year by any player in Major League Baseball, five consecutive games of two or more hits. He's hitting 4002 so far. Joey Menesis, maybe he'll become the star. They are calling up C.J. Abrams. Cade Cavali had a really good day, but the Nats,

you know, still, if you're not following where they are, especially since the trade, they have not improved much. They are the worst team in baseball, and it's not even close. They are 38 and 78, 40 games under 500. They have by far in a way the biggest run, negative run differential of minus 210. Next closest, by the way, is Pittsburgh at minus 161. But they will play out the string this year and we'll see what that trade produces. And we're going to have a chance to see that starting soon with the call-up of C.J. Abrams, the top prospect in that one Soto trade, the 21-year-old shortstop, who debuted with the pods, earlier this year. All right, I wanted to share with you this Jimmy Garoppolo story.

You know, Jimmy Garapolo right now is still property of the 49ers, but he's not at camp, he's not at practice. They've already said, we are trading you, period. But a story came out over the weekend. Written, well, it was part of the Peter King Football Morning in America show, or podcast or column. I'm not sure what it is now. But Mike Silver, remember him? He was part of the Washington in-house staff last year. Mike Silver, who I guess is writing for the San Francisco Chronicle now, told Peter King

that after signing his 2018 five-year, $137.5 million contract. He essentially became missing in action during that offseason. Quote, this is from Silver from an unnamed 49ers assistant coach, right? He is quoting an unnamed 49ers assistant coach who was on the 2018 staff. Quote, after signing that contract, once he left the press conference, nobody heard from him for weeks and weeks. He didn't return calls. He didn't return texts.

He basically just vanished. And we were looking at each other going, what just happened? Apparently, this was Garapolo's move in the off-seasons. You know, the CBA of 2011 allowed for players to have longer off-seasons. But, you know, most of you understand this. not everybody will understand this. Most of you understand that when you are a significant person in your place of work as the starting quarterback of a franchise who's the highest paid player in the franchise is, you certainly are entitled to your off time and your family time and

your vacation time, but you're never ever really not reachable. You can't be. When you are that significant in a company or an organization, you've got to make yourself available. Now, you know, if you're on some cruise, you know, where you don't have cell coverage and you let everybody know, hey, just so you know, I'm not going to have cell coverage for the next four days. We're going on this, you know, Western Pacific cruise. And we're going to be in the middle of the ocean. Nobody's going to be able to reach us. By the way, I hate cruises. I am not a cruise guy. The last cruise I went on was an Alaskan cruise. It was 44 degrees and raining every single day in the month of August.

And it became very much like a floating food prison. Like just one buffet call after another. And we were inside just waiting for the next feeding. I'm not a big cruise guy. But anyway, yeah, I mean, Garapolo, I did not know this about Garapolo. I think it's an interesting story, if true. you know, in the column, Silver, you know, kind of writes, it goes without saying that a different kind of work ethic is required to be successful in the NFL,

especially when it comes to the quarterback position. And front offices and coaching staffs want their, you know, quarterbacks to be engaged all year round. Even though the rules, you know, prevent meetings and practices and lots of other things, The report kind of indicates that Jimmy G went, you know, for all intents and purposes, without, you know, ghosted the team. God, man, I find his situation right now to be fascinating, interesting, because where's he going to land? Where is he going to land? It's possible the 49ers just cut him and he doesn't land anywhere.

You know, the idea that Cleveland would have signed him already or the Jets now with Zach Wilson being injured over the weekend for at least four weeks, although apparently the news is that Flacco is having one of the best camps he's ever had. And that the Jets, Robert, Salah, the coach basically said at one point before the Zach Wilson injury, Flacco is a starting quarterback in the NFL, and he's having a terrific camp. But, yeah, if the Jets wanted him as a backup, or if the Browns wanted him in the event that, you know, Deshawn Watson wasn't going to be available, don't you think they would have already pulled the trigger at this point, midway through camps? Now, you know, basically midway through the preseason because nobody's playing this final preseason game.

Washington probably won't play anybody, as I had mentioned in the opening segment. But, yeah, two other quick notes from the NFL's preseason. I thought the story about Garoppolo was an interesting one. and I think it's going to be interesting to see what happens to them. The Cowboys in their Saturday night preseason loss to the Broncos, they lost 17-7. They did not play any of their starters on Saturday night. One of the big emphasis of the Cowboys in the offseason from Mike McCarthy was to become a more disciplined team. The Cowboys led the league last year in penalties.

and the next closest, the second most penalized team, was 11 penalties short of what Dallas had last year. And that's apparently been a huge emphasis. More discipline, less penalties. The Cowboys had 17 penalties in their preseason game against the Broncos on Saturday night. That's a lot of penalties for any kind of game, even a preseason game.

So that sort of was something that I know. noticed. Also, remember Stephen Sims Jr.? You know, big time kind of punt return possibility guy and in the offense? And, you know, I thought there was a chance that Sims Jr. was going to be a come a good player, but he had a major fumbling problem. Fumbled that punt, you know, against Carolina in a big game at the end of 2020. Well, he is in Pittsburgh right now, if you didn't know that. And on Saturday night in Pittsburgh's 32 to 25 win over Seattle, he had one punt return for 38 yards. He also, also had a reverse rush for 38 yards. Stephen Sims in two touches generated 76 yards of offense for Pittsburgh.

Now, he didn't score a touchdown on either one of those plays. but if you were wondering where Stephen Sims Jr. ended up, he's in Pittsburgh with the Steelers, and in his first preseason game, he ended up generating a ton of yardage. So anyway, yeah. Oh, the other thing, too, in talking about returners and players that, I don't know, I thought Washington could have held on to. Let's not forget that the Chargers signed D'Andre Carlin. Now, they did not use him. They didn't really use their starters at all. But he is going to be in LA this year for a team that many think will contend for the AFC title. He is going to be on that roster as one of the receivers, and he will be their kickoff and punt returner.

You know, if Washington ends up with any issues on kickoff returns or punt returns this year, I think we can look back. I mean, I think DeAndre Carter was worth resigning. I definitely think he was worth resigning. I think he provided them with a lot. Now, you can say with the return of, you know, with the return of Curtis Samuel and the drafting of Johan Dotson, was there really going to be a spot at receiver?

I don't know. I mean, if Dax Mill makes the team, wouldn't you rather have Carter returning kicks and being that sixth wide receiver? But maybe for him, too, there was interest, consider the possibility that there was team interest, and he wanted an opportunity to go somewhere else. By the way, a beautiful place, Southern California,

to play with a team that is a legitimate contender, and with guys like Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Josh Palmer, but after that, an opportunity to maybe be the fourth receiver, and, you know, they needed a kickoff, a returner and a punt returner. Remember, the Chargers have Dustin Hopkins as their kicker, And now D'Andre Carter as their returner. Okay, that's it for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy.