The Kevin Sheehan Show - Trading Trent Talk

Episode Date: March 6, 2020

Kevin had Ben Standig/The Athletic on the show today to talk about the Redskins giving Trent Williams permission to seek a trade. They discussed teams that might be interested, the compensation the Skins could potentially get back, and the timing of it all. Also on the show, Caps, Peyton Manning's chances to take over the analyst role in the Monday Night Football booth, and a Terps-Michigan hoops preview.. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. I'm here. Aaron's here. It's a Friday. Lots going on, especially since the podcast, ended yesterday regarding Trent Williams. We're going to get to all of that. Ben Standig's going to join us on the show today. And wanted to start by mentioning mybooky.orgie.ag. We're tournament time of year right now into March Madness. If you don't have a place, to wager and you want to wager, I'm telling you, my bookie.orgie.ag is a place you can trust. Totally reliable. They will have the ability to bet, you know, brackets, you know, put money on futures bets on the final four teams, national champion, bet on individual games. They've got it all. My bookie's got you covered. If you go to my bookie.orgie.orgie today and deposit and use my promo code, Kevin D.C., you'll get a 50% bonus on that deposit. That's MyBooky.ag promo code, Kevin D.C. All right, I wanted to start real quickly because we're going to get to all the Trent

William stuff and Ben Standings are going to join us, et cetera, with Peyton Manning to Monday Night Football as a possibility. A lot of reporting about Peyton Manning being paid or being offered by ESPN between $18 and $20 million a year to go do Monday night football. And the other part of this story, Aaron, I don't know if you've been following it, is the possibility that ESPN goes out and gets Al Michaels. Yes. And that would move Tariko into the Sunday night booth with Collinsworth and then have Al Michaels be paired with Peyton Manning. Yeah.

I don't think Peyton Manning's coming back to work with Joe Tessitore. That is my guess. I could be wrong on that. You know, there was reporting early on that if Tariko had stayed at ESPN that Peyton Manning, would have worked with Toriko. Yes. I think they're going to have to get an Al Michaels type. I've always been a huge Al Michaels fan.

I really have been. I think that he's coming towards the end of his career, more likely. He's 75 years old. It looks great for 75. But that would be a Monday night football booth that football fans could get excited about. You know, I'd like to hear Peyton Manning call games. I think it would be very interesting. At the same time, and I think we talked about this the other day,

I'm not watching a game based on the broadcast team. I watch games because I watch games because either I'm interested in the game or I'm interested in the action that I might have on the game. And nothing in the broadcast booth impacts that. Although, again, we've been irritated a lot by Tessetor and Booger McFarland in the last few years, and Jason Whitten when he was a part of it. So clearly we were, you know, as fans impacted or a lot of us were by the booth, and maybe it's just because it was a little bit over the top.

And it seemed sort of small time. But good God, $18 to $20 million a year. You know, according to guys like Michael McCarthy and Andrew Marshand and others to be in the Monday Night booth. Be awesome for Peyton. I'm more interested in the trading for Al Michaels part. And what would Disney give up to NBC Universal to get Al Michaels? Well, did you see that actually there was talk of like people, like actual ESPN broadcast? You know what NBC traded for Al Michaels originally?

Because that was technically a trade as well. They had to give up pieces to... I don't remember. Tell me. It was the right... The main piece was the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which was the predecessor to, I believe, Bugs Bunny or Mickey... No, it was the predecessor to Mickey Mouse. I don't even know what you're talking about.

So when Al Michaels went to NBC from ABC, he was still technically under contract to ABC. Okay. Okay. Because, okay, so now we're going back to 2002 when NBC got Sunday night football. It was after that, right? Because it was when, so maybe, maybe, it wasn't 2002, wasn't I thought it was. It was early 2000s. I thought it was mid-200. But anyway, you might be right. Whenever it was, yes. We're talking about that. He was still under contract to ABC, Disney, all that at the time. 2006, he worked at ABC Sports until 2006. So, 2007. So yes, he was still technically under contract, but with the move of Sunday night football, he had requested permission and NBC had requested permission for him to get out of his contract,

do that. Disney asked for several things in response, and one of them was the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which was the predecessor to Mickey Mouse. I knew nothing about that. How much was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit worth? I have no idea. Apparently Al Michaels. I do remember when Al Michaels was doing NBA games on ABC and did not like doing NBA games.

You could tell he was not, and he was getting paid a lot of money to do the NBA games in the early 2000. So if he was at ABC until 2006, he was doing the NBA games on ABC, some of those ABC NBA finals, you know. And really NBC had the NBA for a long time. time. To me, when I think about the NBA, I think about CBS in the 70s and 80s with Dick Stockton and Bill Russell, Dick Stockton and Rick Berry and, you know, various other, you know, iterations with Dick Stockton. Dick Stockton was like the voice of the NBA on CBS, you know, if you go back to the 1980s. Yeah, that's it, Aaron. Yeah, this is NBA in the 80s on CBS. This is what it sounded for the Boston Celtics it has been the kind of year teams dream about nightly clinics on how

the game should be played the architect Larry Byrd arguably the NBA's best all-round performer but Byrd's 30 points took a back seat to the clutch second half shooting of Dennis Johnson in the Celtics first game playoff victory this was when the NBA was awesome Celtics lakers in the finals every year that was such that was great the you pulled that up. See if you can pull up the 90s, because then we went from the 80s to the 90s when it was on NBC, and that's the era of Michael Jordan and obviously Marve Albert as the lead play-by-play voice. That's it. That's the NBC open. This is the NBA on NBC. The 1997 NBA playoffs.

Tonight, game five of the Eastern Conference finals between the Miami Heat and the Chicago Yeah. So that was the 90s. That's what you had going on in the 90s. I can't remember when ABC took over the NBA finals in the early 2000s when Al Michaels was doing play-by-play, but it sucked. And so did some of those series, too. You know, I remember like Detroit, San Antonio. I mean, in Al Michaels, you could tell, did not want to do NBA games. And I think one of the reasons ultimately he went to NBC. and what he was happy about, I think he was happy to get out of the responsibility of the NBA, which, you know, Michaels is a much bigger hockey fan than he is an NBA fan. You know that, right? He's got season tickets to the L.A. Kings games. Yes. Like, he's a massive hockey guy.

Anyway, I guess I don't even know where we're going with this after playing those wonderful opens to the NBA. You're just getting a little nostalgic. Well, I mean, truly the NBA in the 80s for me, Bird, in Magic, in the Sixers, and Moses Malone, in those games and those series, it was great. I mean, it was phenomenal. I don't know if the NBA has actually ever been better than it was than for some of us. But anyway, you know, there are other, they've got to be able to.

There's another play-by-play guy somewhere that they could team up with Peyton Manning. Well, but it might be a situation where. What about Brad Nessler? Why can't Nestler, you know, they're losing the SEC. It might be a situation where, and I mean, you would think he would like Nestler, but be with the SEC ties, but the question would be, you know, who specifically does, it might be a situation where Peyton says, look, I want, you know, Al Michaels, I want someone who's seasoned in the NFL,

I want someone like that. Right now, right off the top of your head, other than the number one guys, okay, Joe Buck at Fox, Jim Nance at CBS, Al Michaels at NBC, okay? And we don't count Tess at tour. Who is your favorite announcer that could step in to a big time Monday night booth with Peyton Manning, and you'd be fine with it? I got a couple of guys. I really like Ian Eagle. I think Iron Eagle's very good. I don't know if he's the big chair guy. No, probably not, but I really like Iron Eagle.

Brad Nestler would be my number one, and he would be available because, and I say he'd be available, I don't know what, with CBS losing the SEC to ABC ESPN, I don't know if people knew that or not, but that's happening, which by the way, I'm going to miss the SEC on CBS. Yes. But Nessler would be near the top of my list. Kevin Harlan, by the way, would not be. And I know that this would be something that maybe Peyton Manning wouldn't want, or maybe ESPN wouldn't want. But I'm going to tell you right now that regardless of the relationship that

he had with John Gruden, Sean McDonough, flat out, is great at everything he does. He is excellent at everything he does. And I enjoyed him doing Monday Night Football. He's probably better doing college football and college basketball and having all these other things. And then there's one other guy that I actually think has been pretty good in recent years. And that's Andrew Catalan, who's been doing games on CBS, who's actually a damn good play-by-play guy, as is Spiro Didis, who's been doing games for CBS as well. He's pretty good, too. Dan Schulman is phenomenal, but he doesn't really do football. You know, has Schulman done football? He's done, he does baseball and basketball, pretty much. That's, I mean, he might have done a little bit of football here and there, but not that I

I mean, you know he would be phenomenal in that chair. I, I, I assume so. Again, I don't know if you can do... Because we don't know him for football. Right. But presumably, yes. Yeah. Did you know that Shulman's Canadian? Yes.

Yeah. Anyway, Peyton Manning, 18 to 20 million. He'll end up if he wants to do this with a contract that will either match or exceed Tony Romo's contract. And we'll get to see that. Before we bring Ben Standing in for a conversation about the Trent Williams News, etc. The caps lost again last night to the Rangers. I watched some of that game last night. They lost 6-5 in overtime, and this dude, Mika Zabonajad, had five goals, including the game winner in overtime. He became just the second player in NHL history to score five goals with one of the five being an overtime game winner.

And the last one to do it was Sergei Fedorov against the Capitals as well back in 1996. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I know why the Caps are playing poorly. and whether or not, you know, they can turn it on when the postseason starts. We know the postseason doesn't really mirror at all in this particular sport, the regular season. I just know that people that know hockey are really concerned about them defensively. And they're also concerned about sort of the, you know, not that Todd Reardon isn't the right coach or a good coach, but that he is a bit softer on his players than Trotzi was. It's still really remarkable that Barry Trots won this franchise's only Stanley Cup and that didn't come back and coach the team to try to defend that title.

It's pretty amazing. And, you know, there is a possibility that the Caps could end up playing the Islanders in the first round of the NHL playoffs. They're tied with Philadelphia now atop the Metropolitan Division. And the Penguins are three points back. Right now, it could be the Penguins. too. It could be the penguins. It could be the islanders. It could be the blue jackets. There are a lot of possibilities here, but I think that would be pretty

intriguing. Don't you think to see a Barry Trots versus the Caps in a first round series? That would certainly be a story. Yeah, that would be pretty fun to see. Last thing before we get to Ben standing. So last night I had to run out real quickly and I ran into a guy that I know sort of and he listens to the podcast all the time. He listens to the radio show too and you can listen to the radio show. I'm on Team 980 again, 7 to 10 a.m. It's been six months now that I've been back on radio.

Team 980.com, Team 980 app. And we're also on an FM station too in D.C. 95.9 FM, 7 to 10 a.m. And he said something to me last night that it's not the first time people have said this to me in the past. And I guarantee you Tommy's heard this as well, because he and I have talked about it before. But he said, man, you and Tommy were really after each other yesterday. Do you guys like each other?

And it's funny because we both heard that over the years. And I just wanted to say, and, you know, he's not here, and I've set it to his face before, and I'll say it again the next time we're together. I can tell you that in the 11 years that I have known Tom well, all right, we started our show together in 2009, our midday show. And it went for about seven and a half years. I can honestly say that not one time have we ever left the studio after a show and been mad at one another. Swear on my children. It's never happened once.

I can't remember with Tommy ever having a legitimate sort of serious argument. We've debated after shows. We've had, we've argued about things, you know, with respect to. to the show and other things, politics and other things, I cannot remember one time ever leaving the studio mad or upset. And I think he would say the same thing. And there have been times during the show where we've really gotten after each other, and I don't even remember doing it yesterday, did we?

I can't even remember what the topic would have been. But it's not the first time I've heard this before. But I promise all of you, by the way, I had the same. relationship with Cooley, the exact same relationship with Cooley, even when we argued, actually, that's not true. There was one time where we really were angry. He was very angry at me after a particular show and something I said on a show at training camp one year that got him very, very upset.

And within five minutes of having a conversation about it, we were both over it and we moved on, and I can't remember ever having that. I know a lot of guys that work together in this business that don't like each other, that, you know, don't spend time with each other, that, you know, when they're done, there are hurt feelings. And they, you know, and sometimes that works on the air, you know, the next day. But I'm just telling you that the relationship I've had with Tom, even when it is sounded on certain shows that we're after each other and we're pissed off with each other, I can't ever once remember being mad at him at the end of the show or upset or hurt. You know, they just have never really been, I think he would agree with this.

There have never really been hurt feelings between the two of us after, you know, two to three hours, sometimes four hours in the podcast format more like an hour to an hour and a half of, you know, sometimes disagreeing vehemently on really, you know, non-life-impacting subjects. You know, the end of the day, most of the shit that we talk about really is not life-altering or life-impacting. Although I will mention to you, Aaron, because I told Greg this morning that I did wake up with a bit of a sore throat.

And there were three reported coronavirus, you know, positive tests in Montgomery County. Now, I don't think it's coronavirus. I'm pretty sure it isn't. and I feel great. I just took a couple of Advil and felt great. Craig's like, why are you at work? Well, I actually didn't feel the sore throat. I didn't wake up with it, really.

I sort of felt it driving in. If I thought I had coronavirus, I wouldn't go to work. I wouldn't be that selfish. I wouldn't be. But I have never been, and Aaron's not this person either, I've learned here over a year and a half now, that we're not the kind of people that, you know, with sniffles or a cold,

we're going to miss work. And Tommy has showed up very. Tommy always has the sniffles and always has a cold or always has something, but he almost always posts. But anyway, yeah, I love him and respect him dearly. So even if you hear us at each other's throats in a show, trust me, we don't feel that way when the show's over. There's never really been a harsh word after a show.

can't remember one anyway. All right, we got to get to this Trent Williams stuff, and we're going to bring in Ben Standing to do that. Ben, of course, writes for the athletic, and I would urge all of you to subscribe to the athletic, if for any other reason, then to be able to read Ben and his reporting and opinion on the Redskins at the Athletic. Follow Ben on Twitter, of course. You can follow him at Ben Standig. All right. I have not gotten to the Trent Williams, news from yesterday. So you and I will have one of those conversations here over the next 15 plus minutes about this and other things. Ben's got some reporting on it as well, but let me just catch everybody up to speed. I'm assuming that many people that listen to the podcast know that

yesterday the Redskins gave Trent Williams the opportunity to seek a trade per sources. I think Diana Rusini broke the news. I could have that wrong, but a lot of people followed up with confirmation of that. And so we have reached a point in which we now know that, you know, for the first time officially that the Redskins are certainly open to trading him. I would urge everybody to understand the following. You know, just because they've given him permission to seek a trade doesn't mean that it will happen.

I think it will, and the odds are it will, but the only way it does happen is if he finds a team willing to pay him what he wants, and at the same time simultaneously gives the Redskins something they want. That's how it works here. You know, Trent Williams doesn't go out. He finds a team, they agree on a contract, and then the team says, hey, I'll give you guys a fifth round pick, and then it ends. That's not the way it works. It's two sort of individual, exclusive events. Trent's got to agree on a contract, long-term contract extension, with a new team and then the Redskins in that team have to agree on the compensation for him. Let's start with that because there are several things that I'd like to get into with you on this topic.

But what do you think, first of all, what do you think precipitated this? Was it just a lack of an ability to realistically get a contract done with him? Or is it the new people in Ashburn, Ron Rivera, you know, et cetera, saying, you know what, it's time to move on from him. So, I mean, it's probably a combination of things. I mean, obviously, the newer team did not, you know, from meeting the coaching staff with Rivera, you know, they're inheriting the issues they did not live through the drama like the organization did and the rest of it did last year. So I don't know how much you can say they look at it with a clean eye or fresh eyes,

but they probably are to some degree. And, you know, looking at it, Trent Williams, you know, I've reported his other have as well, but he's looking for a contract that would make him one of the highest, it's not the highest paid offensive tackle the league. We're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of, you know, 18 to $20 million, depending on having market shaped out this year.

That's a lot of money for a guy who doesn't play since 2018 injury history. He's obviously one of the better tackles, one healthy, but that's a massive commitment to make when you're, you know, when you're Ron Rivera at this point just starting out. And look, obviously that you've got to have a left tackle. That's kind of a big

deal, especially when you have the rookie or not the working, but the young quarterback in Dwayne Haskins. But, you know, I don't, to me it seems like Trent side appears to be pretty set in wanting to get that kind of deal. And it does seem like a lot of money for where the Redskins are right now. I think the Russians are going to be aggressive in for agency and try to make some moves to, I don't know if we're going to win now at the Super Bowl. But I think we're going to try to be, you know, in play this year for maybe even the playoffs, which would mean sort of keeping Turned Williams, but at the same point, that's a lot of money to act, and, you know, I also want to go overboard with how much they're investing.

So, you know, I think the money is definitely a big factor. And, you know, like you said, the new regime, they're not tied to Trent Williams the way the previous group was for better or for worse. Do you think there's any possibility that I tend to agree with you that more likely than not, it's a price tag too high. I would also add to that that Trent may be willing to lower that price tag a bit to move on to a different team. If he's truly demanding, you know,

as J.P. Finley told us, a number that would basically make people, you know, sick to their stomach, then in Washington, I think maybe he'd be willing to come off that number a little bit to move elsewhere. First of all, do you agree with that? well so like you know my thought was even after they fired bruce allen and uh larry has the head trainer and then when riverr was hired we started hearing some signs of potential thawing my question was

where's trend williams at with dan schneider yes when he made those comments to us in the locker room that day he praised dan snider he said a lot of nice things but as time progressed when the reds can't put him on the you know the list i'll forget the name's list the list says he can't come back to play last year his tone then started to turn towards the owner. And, you know, it's definitely possible that the falling never happened. You know, indications I had where he's, you know, it's not like the Redskins are saying, it's not like Trent Williams is saying, hey, I want to come back in the Redskins saying that goes to see a trade. I think Trent Williams is like, oh, cool, let's do this.

And like I have a story, by the time this is out, I have a story up on the athletic, about this whole angle. I polled other writers within the athletic. to cover NFL teams to see where they think the interests might lie around the league and I had a source give me a couple of specific teams that are

kicking those tires. I think Trent Williams's sign point to him wanting out. So, yeah, I think, you know, I don't know about the money aspect. I mean, even if it's the top of the market, as we know, at 18, 19 million, I don't know if that makes me run away

and hide, but at the same point, it's just a lot of money for his exact situation. And maybe he does take a smaller number to play some else. I can imagine that. But at the few point, I'm sure he wants to get a pace and still think he is one of, if not the best tackle in the league. I think you brought up a really interesting point, which I've discussed many times over the last couple of months, and that is, we know that Trent Williams hated Bruce Allen and didn't trust Bruce Allen and Larry Hess, et cetera.

The thought was when he came back that the relationship with Dan Snyder was still close because he spoke to that. But I think, and I've always felt sort of gut feel, and based on a couple of conversations that weren't concrete in this area, but sort of led me to believe that it was more than just Bruce Allen in the organization that really was unhappy with Trent and the way this was handled and the things that were said, and, you know, that it could have even gone to the level of feeling betrayed a little bit. You know, this was an owner who stood by Trent through two suspensions, gave him a contract extension. They were loyal to him. You know, when a lot of other teams may not have been. Now, of course, the talent and the

production, you know, put him in a position to take the chance, roll the dice, and be loyal, because when he was there and healthy and playing, he was one of the best. Maybe not the best, but certainly one of the best. And that, you know, a lot of the conversation, when this confrontation sort of became public, you know, with Trent speaking through, you know, surrogate, so to speak, guys like DeAngelo Hall and Santana Moss and others, and these accusations against the organization came about medical and about irresponsibility and about, you know, essentially, you know, borderline lacking in sort of compassion and care for the player. I think that they were really angry. We know Bruce was. He was pissed off. You know, and it's one of the

reasons that Les Carpenter wrote, they want to see him bleed, you know, in this thing figuratively. So I think you are spot on in mentioning the owner in this. You know, I don't know that the owner necessarily was, you know, all on board, you know, now that Bruce and Larry were gone, that Trent's a great guy and we got to make it right with Trent. I think he felt burned by Trent, too. You know, one thing is always interesting to me is, you know, how much, you know, the outside world, you know, can bash on Dan Snyder for all kinds of things for the last,

that happened over the last two decades. But when you ask a lot of the former players, I mean, I'm sure Fred Smooth goes on, you know, your station a lot and you talk to other players on or off the record, they often praise the owner. They may bag on other parts of the organization, but they often will praise the owner. I'm constantly baffled to why.

But I would imagine, look, I suspect that Dan Snyder, based on what we kind of know about him, is probably pretty loyal to a lot of the star players. Star players. Star players. Right, right. And there may be a couple out there, maybe like one in Minnesota who would disagree with me.

But there are a few others. There are probably a few others too. But to your point, yes, I mean, we both, you know, spend time with these guys. I've spent time a lot of time with Clinton and obviously a ton of time with Cooley. You know, and there were, you know, star players that's not, and this has been part of the problem of his ownership, right?

is that he is sort of, you know, treated some of these players as close friends, and sometimes that's gotten in the way of the relationship that the coaches had with the players and the ability to coach certain players because of the relationship he's had with some of these people. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I would point to Clinton Porter's and Jim Thornton that went to Clinton. Right. But Jim Thorne tried to get him to practice harder or whatever it was, and Thoris went to the owner, and that was pretty much the end of the Jim Thorne era. to me, swinging game plays aside.

Well, RG3 Snyder is the all-time sort of sabotaging of this situation. Absolutely. And so with Trent William, you know, it clearly seems like, yeah, right, I agree that you could look at it to the owner, like, oh, hold on, I kind of do a lot of things right by you and this, and you can, I mean, you know, there were so many things that happened this past season and being at the combine the other day, and a lot of the other reporters are there, we're all kind of like reflecting on the season. Over and over again, the Trent Williams interview in the locker room

where he just comes in and just rips on everything for half an hour, having not talked for months, was the bizarre moment of the season. That was the moment we're like, oh, my God, can you've got to, I still can believe that happened. And, you know, to trash on them in the building to boot. Again, he said nice things about the owner, but he ripped on the organization.

So, yeah, ultimately, it's not to keep laboring this point, but yeah, I do think there is something to be said. It did go beyond the Bruce Allen of it all, and that the ownership may have decided, you know what, I tried to do right, and that didn't work out. So we're not going to give you that kind of money. We're good here. All right. We're talking to Ben Standing.

Trent Williams has been given permission to seek a trade. There are several teams that have not only a need, but significant cap space to make a move. Mary Kay Cabot, who covers the Browns for Cleveland.com and the plain dealer in Cleveland. I had her on the radio show earlier today. She thinks the Browns will certainly explore Trent Williams as a possibility. They did that last year, and there are other teams as well. You said that you've got some information on some teams coming out in your story. I want everybody to read the story, but let me take a guess on some of those teams, because I sort of put together a list of the teams with need and with plenty of cap space, and by the way, with sort of the

ammunition that the Redskins might be interested in in terms of compensation for trading him. I'll start with this. Clearly, the Miami Dolphins not only have a need, but they've got the most cap space. I would assume that some of your sources said that Miami is one of the potential players for Trent Williams. So I didn't hear anything about Miami specifically from a league source, as it were. As I mentioned, what I did starting yesterday, when I went to all the beat riders cover teams for the athletic and said, here's the deal. No chance, slim chance, real chance.

What's your take on whether your team is interested in Trent Williams? Our Miami reporter came back to me and said, he sees no chance. Really? He said basically from a timeline perspective that Miami is still effectively in trust process mode, and that adding, you know, 32-year-old Trent Williams for that kind of money would go against that. Now, I could make the argument for it

if you're going to draft to a or, you know, or some quarterback with the fifth pick, having an established player like Trent Williams on that side would make sense. Last year, they, you know, they traded Laramie Tunsel. A way they definitely need tackle in doing mock draft. I projected

them to draft a tackle with one of their three first round picks. And they do have that, clearly, the assets to make a move without even probably feeling a dent in their draft capital right now. But it is fair to say that if Miami is still viewing this as a long-term project that acquiring Trent Williams and he wants a big extension would kind of go against that. So that's the way our Miami viewer-viewed the situation. All right. Let me go with the next one, because essentially you've given me an indication

that, you know, the team that I'm going to guess on has to have this sense that they're close. you know, that they've got a chance to compete for something. Not only that, but they've got the need, and they also have the cap space. So Cleveland would be on that list. It would be for me. Our writer was open, he didn't dismiss that. Look, last year, John Dorsey, when he was a general manager, we heard, I mean, you know, they were pretty kind of open about, like wanting to acquire Trent Williams,

and obviously the Redskins decided they didn't want to make that move. And, oh, it's fascinating. and see when this is over, by the way, what kind of haul they do get and how do we potentially compare it to what things we all heard. Well, you and I are going to disagree on that. Yes, we are. You and I are going to disagree on that, and John and I are going to disagree on that. But I will, and we'll never perhaps know for sure.

I can just tell you, I will not believe my Redskins sources when it comes to what they could have gotten for Trent last year. I hear. So all that said, Cleveland, so now, because of John Dorothy's out, new management, or, you know, new, new approach, they definitely don't need to protect Baker Mayfield still. They have a second round pick that the Redskins, you know, that to me seems like a reasonable range to consider. So, you know, that to me would make a lot of sense. I saw Mary Kay's reports on it.

And I think that does make, that does make sense. I will say, just because I want you to guess 30 teams, the team that I was thinking would not have been teams that I would have thought of. Well, then don't tell me, I want to guess. Oh, well, but I'll think it's another part of the exercises, and admittedly, maybe this is I'm springing this on all these beat riders, and it's not like they're sitting around there, like you and I are thinking about Trent Williams all the time. But based on just looking at that, I don't know if there's that many places.

Like, we can imagine there's some contenders who hypothetically need a lot. tackle. But, you know, this is a draft where there could be seven tackles picked in the first round. Understood. You know, Jason Peters just got thrown out into the mix. It's not a great phrasing class, but Jason Peters just got thrown into that mix yesterday. So I think at least the people who are covering the team are feeling cautious about saying, yeah, they go only on giving up a good pick and giving Fred Williams a ton of money. Philadelphia.

No, I mean, they, when Jason Peters got cut, my initial thought having not, again, similar to it. I wasn't thinking about the Eagles. They drafted Dillard in 19, but still, I mean, you could argue that they're not totally convinced. And they have cap space. Right. So when that happened, when the Peter's News came out,

I immediately put on my mock draft hat that, oh, maybe we need to consider Philadelphia a tackle in round one because it's so like people, the reporting out of Philly has been like, Dillard, I don't know. But, you know, subsequently it seems like, you know, okay, but they did this to let Dillard give Dillard the shot. So I would be surprised if they let Jason Peters, you know, somewhat of a silly legend, go to then bring in Trent Williams with that money when they traded up last year to get Dillard in the first round. I'm imagining they're going to give Diller that shot. Plus, the highest paid tackle in the league is currently their right now. Yeah, Elaine Johnson.

So that would just be a ton of money. Okay, so you just, you said it's not necessarily somebody that we would get. We would guess Cleveland. We would guess Miami. We would guess the Jets. We would guess maybe either the Giants or the Eagles. We would just, I think I said the Browns. We might guess the Broncos. How about the Texans? I think, I think if we're playing like Marco Polo, you're yelling, Marco, my polo would be getting close to your eardrums at this point. Yeah, I mean, I think the Texans are interesting because, they've made a massive trade last year to get Laramie Tunsell, you know, are, you know, one of those best tackle candidates. Right, but it's a weird spot now because Tonsol, I mean, they give a lot to get him, so you think they're going to have to keep him.

But now Tonsol, he just fired his agent. He's in the process of getting a new agent, I presume, and in the reports out there are he's wanting a new contract that would make him the highest pay tackle, the upward of $20 million, you know, numbers that maybe would make you, you know, whatever you were saying before that JP said about trend, members that would make you kind of blanche.

You know, look, Trent Williams is from Houston. I don't know if the Texans care about that. But, you know, the idea of, I guess the thing is we don't, I don't know enough about the tonsful situation, but it seems like they could be headed towards a protracted the contract dispute, and if that already be the case, you know, hey, it would be weird to give up on a guy you just trade all these assets for,

but if you give Trent away the money instead, it's basically like having me. just traded for Trent Williams, right? Yeah, except for the age difference. Except for the age difference, for sure, for sure. So, yeah, so I, as the Texas would be a team, again, it doesn't totally make sense. It could just acquired Tunsel, but at the same point, you know, if he's, you know, want to play a hardball, I believe I looked at his contract, his contract, I think they can get out of

it fairly easily if they wanted to, which is not something they would presumably want to, and that you could make that move. So, yeah, I mean, he's the team to keep it on him. All right, I'm going to guess one more, and then you can just tell us, because you said I was getting warmer. And again, I'm now trying to guess teams that we wouldn't have initially thought of. Because what I did last night was go through, all right, who has a legitimate left tackle need and who's got the cap space? And then, by the way, who's got enough dry powder, you know, trade-wise, compensation-wise, to sort of give the Redskins something that would make sense. I wouldn't take less than a second.

and an early second, somewhere in the top 10 to 12 of the second round, and we'll get to that next. And that led me to think of Cleveland, Miami, the Jets, the Giants, the Eagles, the Bills, you know, a couple of other teams, the Chargers, the Broncos. So I'm now going down the list here, and I'm going to give you one last guest. God, I just – Arizona. Jonah. I'll just say for the purposes of slight teasing, I won't confirm or deny, but I think that's a very interesting call. They did just spend money to retain DJ Humphrey's their tackle, but when you look at mock draft, they're constantly projected as a team that could take one of those interesting young tackles with their first round pick. And look, protecting Kyle Murray has got to be, you know, priority number one for them.

So would it be weird to spend good money on DJ Humphre? I think it was like a three-year, $45 million deal for him. And Trent Williams? Yeah, maybe, but, you know, maybe not considering Kyle Murray, like, you know, he's kind of small. You got to protect him. So, yes, I would just say that Arizona is a team, another team to keep an eye on. Well, who did I miss? Who's the big one that I missed?

No, you're... So Arizona's the one. Arizona is the good one. Okay. I got a little mystery. Got to leave a little mystery. Maybe the other parts of the mystery could be filled in by, say, the Patriots. See, here's the problem with, like, you know, I had a bunch of, we took a lot of calls this morning on the show.

And, you know, I love people who will, you know, hit me with Minnesota and Stefan Diggs. I'm like, dude, they don't have any cap space. Trent wants a massive deal. You know, they can't do that. And by the way, the trading of Stefan Diggs for people that don't understand this, there's still enough money, you know, bonus money there that's not base that would accelerate with a trade. I don't see Diggs getting traded.

And I'll add one more point to this. And this is based on a conversation or two. I don't think that Ron Rivera and company want, you know, you know, want somebody like Stefan Diggs. You know, Diggs hasn't been an off-the-field issue. But, you know, I don't think these blowups on the sidelines with Diggs, especially the one in the playoff game at New Orleans, I don't think they've served him well in terms of the way he's viewed. I think he's a great player, and I don't know why Minnesota would want to deal him. They were highly productive.

He and Kirk last year together. I think Diggs was among the leaders and receptions per, you know, the yards per catch last year. And they didn't even have Thielen on the other side. If they have them both back next year, they've got a chance. But look, the next part of this conversation is what the Redskins should accept coming back. I'm going to tell you what I think, and then I want you to respond to it. You know, the compensatory pick if they lost him next year, if he remained with the team, would be around a third round pick, correct?

I think that's right. Okay. So I'm not taking less than a second. You know, this is business now. You know, you can have compassion for them. And if you feel like an apology is necessary for anything you did wrong organizationally, you can go ahead and apologize to him and his agent. But this is, you know, business now.

The Redskins do not have to trade him. They do have leverage here. He's under contract for one more year. A year he does not want to miss. You know, he wants to be traded. He wants to get this. contract done. I would not take less than a second. And to be honest with you, I don't know that I'd take a second that's towards the middle or the back half of the second round. I'm looking for where

Arizona is in the second round. They have number 40 overall. That would be acceptable to me. You know, to take that second at 40 overall, you know, you're only six or seven spots away from the pick you gave up to Indianapolis to get into the first round last year to get Montez sweat. Cleveland's pick is won after that at 40. but I'm not taking less than a second rounder. If somebody's saying, you know what, we've got to pay him 20 million bucks a year, we're just not giving up more than a third, then you're not getting him. And he can come back and play for us next year at $12.5 million, or he can sit out.

And oh, by the way, Trent, if this doesn't work out with you negotiating your new contract, we may franchise you next year. You know, I would play hardball at this point to make sure that I get close to what I could have gotten, had Bruce actually done the right thing and traded him a year ago, or traded him nine months ago, or traded him six months ago. I would not be, you know, I would not be succumbing here to the less leverage situation because he's only got a year left on his deal, and there are a bunch of tackles in the draft. I would be going for it.

First of all, I'd ask Cleveland for their number one overall. I may not get it, but I'm not coming off a second, and maybe, you know, a second and their third, because they've got two thirds as well. Go ahead, respond. Yeah, I'm with you on the hardball angle. I mean, look, from the Redskins perspective, what's the worst case in there? Trent William doesn't play again. I mean, like, they would have the money on the books, and that would be problematic, yada, yada, especially with our, they already got Alex Smith. But, you know, again, if you're Ron Rivera, I mean, okay, I mean, you know, Donald Penn, we still have his number. Like, I mean,

like, what are you going to do? Like, okay, like, we're not going to just, give you away. And again, from their perspective, they don't have the emotional baggage that the previous group did. So, yeah, I think they could look at it just more, you know, analytically and say, okay, well, this is what we want. We're happy to trade you at this point, but, like, we're not going to give you away just to make your life better.

We've got a, we've got a situation here, too. I think the second round pick, you know, my own, I agree with you, and that's, like I said, that's the number that I was hearing last year, the number I've heard this year. My only hesitation with that is, I really quite know what the make of Trent William is right now. I mean, he hasn't played since 2018. Obviously, he had the

medical situation last year. I'm going to presume that that's in a better spot now with the helmet and fitting and all that. But, you know, we don't quite know what to make of him. So if you're another team, you know, I might be like, look, but I don't know what to think of this guy. We'll give you a third and really, we already have to give him an extension.

He hasn't played, like, you know, look, and played chicken back with the Redskins and they did the road, and look, a third is, you know, it's not the horse thing in the world relatively speaking to getting, to having the thing just, like, play out again. So that would be my one wonder there. But, yes, I agree in a general sense.

The second round pick would be what I would be aiming for you. You could shoot for the moon if you want with somebody's team, but I would be aiming for that second. You mentioned the Cleveland one in sort of the top half of the round. I think that works. Look, here's the reality. We've talked, you know, we've talked for the last couple weeks. What are the rights going to do for agency?

They're going to go make a play for a quarterback or James Bradbury. Austin Hooper, the Titan from Atlanta, maybe the top titan in this class, make a play on him. I think there's some talk out there. Could they go crazy on Amari Cooper? You know, they've got to keep Brandon Shurf,

at least on the tag. This is how we're thinking they're going to spend their money. Well, they now have to go get a tackle. They don't have a left tackle on this team. So how do you do that? Well, one way to do that is, in the draft, I don't think a second-round tackle is like that is the automatic starter.

year one, but at the same point, like, there are some, if you get a pick in the top of that second round, there are some interesting tackles, it's possible one, it's still available there, and that could be the way to go. So, you know, this pick isn't just compensation back for Williams, you have to fill that hole, and, you know, that's going to be a very big way to do it. You know, we've seen in the history of this draft major busts a tackle. You know, tackles taken very high and completely bust out, and I think that's where, you know, when you start thinking, about teams that would want Trent Williams a proven player.

By the way, the proven, we are assuming healthier. We're assuming that they find a helmet that fits and that his head's okay and that he's healthy and that he has that people project that he's got another three years at high level pro bowl caliber

football. And so then you're talking and you made a good point when I mentioned Miami initially you know, you got to look at teams that actually think, you know, that they can contend. That's why somebody like Cleveland who thought they could have contended last year, you know, Houston, even with Tunsel. And by the way, I meant to mention this when we were talking about Tunsel. I actually wonder whether or not they would look at keeping them both somehow and playing one at left and one at right. But anyway, I don't want to get hung up on that.

But a Buffalo, as an example, who's got a shitload of cap space and they believe they're a contender. You know, the Colts. I don't think I mentioned the Colts. I don't know what happens with Costanzo if he makes it to free agency. They may look, they've got a lot of cap space. I think they're in the top three or four in available cap space, and I'm sure they think they should be a better team and potentially a contending team. Tampa, I don't know if we mentioned them.

They have a bit of a need, and they've got a lot of cap space. So I just personally ultimately come back to this if I'm the Redskins. you know, when people were saying, let's just get Hainsworth out of here and end this, let's just get McNabb out of here and do right by him. That's not the way this works, you know, with good franchises. You know, Mike Shanahan was able to get a fifth back for Hainsworth. He got a sixth back for McNabb. That became Alfred Morris.

You know, you can't just let him walk here. Your risk right now, really, at 12 and a half, million dollars for this upcoming year where he's going to have to play. You know, isn't that great? You know, you can say, come back and play, play your ass off and get to free agency next year potentially, but we're not taking a third for you. We can get a third a year from now when you leave via free agency. I just would be careful if I were them in just moving on because I don't know that the

downside of having him in the locker room. He's very popular. He's very well respected. He would have every motivation to play well. I think it's going to happen, Ben. I think they're going to trade him. I just would be very, very tough and play, you know, sort of hardball if I were the Redskins in terms of what I get back in this particular situation.

What about players being involved in a deal? Remember the Denzel word, you know, conversation? They also have greedy Williams, who could have been a first round or last year, went in the second round from LSU if we're talking about. about Cleveland. What about any players that you're hearing that could be involved in a Williams deal? So here's the thing and this is my thing on the Redskins and the

old throughout this whole time, whether we're talking about Trent Williams, for agencies, the draft, anything. We don't know what they're going, like we don't know this group yet. Right. I mean, Kyle Smith's a constant but he's been elevated to a new position. Ron Rivera is completely new. So is Rob Rogers, the

new Eric Schaefer, the guy, the coaching staff. We don't know what their approach is. Rivera started to fill in a a little more of the blanks about, you know, feel like they're willing to be aggressive in for agency, but I don't think they're going like all in necessarily. And, you know, we still quite know what they want to do with

a quarterback and mentioned, you know, what do we think about Clinton-Dunbar situation. So it's hard to know exactly what they'll be looking for. Also, football trades are weird sometimes when you're talking about players. Like the NBA, it's really easier to say, this guy for that guy for both salary cap and also position reasons, but there's so many positions on an NFL field.

And, you know, I'd be lying. if I said, I could tell you exactly what Cleveland's, you know, what they're thinking. For sure, they also have a new, you know, general manager there, and a lot of teams around the league have new pieces in play. So, you know, it's sometimes hard to figure out what you, like, what's a fair player, a fair player trade. I mean, if I'm Rivera, obviously, look, if there's somebody out there that's particular interest, sure. I mean, let's talk, but I probably want as much sort of clean slate as possible, both in terms of cap relief, but also draft assets so I can do what I want, not sort of take on somebody else's contract and so on.

I mean, hopefully some of the other team says, look, we don't have a pick for you, but if we've got a really good veteran player, you need this position, we've got this guy, what do you think? No, that becomes interesting, even if the player is maybe a little bit lesser value than Trent, but at the same point, I would imagine I would probably just want to hope to get as clean the situation as possible,

meaning cap relief and pick. Yeah. Obviously it depends. It's a really good point. We just don't know, you know, how they're going to operate. The last thing that, you know, I would mention and want your response on is in thinking about, you know, the possibility over a while now, over the last month anyway, you know, with this new group and having the second pick overall in the draft.

I really hope that trading Trent, if and when it happens, doesn't influence what they do at number two, meaning now the probability of a trade back has increased because they can get Jeff Okuda, and they can then also get Andrew Thomas or an offensive lineman, you know, with, let's just say, if it's Miami, with one of Miami's other two first round picks, and then they can pick up a tight end with, you know, Miami's second round pick if it's all part of the deal.

Whatever, you know, whatever the deal would. I just don't, you know, I'm not a big draft for need person. And, you know, they have another need, even though we like John Allen and Duran Payne and Matt Ionitis and Montez-Swet and, you know, others. Chase Young, if he's the number one player on my board by a lot, I'm not trading back because I now have a left tackle need. I'll figure out a way to address left tackle. I mean, hell, I'll re-sign Donald Penn for another year if I have to do it. I'll sign, you know, I mean, Jason Peters at 37, 38 years old,

is he going to get a big contract? I don't know if he's going to get a massive contract at that age. I can't imagine it's going to be that big. But my point is, overall, that I want you to respond to, is, you know, a lot of teams do really take need and do serious consideration. And the Redskins will have a need at left tackle if they trade Trent Williams. And you and I both have this sense that they believe they can turn this thing around quicker, not that they don't have a long-term approach,

but that they plan on trying to turn this thing around quickly with their cap space and making a splash in free agency. Respond to my thought of, I don't want the loss of Trent Williams to influence what they do at number two. Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, obviously, even before this Trent William situation came up, you know, one of the big topics of conversation has been, what should they do at that pick?

Should they keep Chase Young? Let's put aside the drafting the quarterback part. What should they take Chase Young? Or should they trade down and get a bunch of stuff? because they do have other hold and that you know look if you did trade down you can easily get you know three picks whatever it may be and and help a lot of ways but if you weren't ready to do that before this then i would hope this not like you're saying i would hope this would not influence me to make that change look if you're 50-50 you're weighing your option you like chase young but you think you can get Isaiah Simmons Jeff Okuda uh you know some other quote pieces and you're you know you're kind of cool with that well then maybe that is instead is different but if you're just you know if that's not the case what you get you By the way, can I just a quick aside, Kevin? This is for the podcast. I just told you I was at Georgetown.

So, like, I'm standing in the hallway. Patrick Ewing just walked out and just, like, I'm not at it. I mean, which is still bizarre to me. And that's the Kimbe Mastombo is walking right beside me. What year is this? We can keep that in the podcast. What year is this? This is bizarre.

But, yes, but anyway. So, yeah, I'm with you. I would, if they were in on Chase Young before this, this does not change anything, the one thing it could change would be how do you then fill that spot you know is it Donald Penn I would certainly be at least checking in to see what were he's at you know down the playing and and so on and if not then you know if you can get a second round pick for somebody you know you feel like this could be a year like I said where seven offensive tackles go in the first round or something like that if you're lucky and somebody

like an Austin Jackson from USC slips into the second is you can grab him maybe again Some of these guys won't be ready per se week one, but it's their best shot to fill the whole, you know, both short and long term. So, yeah, I wouldn't alter my plan if my plan was definitively were taking Chase Young, and that's it. Yeah, I agree with that. What else do you have? I mean, we're 10 days essentially away from the beginning of being able to talk to, you know, people about contracts. And I think March 18th is the day everything starts to get announced, but March 6th. 16th is the day that everything starts to happen.

You have any thoughts about, you know, sort of how they're going to approach this? This is up first. You know, Trent Williams is, you know, in the mix here to happen even before free agency. And by the way, you know, people have asked me about the timing of the Trent Williams thing. I think, you know, if it becomes obvious that there's more than one, two, three teams in the mix, if you're, you know, a team that wants to contend next year and you're deciding that it's not going to be the you're going to want to act quickly. You know, you're going to want to make this move, you know,

at the beginning of the league calendar. For sure. I mean, the draft is still six, seven weeks away, you know. Right. For agency comes first and you have to make some decisions. You know, if you're, if you, you know, also those, those tackled, like there could be four tackled off the board in the first. Right.

12 picks or so, 11 picks, something like that. That's conceivable at least. So if you're one of those teams who are at the bottom of the first round of a playoff, a team within the playoffs or, you know, thinks that you've got a shot, well, that's not, you know, you could still drafty tackle, but now, of a sudden you're taking a little bit more of a developmental project. Is that where you want to go when you think you're potentially one piece away? And, yeah, I mean, and like the phrase the market is not that robust.

I mean, Jason Peters, I don't have a list in front of me. You know, maybe he's now like the best guy. Well, Costanzo, the Castanzo, I just don't imagine. I just can't imagine that the Colts are going to let him get away. I know he's in his early 30s. He's sort of a Trent Williams-aged guy, but he's a really good player. The guy in Tennessee, Conklin, I think, is a free agent. And then you've got a lot of old guys, you know, except for Humphreys,

who's, you know, already resigned. Our Colts writer, he said no on Trent Williams because he thinks they're going to keep Costanzo. Yeah. And, yeah, Conklin is potentially a player to get a old. know, it's one guy. It's sort of the way I'm doing like the tight end class. We can talk about

Austin Hooper. He's one guy, basically. If Hunter Henry's available, that's two. But like that's it, there's 32 teams. The only team will want to get tied end, similar to tackle, they won't be the only team. It won't be just one team who wants a tackle.

The question of a tackle Trent Williams' caliber, but the question is who's willing to go in and make something happen. And that's where it's going to get fun to see for sure. but yeah, no, it's going to be, I mean, look, the worst part about this Trent Williamson so far for me is that the news came right

as I was going to happy hour yesterday. So that was our massive buzzkill. Yeah, you know, what are you going to do? What do you think will be number one on their list when free agency begins? Like, this is the position, this is the player that we've got to go get and get locked up right away? you know cornerback is sort of the obvious one I think I mean it's the one I've been targeting the whole time not even just because of the change for the change Bradbury connection with Rivera and Carolina and all that but because you know they obviously have a big need and it is a class of free agent classes there's some options this year and you know when you don't when you're going to spend a first round pick on Chase Young you know second that third round pick feels like it could go to a tight end or receiver you know how are you going to get corner help free agency seems like the way to go so I don't know if definitely like day one, you know, first minute

phrasing, and we have to get the corner locked up. But that, to me, is the obvious one. I think the position we all sort of overlooked to a degree, and not saying completely, he is a three-down linebacker, because Rivera has talked about this need, and the reality is, do they have one on the roster right now? I don't know that they do.

I know they like Cole Holcomb, but, you know, I don't know if he's a three-down player. At this point, Ryan Anderson, I think he's probably going to be better suited to be a four-three outside linebacker than he was when they had him on the edge here, But at the same point, I don't know if he's a guy you're having out there. Every play, the Ruben Foster situation remains unclear to where he's at physically and so on.

So I think I could see the Redskins making a splash play at linebacker as well. I'm not saying that will be the first thing they would do. But I think that's possibly something we just have not discussed as much relative to cornerback, tight end, and receiver. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I've heard a little bit recently about just the addressing of safety in free agency, too. They obviously need another one, you know, next to land in Collins. So we'll see.

I mean, you've got a guy like Anthony Harris out there who I thought was spectacular last year for the Vikings. He was essentially their best player and their secondary. But we'll see. Thanks for doing this. get back to whatever you're doing down there on the hilltop with those Hoyas who've got a big one against Villanova tomorrow, and I'll talk to you soon. If I see Alonza morning, I'm going to call you back. Yeah.

Yeah, if you got morning, Matumbo, and Ewing all down there, you've hit the trifecta of the greatest in Georgetown history at that position. Absolutely. All right, see you, Ben Standing, everybody. Lots of interesting conversation. On the free agency front, we got all on. next week to get to gear up for a free agency. My net on Trent Williams is this. I do think he'll get traded and I do think the Redskins will ultimately get at least a second round pick for him.

And if that happens, I will say, and my position will be, they did okay, but they could have done a lot better had they been proactive. And it's sort of the last, you know, sort of parting, you know, gift, turd gift that Bruce Allen left us. There's no way you. you can convince me that the Houston Texans, with what they ended up giving up for Laramie Tunsell, wouldn't have given up half that, which would have equaled at least a first rounder for Trent Williams a year ago. Again, Bill O'Brien making all the calls there at the time, but I think that was a possibility, and I think there were others as well. Don't forget, we've got an app, all right? Kevin Sheehan's Show app, if you want to listen that way,

and you can follow along that way. But the way you're listening now, if it's it's working for you. You don't need to change that. Last thing on our list of things to talk about here is Maryland Michigan Sunday. Illinois lost last night, Aaron, which was good for us, because that means Illinois is essentially out of the Big Ten race. The three teams tie to top the Big Ten right now are Maryland, Michigan State, and Wisconsin. Wisconsin has a noon tip tomorrow at Indiana, a game that they could definitely lose, although Wisconsin has been. been rolling. They're playing very good basketball. They've won seven in a row. If Wisconsin gets a share of this league title, I mean, that's an unbelievable job by Greg Gard. An incredible job. There were

games in which they looked non-competitive, you know, earlier in the year. I remember they got blown out at Purdue. They could barely score early in the year. They lost to teams like Richmond, another bad team or two early on in the year. Richmond wasn't a terrible team out of the A-10, actually. But I think they'll lose at Indiana tomorrow. And then Michigan State is the last, you know, games, is after Maryland, Michigan on Sunday. I've already gone on the record.

I think Maryland will beat Michigan. Wisconsin went through a three-game stretch early where they lost to Richmond, New Mexico, and North Carolina State. New Mexico was the other one. Yeah. And by the way, I just went through it. If Wisconsin does win, not only do they get a share of the Big Ten title, they're the one seed. Why would they do against Michigan State?

They split with Michigan State. So again, in the three group, it's their two and one, Michigan State's two and two, and two, and Maryland's one and two. Yeah, because Maryland lost that heartbreaker at Wisconsin in Madison. I think there are a couple of keys for Maryland on Sunday against Michigan. I think you will see a better defensive effort. I think they're actually in many ways for Maryland a little bit easier to guard. Now, Michigan can really shoot the three, and they can shoot the three with their big guys.

You know, Mo Wagner's brother is really turning into a beast at Michigan. He's playing, you know, pretty high-level basketball. In fact, I think it's Franz. Is it Franz Wagner? I think is the brother who plays from Michigan. He's turning into a guy that you're going to see in the NBA just like Mo. and then Teske can really shoot it too. So they got two big guys that can really shoot it and stretch the floor.

Xavier Simpson is good a playmaker in this league as anybody. And Livers is back and is playing well. He had 18 last night when they blew out in Nebraska. They were a big favorite last night against Nebraska. They're not a deep team, Michigan. They play a lot of guys. They play more guys than Maryland does. But they're not exceptionally deep.

I think perimeter defense will be key in this game. I think Maryland will play better defense. And don't give me the, will they come out ready to play? They'll be ready to play. They've been ready to play. They've just been playing some really good teams, really, really good teams. I'll tell you what, though, you know, one thing you cannot overcome if you're Maryland. You can't overcome running decent offense, getting wide open shots like they have.

the other night and going six for 32 from behind the ark. One of the reasons you end up with 32 attempts, just to understand this, is because you're behind by a lot and you end up shooting a lot. Now, they shot a lot in the first half. They were two for 16 in the first half. But you've got to make shots, and Maryland's made more shots at home than they have on the road this year, which has, by the way, been a league-wide trend. I mean, see Ohio State, a team that shoots lights out at home, but not.

necessarily on the road. Big game for Maryland. It would be a major disappointment. I promise you, if they lose to Michigan at home on Sunday, no matter how it happens, I will be concerned on Monday about the team. I'm not going to come in here and tell you what I told you after Rutgers, which is, I expected the loss, I'm okay, I'm not majorly concerned. I'm telling you today, I expect them to win on Sunday. I actually expect them to win with some comfort score-wise. And then we'll come in here on Monday, we'll assess the Big Ten tournament, but they'll be right back on track to, you know, have, you know, be in that two to three seed discussion based on what they do next weekend. All right. And then, you know, at least in the moment, all will be better errand.

I do have a bet with one Richard Doc Walker. He doesn't think they're going to win another game. Now, he would only wager $10 on it, which, you know, for some people isn't really even a bet. But for others, it's significant, so I understand that. But Walker wasn't super confident about it. But we do have a bet. And I think Maryland won't win one more game. I think they will win several more games this year.

All right. So that means several. What is several? Is several three or more? Three or more. Okay. So three or more could come in a lot of different ways the rest of the way. If it's one win on Sunday, one win in the Vick 10 tournament,

and one win in the NCAA tournament, people are going to be very happy. Not good. You know, if you told me it was only going to be three, I would say let's lose Sunday, lose in the Big Ten tournament, and win three to get to the Elite Eight when we get to the NCAA tournament. I hope it's a sold-out crowd, you know, Sunday. It'll be a good crowd. I know it's 12 noon.

I know the students, you know, when it's not a viral, you know, flash mob situation, don't get nearly as excited. But I hope the students really turn out for Sunday. because it's big. You know, here's the thing, Aaron. You know, if they win that game Sunday, they're going to cut down nets at the end of that game. Yes, they will.

They are going to cut down nets because they will have at the very least a share of their first Big Ten regular season title. All right. Thanks to Ben Standing for joining us on the show. Thanks to Aaron. But just give me your, you didn't give me your prediction. I think they'll win.

I don't know if it's as comfortable as you think it is. Okay. There we go. But you've got them winning. Yes. Let's hope we're in here Monday talking about a Maryland wind. Have a healthy, happy, safe weekend. All right, we're back on Monday.