The Kevin Sheehan Show - Trubisky's Deal....Hmm

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

Thom is back with Kevin today. They caught up on the busy week Thom missed including getting his thoughts on the Wentz trade. The guys considered the Trubisky to Pittsburgh deal and whether or not that path would've been a better one for Washington. Thom is in West Palm and talked Nats' Spring Training while Kevin used his own made-up formula for determining the teams that can legitimately win the NCAA Tournament.   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 Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Guess who's back from that long trip back to Florida to Frederick. Now back in Florida for Nat Spring Training. Tommy is back.

Hello. I missed you. How you doing? Hello, boss. I missed you too. You know? it would have been fun to have you on the road trip that I took back from Florida. We would have had a really good time.

And at what point on the drive would you have said, get out? No, because I got to tell you, while my wife, she was a good sport about it, you know, after the, I mean, we went to seven music museums, you know. I mean, for her, it was a bit overkill. Give me seven music museums. Okay, tell me, you told me on the phone the other day, some of them. Just rip through the seven music museums. First of all, real quick, quickly, have you been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland? Yes, I have many years ago.

Is it worth it? Yes, absolutely. It's a day-long event at the Rock and Roll Hall fame. Okay, give me the seven music museums you went to. Well, we started out driving from Miramar Beach to Alabama. We went to Muscle Shoals, but we stopped in Lafayette, Alabama to visit the statue of Joe Lewis. Right. Because I'm a big statue guy.

Yes, I know. Joe Lewis is one of the great heavyweights of all time. And we stayed, and then we drove to Muscle Shoals, Alabama. And there are two historic music studios there. One, the Fame studio, and the other. the Muscle Shoals sound studio. These are the places where Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Clarence Carter, Arthur Conley, Leonard Skinner, the Albin brothers, the Rolling Stones, they all came to this stinky little town

in Muscle Shoals, these studios that were started by a bunch of country boys who really had no training other than just, you know, what they did with their high school band. and they created these legendary sound studios that people from around the world came to this in Alabama to play it I mean I get like Leonard Skinnered

and some of the the bands that were from that area but why were the people that weren't from there why did they come record there? Rick Hall was the founder of fame studios and he was a great record producer but he didn't come out of L.A. or or New York, he came out of Muscle Shoals and just started producing records on his own,

and his reputation grew, and people in the music history heard about him, and people would record there. Aretha went to record there in a lot of the films that they made about Aretha, they show her going to Muscle Shoals and recording, and like they had a band. They had a backup band, a bunch of country boys, guitar players, and drummers, and piano player, and they called them the Swampers. And those were the guys that broke off from Rick Hall and started their own studio called Muscle Shoal Sound Studio.

If you Leonard Skinner's song, Sweet Home Alabama, there's a line where it says Muscle Shoals has the Swampers. Yeah. Well, that's who they're talking about, these country boys who became great musicians that everyone wanted to play on, be on their records. So we spent a day there visiting those music studios. Where is Muscle Shoals in the state?

Is it close to Tennessee or is it further south? I don't know, the answer to that. It's close to Tennessee. It's in northern Alabama. So how far away is it from Nashville? It's on the Tennessee River. So how far away is it from Nashville? Well, maybe about four hours.

Oh, it is? Okay. Yeah, it was about two hours. from Memphis, and then it's another two hours to Nashville from Memphis. Well, Memphis is the far southwestern part of the state of Tennessee. Right. Yeah. Right. You know, on the border of Arkansas, Mississippi, I think.

Yeah. So we went, from there, we went to Memphis. Yeah. And we went to the... Graceland? We went to... Well, we didn't... Here's the thing.

Okay, we went to the Smithsonian has something called the Rock. and soul museum there. Okay. Which is really good. We went to that. We went to Stax Music Studio Museum. Stax is where Otis Redding recorded, Isaac Kay's recorded, Sam and Dave recorded, and now it's a museum, and we did that, and then we went over to Sun Records.

Oh, really? Where Elvis Presley got his start, you know, through Sam Phillips, to Johnny Cash. Yep. Right. And we took a tour of that. And we also did the National Civil Rights Museum, you know, the Lorraine Hotel, which was breathtakingly powerful, unbelievable event. I'd recommend anybody, you know, drive to Memphis just to see that alone. But by that point, my wife was a little bit musiced out. And Raysland would. Graceland was on the agenda, but I sensed I was losing her. Right. So I pulled Graceland and substitute in an art museum. Oh, so did she prefer the art museums?

Oh, God, yes. Okay. And I like art going to art museums, but that was at the point of the trip. And I've been to Graceland before. But I really wanted to, if I'm in Memphis, I'm going to Graceland, but we scratch that off the list. Did you stay? That was an executive decision by me. Did you go down to the Peabody Hotel?

We didn't go to the Peabody. We didn't go see the ducks. You didn't see the ducks? We hung out on Beale Street for three nights. Live music, good food. Yeah, live music. We ate at BB King, saw a live band. We went to another juke joint and saw a great band.

You know, I knew I was having a good time. When at 11 o'clock a night, my wife ordered a gin and tonic. He's usually not to wait at 11 o'clock at night. That's awesome. All right. So you've touched on like four or, I've lost count on the music museums. You said seven. Were there others? Well, there was the, then we went to Nashville. Then you went to Nashville. Then you went to Nashville. So, Leah. And we went to something that was only opened last year called the African American Museum Hall

Fame. It's only open since 2001. Fabulous. Right on Broadway, we spent four hours there. It's similar to the Rock and Roll Hall fame. There's so much to do and so much to look at. And then we went to the

Country Music Hall fame, which I'm not a huge country music fan. I like a lot of country music, but soul music is my wheelhouse. But this Country Western and Hall fame was great, too. We spent half a day there as well.

So those were the music. I can't think of there was a, you know, there were pre-in Memphis, two in Muscle Shoals and then two in Nashville. And we did an art museum in Nashville, too. You know, in Nashville, they built a replica building of the Parthenon. The Parthenon from Greece. I don't remember. During the, I was like in the early 20th century for the World Fair.

Remember, the World Fair used to be a big deal. So they bought this replica, giant size building. I mean, dwarfs people called the Parthenon, based on the building in Greece. So we went there, and that's kind of an art museum. And that was really cool. It's in a place called Centennial Park, which is a nice park real close to Vanderbilt, Yeah. Vanderbilt and Belmont is right there too. Yes. Yeah. So we did that.

And then from there we went to Louisville. Did you hang out on Broadway when you were in Nashville? Did you walk up and down going in out of, you know, Tutsies and some of those other places? Well, you know what? We didn't do a lot of music clubs. We went there on a Saturday night. We got there Saturday afternoon. We went there on a, it was absolutely madhouse. Yeah. And so we just kind of like took it in the scene. You know, they had these tractors that drive down the street pulling carts for people having parties on the cart. Well, you know that Nashville is like the place for bachelorette parties in the country.

Yes. Yes, I realize that. Yeah. For whatever reason, I don't know what the reason is. Somebody may want to help me with that. But I've told you, and I've told everybody that listens, my sister lives in Nashville. She lives outside of Nashville in a town called Brentwood. But, you know, I love going to Nashville.

I spent a lot of time in Nashville long before it kind of blew up into, you know, a much bigger city that is really popular now. I mean, it's booming for sure. But yeah, for whatever reason, it is the bachelor's. Capital of the world, where I think the Bachelor capital of the world is probably Las Vegas, is my guess. Yeah, it probably is. So we had, but we didn't do a lot of clubs. Right.

We just walked in and out of a few places. Yeah. You know, we had lunch one day on a rooftop overlooking Broadway Sunday. We were back down there during a day, and it was pretty, it was pretty crowded then in the middle of the day on a Sunday. So we had a good time. and then from there we went to Louisville. Which you've done before.

So what did you do? Did that end the music stuff, or do you have more music stuff to tell me? That was the end of the music stuff. And I've been to Louisville four times. Yeah, I know. Three times covering the derby and one time covered in the fight, a Tyson fight. But I'd never really seen. I mean, you know, when you're covering the derby,

you've got to be at the track at 7 in the morning. to, you know, on the backstretch to interview the trainers, to watch the horses train and stuff. So, you know, and the bars we hit were obscure rider bars. You know, so I really didn't see a whole lot of Louisville before. So we went to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Hall fame where they make the bats, Louisville Slugger, and that was very cool. How did your wife do that one? I saw a lot of historic bats.

How did Liz doing that? like that. She thought that was great. Okay. She was good. She was good with that. Was there an 11 o'clock gin and tonic after that one? No, no, we didn't do that in Louisville. Okay. I tell you what, it was a dead, it was a dead town. I don't love Louisville. By the way, it's Louisville for the people that live there. I don't love Louisville. I don't love Louisville. Lexington's actually very pretty. Louisville, I don't know. I mean, the last time I was in Louisville was, when was I on Louisville?

I was there not that long ago. What was it for? Oh, it was for the Maryland Sweet 16 game against Kansas. Went down there. And then you just, the problem with those events is you just end up hanging out with all the people that are, you know, all the Maryland people in the Maryland hotel. And that's fine. Whatever. But what's the sandwich in Louisville?

Why am I blanking on this sandwich? You know, the turkey with the cheese. the gravy. Hot brown? Yeah, the hot brown. The hot brown. Yeah, did you get a hot brown? I had one of those.

Huh? Yes, I did, baby. Yeah, those are good. And my wife thought I was nuts. She had never heard of a hot brown. Oh, yeah, the hot browns are good. Yeah. I made sure, because I went, when I went to that Sweet 16 game, which, what year was that now,

2017, 2016, whatever it was, I took two of my three boys, because I guess Casey, my oldest was at school. And we went to the Brown Hotel, where they, I think it's the Brown Hotel. I think that's the name of the hotel. I could be wrong about the name of the hotel, but where they make the kind of the original recipe of the hot brown, which is a rather filling sandwich, but it is really good, really good. It's got, it's got everything that I like in it all piled together. So absolutely. It's like for people that don't know, and I'm looking it up now, so I don't get it wrong here. But from my, you know, my memory is like it's one solid piece of toast with lots of turkey breast,

lots of, like, you know, bacon, lots of, there's a sauce cheese and a sauce that goes over the top, and it's just great. All right, here it is. The hot brown is an open-faced sandwich of turkey breast or turkey breast and ham and bacon, covered in a creamy Mornay sauce and baked or broiled until the bread is crisp, yeah, and the sauce begins to brown. Cheddar cheese or American cheese may be added for the sauce. Alternatives for garnishes include tomatoes, mushroom slices, and very rarely canned peaches.

Yeah, I don't remember any of that part being of it, being a part of the sandwich. But yeah, the hot brown was pretty good. Okay, and then from Louisville up up 81, up 66 to 81 and home? No, no, no. Before we left Louisville, we went to the Muhammad Ali Center. Right. And Louisville. Yes, which was really great.

Again, you know, a great, like, museum. They had, it was cool because they had film, they had little mini theaters where you could watch, like, all of Ali's big fights, the whole fight. And my wife sat down with me. We watched the whole Forman Ali fight. If you want a little mini-theaters You can watch that on YouTube Whenever you want I know

I know that But we just felt like It just felt a little bit cooler To do it in the Ali's center And it's the first time she ever watched She's not You know, she's at home She's not gonna stop and watch the former

An Ali fight I didn't I'm gonna say How do you look to form an Ali fight on? I didn't watch it That's not gonna happen I know well fortunately it wasn't It was only you know

He was a seven round four fight. I mean, you know, as he goes down and just the whole, you know, the whole scene in Zaire, that really is, that is, when you think about the moment where he's, he's on the ropes and he's taking the pounding and then he kind of comes off and he throws a jab and it kind of rocks foreman back and then all of a sudden there's a flurry and just one punch and foreman's down. It's one of the more shocking moments in sports history, right? Like just that moment. because people thought Ali was going to get killed in that fight. They feared for his life going into that fight.

And look, I think I've always said if I could go back in time and cover an event, that would be the one I would cover because it happened in the middle of Africa. I know. You know? I mean, how many times is something like that happened? In the middle of the night, too, because it needed to be shown at a reasonable hour in the States on closed circuit TV. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the fight started like three in the morning,

or is that the Philippines fight with Frazier? I think Zaire started at four in the morning, I think. Yeah, four in the morning. I think that's when it started. And that was the Ali Bumayay, Ali Bumayi, kill him. Kill him. So, and one other thing we did was we stopped by Ali's grave site at the Cave Hill cemetery. And, you know, it's not particularly ostentatious. There's no statue of Ali there or anything

like that. It's a nice grave with a nice inscription there. They have a couple of benches where you could sit and pay your respects. There was nobody there but us the day we stopped by. And then we headed home. There was nobody else but you at the gravesite. Yeah, my wife and I were the only two there. Okay. And then you headed home. So it was a rousing successfully, successful road trip. That's awesome.

I think if you and I would have went on, we could have made a 30 for 30 if it was us. Yeah, we also may have gotten in trouble at night a couple of times, which would have been fun too, which would have made for some really good stories. Well, that's a good trip. You know, it was, there was a lot going on over the last. last couple of weeks. I know. I know. Like, I'm leaving, you know, for those, I think I mentioned this, I am heading out west.

I'm going out to L.A. Then I'm going to Palm Springs for my niece's wedding. So I am off tomorrow, Thursday, Friday, and Monday. But just so everybody knows, Tim Murray and Aaron, all right, Aaron still produces this podcast, are going to do shows for the podcast. and so there will be a product available. Tim's great. Aaron's great.

They're so into college hoops with the tournament starting, and they're so into NFL free agency, which is really the two main sports topics right now. So there will be a podcast. They're going to try to call Tommy and I on a couple of those days. We're still working out the logistics, and the technology associated with that from where they are recording the podcast out in Vegas.

guess, but there will be a show. But yeah, I mean, God, I've got a list of things, and you might have a list of things, too, because I just, you know, not everybody's reading your columns every day, but I think a lot of people are. And the column you wrote the other day, which I know you got a lot of, you know, pushback on. Well, hell, the DeShayzer Everett column that you wrote while you were away got the most. But the column that you wrote the other day, I actually think, and I know you got criticized by a lot of people, but all you really did was put the pressure on Ron Rivera for the Carson Wentz trade. More than anything else, it's like this is the guy that Ron Rivera's chosen to ride here,

either to the promised land or out of town. So we'll get to all of the things that Tommy missed, get his thoughts on those things. Some things obviously happened in free agency yesterday. Ron Rogers, the contract for him was announced this morning. So we got a lot to get to. And we'll start to get to that next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Don't forget to rate us and review us, especially on Apple and Spotify. You guys are doing a great job.

I've been reading Tommy some of the reviews recently. This one got me to just thinking about the old days. It's from DC to Casey. I read this one yesterday, but Tommy wasn't listening. I've been listening to Kevin and Tom since 2011. I'm no longer local, so I'm listening and keeping up with the Washington sports all the way from Kansas City. They still got it. I reminisce of the good times being stuck in stop and go traffic on Rockville Pike during their midday show.

Fun times. And I said, you know, I can picture it right now, just in that studio with that big, huge picture window, looking out onto Rockville Pike and yeah, Rockville Pike was always in gridlock. I'm pretty sure it was always in gridlock no matter what time of day it was. But thank you, KC. And then there was one other one I was going to read to you.

I can't find this one. We're getting lots of reviews that keep coming in. So thank you for that. that. It's amazing to me. I shouldn't say it's amazing because I do realize it based on the information we get that 50% of the audience of this podcast lives outside of the DMV. And that's, you know, the Washington football team, the commanders they're called, they will tell you at least up until like three years ago that 70% of their hardcore fans lived outside the market. I would bet you it's even higher than that now. Oh, here's the one I wanted to read to you.

An amazing award-winning DC-based podcast. By the way, I did the guy that created the DC Sports Podcast Association and gave us the award for the month of February. His name is Brian. We're going to have Brian on the show. Brian, if you're listening, we're not going to do it this week because I'm out of town. We'll have you on this show in the next couple of weeks, and you can update us on how things are going, how sponsorships are going for the DC Sports Podcast Association, where your offices are, if people want to stop in and say hello, how they vote on the podcast of the month, all of that stuff. But this from Parlet 316. So does the current landscape of boring talking heads are ridiculous over the top. Hot takes for you, then strap in and subscribe to the Kevin Cheyenne Show,

Kevin's knowledge, blah, blah, blah, blah. He says some very nice things about me. That's not what I wanted to get to. I wanted to get to this part where he says, okay, back to the show. Kevin brings on an eclectic array of guests who always bring insightful commentary and brilliant banter, very enjoyable when driving on the road. And finally, this podcast goes to an even higher place. plane of brilliance whenever Tom Levero is on the show. Tom is that uncle you have that you see during the holidays and you think, golly gee, this guy is great. And then he says, hey, kid, Santa isn't real.

And then finishes his drink. There was no one on this planet that can better tell you that you haven't really hit rock bottom yet because there's a lower low you can hit with Mr. Mr. Levero. And then they continue. Oh, they mention, oh, yeah. So stop listening to those small-hand podcasters and take your fat pudgy finger and hit this subscribe button to listen to the guy that's got Excel golf gloves.

No, actually, my golf glove is double Excel. Cooley and I were talking about, oh, by the way, he says, thanks to the one and only Kevin Shanahan. Oops, Kevin Sheehan. Um, the goal, no, I, Coley and I were talking about the hand size of Kenny Pickett, which was the smallest hands. If he ends up playing in the league, there'll be the smallest hands in the league at eight and a quarter inches. And I, somebody had said to me via Twitter or something that Coolly and I had done a hand measuring thing on the show several years ago, neither of which, um, neither of us remembered on that. But we do remember talking about hand sizes and he's got big pudgy hands.

I don't have pudgy hands. I do have big hands, though. I wear a double XL golf glove and I can palm a basketball very easily. I don't know what that equates to in measurement, but I'm going to guess it's between nine and a half and ten. The largest hands in the NFL are Russell Wilson's at ten and a half. I'm going to guess mine are somewhere. I could dunk a basketball pretty easily when I was younger, and part of the reason I could dunk a basketball wasn't because I had outrageous hops.

I was 6'3. I could get up a little bit. I didn't have great leaping ability, but I wasn't flat-footed either. But part of the reason I could dunk a basketball pretty easily is because I could palm a ball off the dribble pretty easily. So my hands are double Xcel golf gloves, Mr. Parlet 316. There you go. Mine are more Kenny Pickett size.

And pudgy. Yes. Yeah. You have, as Cooley said, Cooley's got more hands resembling paws. That's kind of you too. Yeah. All right. Let's start with this.

So Carson Wentz. to Washington for two draft choices, which will likely turn into a second and a third rounder. They ate all $28 million of his salary for the upcoming season. They also switched second round picks for the worse. And they got a seventh round pick back. I always forget to add that. So what was your reaction to the Carson Wendst trade? Because I will tell you, here in town, I think for almost everybody,

including everybody that covers the team, that was a bit of a job. dropper a week ago today or a week ago tomorrow whenever it was. Yeah, it was. Coming so quickly on the heels of the Russell Wilson trade and the deflation that came with that, it was a bit jarring. Like, within 24 hours, right? Pretty much? Yeah, it was the next day.

Yeah. It was pretty jarring. and I remember, you know, in the column I wrote that we were talking about, where basically I pointed out that Ron Rivera was, this was the act of a desperate man, this was a desperate act by a desperate man. And the response I got from most people was, well, he couldn't get anybody else. What did you expect him to do? And I said, there you go.

That's desperation. Yeah. That's exactly what it is. I don't know what to do. I've got to do something. I can't do anything else. Let's get this guy. There's a lot of that in there, in my opinion.

I think this was a bit of a panic, desperate move. I do. But keep going. What do you think of the move? I think that it's set up to fail. look, he could. He has enough talent, and we've seen enough of him

to know that, you know, somehow, if this thing went right, he could be really through 27 touchdowns last year and only seven interceptions. But yet they couldn't wait to ship him out the door. You know? I mean, it's not like he had 15 interceptions or something like that.

They couldn't wait to get rid of him. But the potential is, there, people are right, for him to do really well. That potential is never realized on this team. That potential never happens on this team. If the odds are low for a positive outcome, they're much lower when you play for this organization. This is not the place where people come to get right. You know, like I point out in the column, this is the place where bad things happen to good people and bad people. Yeah.

I don't think you focused on the thing that I, you've mentioned it. I don't think you focused on the thing that's most important about this trade. Is that the Philadelphia Eagles took the largest salary cap in NFL history to get him the hell out of their building. And then a year later, before Philadelphia could even use the first round pick that the Colts sent back for Wence. They got a third round pick as well. The guy that was, you know, his mentor and his biggest supporter, Frank Reich, they said, get the hell out of the building. And by the way, between Reich apologizing to the owner for vouching for Wence, which, you know, went public and Chris

Ballard, the GM, not saying glowing things before they even traded him, I just, to me, that trumps everything else in the conversation. Two organizations who aren't chump organizations. You know, Philadelphia had Doug Peterson coaching this guy. The Colts had Frank Reich coaching this guy.

And the Colts were set up to win. They had seven pro bowlers on their roster. They had a borderline MVP candidate in the backfield in Jonathan Taylor. And they could not wait to get rid of him.

They have no idea who's playing quarterback for them next year, but they know who's not, and it's him. They feel good about that. You're right. I mean, that's my point about, like, you know, for him to turn that narrative around, this is not the place for him to come. It usually isn't?

No, it typically isn't. Now, again, you know, I mean, anything's possible. But you go by track record, you go by history. That's how you make reasonable judgments. And the history of this organization is if you were a problem at other places, you're going to be a bigger problem in Washington. Because everything's a bigger problem here. You know I have more trust in the coaching staff, which, by the way,

they gave Scott Turner a contract extension as well. That happened while you were away. actually earlier this week. I'm more confident in the Mayhues and the herneys and the Rivas and the Del Rios and the football people in the organization than I've been. But, you know, Alex Smith didn't leave here on great terms. We don't know how Ryan Fitzpatrick's going to leave here after one year and, you know, two and a half quarters of taking snaps. I just think that, you know, forget the fact that this isn't the organization to come and thrive in and hasn't been. you know, they were going to cut this dude.

And I know that there are reports that there was another team and maybe there was another team that was going to trade for him. But I don't know. I mean, like we asked the question today, now knowing what Mitchell Tribisky got in Pittsburgh, Trubisky got a two-year deal worth kind of a minimum of 13.5 million per year for two years. But with incentives, I'm sorry, a minimum of about $7 million per year for two years, 14 million, just over 14 million in aggregate, or a maximum of 13 and a half million for two years with incentives. So if he plays really well, you know, he's going to make 13 and a half million bucks for the next two years. And I did a call segment this morning on the show and said,

if you could go back to last week and if you could assume, and this is a big assumption, because I don't think that this is true. But if in the hypothetical, if you assume that Mitchell Trubisky would consider Washington, because I think they got wind that they couldn't get Trubisky either, and that Trubisky was going to go to Pittsburgh or New York or somewhere else. And this gets back to the people who responded to you and said, well, what choice do they have? Nobody wants to come here. So the only people you can get here are people you trade for or you draft.

I understand that sentiment. But if you were to say hypothetically that Mitch Trubisky would come here for seven million a year, maybe a max if he really performs of $13.5 million a year. And you don't have to trade any picks. And he's a much smaller cap hit, which allows you to do more in free agency right now, versus the Carson Wens trade. Which would you do? A lot of people stuck with the Wents trade.

I would have signed Tribusky, and I wouldn't have thought twice about it. And it's not because I'm a Tribusky fan at all. It's because this Wence thing just has, you know, it has disaster written all over it. I'm not denying the talent. I'm not denying that there's a possibility that he plays well and realizes that talent like he did in 2016, 2017 specifically, and that somehow he becomes a less flawed person in your locker room. But the odds aren't in favor of that because if, there was even a chance of that happening, then Indy wouldn't have traded him from their perspective.

Absolutely. So I would have done Trisky. Here's the other thing. Either trade. Either trade. If you feel like you had to make that trade, then you felt that your job was in jeopardy. I mean, if you're secure in your job, in your five-year deal or whatever his deal is, I'm not sure. exactly what it is.

And this would be year three. You say to the owner, look, we won seven games last year with Taylor. You know, we could have won one or two more if, you know, he had better weapons.

There's nobody out there I want to trade for. And we'll draft the guy, but there's nobody we're excited about in the draft that much either. We're going to stand pat. at quarterback and not take the chance to create a bigger problem. You know, because you have faith in me.

And I'm going to, you know, maybe next year in the draft after that, there'll be somebody really hot available that we could trade, you know, draft picks for, or else maybe the kid we draft this year, if we drafted Malik Willis, you know, maybe he hadn't let him sit for a year, maybe he'll turn out, you know, to be the guy. but obviously he didn't he felt pressure that he had to make a move at quarterback whether it's trabisky or or wince so i mean the point of my column is his job is on the line no matter who he traded for yeah um i i mean the the job being on the line every time i think about that i just wonder would they really fire him if wence turns into a disaster this year and they go

6 and 11 or something like that. I don't know. I don't know. I still believe that if Ron Rivera's final year is 2022, it's because he decided it was his final year. But the Wentz thing is a big roll of the dice. It's a big risk because of the red flags all over the player. and if it turns into a disaster,

I guess at that point, could I see Dan getting, you know, frustrated and saying, what did you do? Well, the answer would be from Ron, as you've kind of described, it would be, well, what did you want me to do? Okay? We swung big for Matt Stafford. They chose L.A. We swung big for Russell Wilson.

He chose Denver. We got word that Mitch Trubisky wouldn't come here. And Marcus Marriota wouldn't come here. And Deshawn Watson would use his no trade clause not to come here. You haven't really built up a premium destination resort here for anybody to come to. So the only way is to trade for somebody. So the choices really were going big, which we did on Russell Wilson. And they did go big.

They went, you know, sort of big last year. and force somebody to play for us via trade, or we've got to draft that next person because if we get into free agency or if we're dealing with somebody with a no trade clause, the chances aren't very good and they have choices. The chances aren't very good that they're going to come here. So Carson has some ceiling.

Carson had a big year in 2017. He had a decent year in 2019. he had a horrendous year in 2020, albeit not with a great team around him in Philadelphia. His year last year really, I think the numbers speak to a better year than probably you watched, you know, qualitatively. And we couldn't be the last person on the dance floor without a partner. And nobody was coming over and nobody was saying yes. and here was this flawed, you know, half-decent-looking, you know, person who said yes.

Actually, he didn't say yes. He couldn't say no because he didn't really have a choice. So that's where they are. I want to read this from Albert Breer. Albert Breer, you know, from SI, writes the MMQB thing now for SI. And Albert Breer, just for background purposes, did write that piece about a month and a half ago, which came off almost as a marketing piece for the Washington football operation, about what a great place it was and how they've got a thousand-yard receiver and a thousand-yard running back.

And they've got an offensive line that was ranked sixth per PFF. And, you know, they had great depth on the offensive line. And they've got a great young foundation defensively. and they've got a great coaching staff in D.C. is a great place to live, and they're going to have a new name and a new brand and the whole thing. And it really was quite remarkable about how, you know, bullish Breer's story was. And, you know, I'm sure there was a little bit of help given and provided.

Because I think, you know, when you go back and you look at that piece and you look at the Mike Silver piece, Tommy, Washington was trying to get out the message as best as they could. Hey, this place isn't that bad. there's an opportunity here. They felt like they really needed to get that message out. I don't blame them for that. But Albert Breer wrote this morning,

understanding that he's clearly got a relationship and sources within the organization. In writing about the Mitchell Tribusky moved to Pittsburgh, he said, just as the trade for Carson Wentz won't dissuade the commanders from drafting a quarterback in the first round, if the right one's there, I certainly wouldn't expect the presence of Trabisky to kill all interests the Steelers have in quarterbacks

early in the draft either. Anyway, that was slipped in there as part of this Trabisky thing. Just as the trade for Carson Wentz won't dissuade the commanders from drafting a quarterback in the first round if the right one's there. Now, what do I think of that? I'll ask Tommy in a second. I think that, and I've said this since the trade,

I don't think drafting a quarterback in the first round should be off the table. Many of you disagree with me. I think that Carson Wentz is a one-year flyer. And then people say, Tommy, well, then why did they trade picks for them? Well, because they were desperate. And they couldn't be left on the floor by themselves while everybody else found a dance partner. And they didn't when they were promising something. And there's pressure to win.

There's a feeling that they can win next year with better quarterback. play. And they do believe, and by the way, I agree with this, that Carson Wentz is an upgrade over what they have. But I don't think it should prevent them from drafting Malik Willis if they love Malik Willis at 11. I don't think it should stop them from drafting Kenny Pickett if they love Pickett in the first round. I don't think it should stop them from drafting a quarterback in the first two rounds because they don't have a third rounder, a quarterback fairly high if they love that I don't want them to draft a quarterback if they don't like a quarterback. But I think a lot of people believe Malik Willis has a high ceiling.

And if he's there and getable, I think they should do it. And it sounds like Breer is saying that they would do it. Now, it's also beneficial for Washington to make people believe that they'll take a quarterback at 11 because that could create opportunities to trade back with a team that wants a quarterback. but I think they should be in the market for a quarterback if they love the quarterback, in the market to draft one if they really like one. What do you think? I think they should too.

But my point would be that if they're in the market, if they're going to draft a quarterback in the first round, I think the need for this trade, if you have a coach who's absolutely secure in his position, was not necessary. I mean, I think you could go into next season with Taylor Heineke if you felt you were on a long-term project and you were drafted a quarterback in the first round who was going to be your future. I mean, if the quarterback they draft in the first round this year, they don't think it's their future quarterback,

then they would have wasted both the Carson Went's trade and the draft pick. So you've got to operate on the assumption that if they pick a quarterback in the first round, it's somebody they believe can be their future. So I think the whole trading for the quarterback thing was pretty much useless unless the coach felt pressure to win. That's what I'm saying. It's a little bit deeper than that. I mean, first of all, let me just be clear. I don't want them to draft a quarterback if they don't love a quarterback.

I only want them to take a quarterback if they've identified a guy like Malik Willis or Kenny Pickett as a guy that has a high ceiling. because they should be in the business of drafting and acquiring quarterbacks with high ceilings. And if there's one there that they really do like and they all agree, Malik Willis could end up becoming Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes somewhere down the road, they should think about trading up for that player. Because the odds are stacked against Carson Wentz being the long-term. answer here. This is a one-year flyer. Now, to answer your concern of, well, if they felt that way, they shouldn't have traded for them. Well, therein lies the issue. It's not necessarily that

there's super pressure maybe from the owner. I don't believe that right now. I could be wrong, and that could be naive. I think all of the discussion about we are going to turn over every single Rock looking for a quarterback. And these reports about they've reached, they've got a list of 42, and they've reached out to all 31 teams to find out who's available and for what cost. And all of the promotion about going after a quarterback to come away with just Taylor Heineke and a draft choice would have been unacceptable. The second part of this is they do believe that they're close.

and I talked about this the other day, they blame a lot of the, you know, 7 and 10 on being 6 and 6 and and then having a major COVID outbreak, which really cost them a chance to beat Philadelphia on the road and then to go to Dallas. I mean, it totally wrecked the end of the year. Now, I don't think the end of the year would have turned out to be a playoff-worthy finish. I don't. But they have an excuse. It's not an irrational excuse.

they did have a major COVID outbreak. They had to start Garrett Gilbert on a Tuesday afternoon or Tuesday night in Philly. They got blown out by Dallas with a fight on the sideline with a bunch of players who had basically not practiced all week. They had a bunch of injuries and their season ended poorly. And they think that they're much closer to being in contention for like a 9-10 win season with better quarterback play. Because they had clearly identified that. But Tommy, what it aligns with is the pressure, if there is pressure from the other side of the building, to be competitive this year. It's what I've told you for so long about if they do ever have to change the name.

They have to win and be competitive right away. Or they will lose whomever's left and lose a chance to gain ground with a new fan base. And it feels very much like an expansion team and a new, and a new start, and they can't suck next year. And they've got to be competitive, and they've got to, in this offseason, provide, you know, this look that they're really going for it on the quarterback front. To me, Carson Wentz isn't going to sell any tickets. To them, Carson Wentz is an upgrade and aligns with the business side of the building

and gives them a chance to compete next year, which, you know, I do agree he's an upgrade over Taylor Heineke. There's no doubt that Wenzh is an upgrade over Taylor Heineke in my mind. But I don't think they believe he's the long-term answer, even though they traded for him. They hope he is. He's an upgrade over Taylor Heineke. I mean, this guy was what? The number one picking a draft for the Eagles, Taylor Heineke was an undrafted free agent who was a backup for an XFL team. So, yeah, I would hope that, you know, in the talent and potential category, this is certainly an upgrade.

But, I mean, again, this speaks to this hole that they've dug for themselves. And, you know, I mean, people say, well, what else are they going to do? Well, yeah, that's part of the problem. That's part of the problem is that they're in an untenable situation that they put themselves in. that they have to make a trade. And I know, and I'm the one who always preaches, it's all intertwined. There's no such thing as just football anymore. It's all connected.

Football media business, it's all that. But they have to make a trade that may not be a good football decision because they have to make up for bad business decisions. That's not good. You're right. And this is when Carson once was the second pick in the draft behind Jared Gough. if they'd trade it up for that pick, if, I mean, and then, you know, cut them with the biggest salary cap in NFL history,

the biggest salary cap hit. This is why I, you know, I don't pay attention to it. I know you do sometimes. Those of you out there that will say, oh, my God, stop talking about Dan Snyder, or stop talking about the aura of dysfunction, you know, of dysfunction, or stop talking. Well, it's all intertwined, as Tommy said. It's all connected.

It all comes back to the football thing. Him going in and drafting Dwayne Haskins against the better judgment of his football people. Look at the position that put the team in just recently. The off-the-field stuff, okay, you can make the claim that players don't pay really that much attention to it, but the agents do. And if players have choices, the agents are going to say to the players, no, that place is a train wreck. This place is a real organization. It's all connected.

You know, Dan Snyder being a horrible owner impacts our football conversation. It does. You know, I learned from the Pro Bowl that Russell Wilson was doing a lot of due diligence on Washington because he knew they were going to come after him and he wasn't necessarily opposed to Washington. However, there were other places Denver clearly that he much preferred. Now, Seattle wasn't going to trade him to an NFC team to begin with, but he much preferred Denver. Trubisky probably would have much preferred three or four other spots. Maybe other guys they were looking at. Deshawn Watson, they clearly understood that there was a chance he could be cleared from any criminal charges on Friday.

but they also knew they had very little chance of getting him because he's not going to come here. This is all because of Dan Snyder. It's all because of the 22 years of a shit show. It's all because this motherfucker walked into the draft room and said, no, we're drafting this guy that went to high school with my son. That was just three years ago. I know.

I mean, it's all connected. I know. We can sit here and have the kids. conversations about football, never mentioned Snyder, and never mentioned the dysfunction. But it's all impactful to the football conversation. Absolutely. Brandon Sheriff is the highest paid guard in the league. 17.5 million he got.

Should have traded him. Somebody pointed out to me this morning. They're going to get a third round compensatory pick for Brandon Sheriff, and he asked me, what could they have really gotten had they traded them, you know, last off season, you know, coming off a bad year in 2019 or 2020? I understand that there were some questions about Sheriff's injury history. Sheriff, though, you knew was going to get paid, okay? And I know the position, but Interior linemen have become more important with more emphasis on interior rush in recent years. just like quick West Coast-style offense has put more of a premium on corner play than maybe it has on pass rushers.

Anyway, my point is, I don't know what they would have gotten for Brandon Cher if it's different because we kind of knew that Cleveland, at the very least, if not Houston, you would have gotten a first rounder or something approximating a first rounder back for Trent Williams. We know you would have gotten number two overall from San Francisco for Kirk Cousins. So those were massive mistakes by the organization. But I bet you that they probably could have extracted more than a third. But maybe you're right. Maybe because of the injury history and the fact that he was off one franchise tag

and there probably was some pressure for the team to move them if they had looked like they were going to move them rather than pay him a second tag. Maybe you would have only gotten a second. That's fair. But you paid him two franchise tags. And now you're going to get a third, I think it's a third rounder based on his contract. A third rounder back is a compensatory pick. I forget how the compensatory pick formula works, but it has something to do with the contract value on the other end.

You know, in the sales pitch that Albert Breer was making about this great offensive line, I'm sure he neglected to say that they were about to lose their best offensive line. He did, but he said that even with injuries, they had a lot of depth, which still landed them at number six overall on PFF. Well, they do have more depth than they've had the past. I'll grant you that. They do have more depth than they had in the past. But, you know, for this great, powerful offense,

I mean, not one player was named to the Pro Bowl. Well, that sometimes happens when you go 7 and 10. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I discount a lot of that. It looks like, by the way, I'm just looking because I wanted to look for the compensatory pick thing. It's because it's a top 5% deal, I think, and it will be. I think they get a third rounder.

Okay. I think they'll get a third rounder for Brandon Sheriff. So there you go. And by the way, to the person that tweeted me to say, you know, Indy got back a second and a third from Washington. It's actually two thirds, but one of the thirds likely will become a second. And they traded a first and a third

for him. They traded actually a conditional second, which became a first because of the amount of snaps he took in Philadelphia. But is it that much difference? Well, first of all, it is a big difference when you're talking about first rounder and third rounder versus second and third rounder, because you get a first round

pick. Okay, Indy doesn't have a first round pick right now, which is hampering them in their effort to get like Deshawn Watson. They won it now. Houston pretty much said they're not going to trade him in the division anyway, but Indy doesn't have a first run pick, and Indy has Sam Ealinger as their quarterback. But the only thing I would say to the person that said, there's not that much difference. Indy ended up, you know, becoming almost whole. No, they didn't become almost whole because they lost a first rounder and they got two third in a third rounder, and they got

two thirds back that probably will be a second and a third. But the bigger issue here, is they were ready to cut him. They were going to cut him and get nothing back for him. That's where they had gotten to that point. They telegraphed everything. They were so frustrated with him. They said,

you know, if we don't find a trade partner, we're releasing him. Yeah. So they were willing to take nothing back. And Washington was there to give them a lot back, including eating all of that contract. Okay. There are other things need to get to, including, you know, where you are and why you're there and baseball restarting.

We have an NCAA tournament starting. I'm going to give you my formula that I've given you two out of the last three years that identifies the teams capable of winning the tournament. Tommy does not have a bracket in front of them. So we're not going to fill out brackets this year, but I'm going to give you first round upsets and my final four and my national champion. We'll do that, all of that, after these words from a few. of our sponsors. March is here and the madness has officially begun. It's time for you to shoot your shot and score big on the nonstop action with MyBooky. Predict winners in each round of the MyBooky bracket contest for a chance to win a Bitcoin, a doodle NFT currently valued at over $50,000

and over $100,000 more in cash prizes. Whether you're filling out multiple brackets, betting the national championship winner, or simply looking for player and game props, MyBooky has you covered. Sign up today with MyBooky. Use my promo code Kevin D.C. to make your first deposit earning a free entry into the My Bracket contest. Selections for the bracket will officially begin, well, they've already officially begun. They'll close on the first day of the actual first round, March 17th at noon. So make sure you get your deposit in now. Again, use my promo code Kevin DC to secure that free entry. Bet anything, anytime, anywhere. with my bookie. So real quickly, Washington lost Tim Settle to Buffalo. As you know, Brandon

Sheriff goes to Jacksonville. More stuff is happening today. Oh, I did want to mention the Christian Kirk deal, the four years, 84 million for a guy that's never had a thousand yard receiving year, has had only four total 100-yard receiving days to Jacksonville. Really probably had people like Terry McLaren and his agent dancing yesterday and cracking and uncorking champagne bottles. McClorn's in a really good spot. Now, I know DJ Chark signed a one-year $12 million deal today, and maybe that's a little bit more of a reality check on receivers. But McCloren and Tommy, this is going to be really interesting to watch here is what does Terry McLaren do because they're going to make an offer to extend him. And I don't know, maybe he shouldn't

take it. Maybe he should wait to see if Carson Wentz is the right guy. Wait to see if they draft another quarterback. Wait to see what happens next year because a year from now, he could be signing the four-year, you know, $90 million deal to go somewhere, you know, in the 20 million plus range per year as a wide receiver, which would put him, you know, top five to top eight. in the league. Aaron Rogers, some news from this morning. The actual contract that he's staying in Green Bay with is three years, $150 million. But that's including this year that he already had.

So in actuality, according to Schefter, it's really a two-year, $124 million contract extension. Now, they lowered the cap hit significantly for this year. year. Also, real quickly, Randy Gregory, who remember, failed a drug test, was suspended four games, then got 10 more, then 16 more for violating the substance abuse policy as a Dallas Cowboy. And then this year, there were games when you were watching number 94 where he was as dominant as any player on the field, not named Micah Parsons for Dallas. So the Cowboys now have resigned Lawrence and they've re-signed Randy Gregory. I don't know where they're getting the money. Obviously, Amari Cooper and trading him helped out a lot. Still nothing on the Washington front as of now. Obviously, that could change. But they're not working with a whole hell of a lot of cap space. And like I said yesterday, it would not surprise me if Washington is more in what they've been mostly in the last two years, which is shorter. term lower money deals for guys they like. And they've made those guys work. Logan Thomas,

J.D. McKissick, you know, Charles Leno Jr., DeAndre Carter, etc. So, Ben Standing just tweeted out that the Jags are releasing linebacker Miles Jack. I'm wondering about that for Washington too, which it seems like Ben is wondering the same thing because, yeah, Miles Jack is a baller. God, I love him when he's healthy. So anyway, I want to get to some college hoops, and then I want you to talk about the Nats. But why don't you talk about the Nats first? Because you're in West Palm, you're at spring training. Baseball is going to happen. I have one quick question before you start to tell me whatever it is you're going to tell me and everybody else about the Nats. Will they make up the games lost from the first two weeks of the season?

Yes. They'll play 162 games. Yeah, I thought so. Okay. Yeah, they will. Go ahead. Well, you know, I'm a little bit optimistic about them. They went out and they signed Nelson Cruz as their DH.

He's 41 years old, but, you know, he could still crank out 30 to 30. home runs a year and drive in 100 runs. And then that's, they're going to score a lot of runs this year on their offense. What got lost in the shuffle during their collapse last year is their offense scored a lot of runs in the second half of the year. They produced a pretty good amount of offense. You know, Mike Rizzle pointed out to me that after the trade deadline last year,

in 42 games, they led in the sixth inning. Wow. Which is a remarkable number. Yeah. It doesn't speak well to the bullpen. No. No. And they're remaking the bullpen yet again,

which is an exercise that a lot of teams have to do. Doolittle's back. Yes, do little is back. But he won't be a closer. He'll be a situational guy. Look, the key for this team to be competitive is come down with Steven Strasbourg and Patrick Corbyn. You know? I mean, Patrick Corbyn had one of the worst years any Nationals pitcher ever had last year.

He needs to bounce back, and Strasbourg is supposedly healthy. He was throwing, I think as we speak, he's throwing a live bullpen session, a live BP session, batting practice session, this morning facing hitters, and he's supposedly healthy. The odds of him staying healthy coming off, you know, thoracic surgery, right. shoulder surgery are not good, I would say, given his track history. But if Strasberg and Corbyn can give them strong starts and keep them from going to the

bullpen before the sixth inning, you know, it would go a long way towards improving their bullpen. So it's going to come down for pitching. But they'll mash. They'll score some runs this year. Tell me about the acquisition of Nelson Cruz. Well, you know, like I said, he is very respected in the game. I mean, one of the most well-like people in the game.

He's seen as a mentor, particularly to the Latin players. He's from the Dominican Republic. And for their first time at the swing at the DH, he's a pretty good swing. he's going to give a lot of protection to Juan Soto who spoke to reporters yesterday and whatever they need to pay Ron Soto, they need to pay him. You know, Rizzo came out on Sunday saying they're going to be very

aggressive about pursuing him, but this guy is this guy is literally a once-in-a-lifetime player and not just a talent. I mean, he is a remarkable guy to be around. I mean, his demeanor compared to, like, Bryce Harper, is so night and day. I mean, he stood there with reporters yesterday and was relaxed, was smiling, laughing, enjoying himself. He enjoys himself.

He has come up with this plan to be the same guy he's always been. And that's going to be harder to do as he becomes more and more elite and more and more recognized. But he is a special talent and a special guy, and they will regret forever if they let him walk out the door. Well, has your opinion changed on what the ultimate outcome will be? No. I don't see the learners ponying up the offer you can't refuse. You can't let it to get the free agency. You can't do what you did to Bryce Harper. If you don't sign him before his last year, you've got to trade him.

Either way, it's painful. And in order to sign him, you've got to make them an offer, Scott Boris being his agent, that would be that in its whole entirety would be more attractive than him become a free agent. And I don't think they're going to do that. When you say you're optimistic, what does that mean in that division right now? Can they finish third in that division? Can they win 80 games? What are you thinking?

Oh, I think winning 80 games, I think absolutely. I think they can. Look, I mean, they're talking about 2023 as their year to be really competitive. Right. They've got like three or four pitching prospects that are scheduled, that they expect to break out in 2023, Kate Covelli,

Jackson Rutledge, Cole Henry, these are all highly touted pitching prospects who you won't probably see this year. So, 2023 is the year they think will be their

breakout year. But remember, I mean, this year broke out a year early, this team broke out a year early earlier the first time, too. In 2020, 2012, nobody expected them. to win 98 games like they did.

So I think they are at least, I think they are at least easily a competitive third place team and a team with a winning record. But they need to get starting pitching to help them do that. I don't think that anybody's picking them anywhere but fourth or fifth in this division, right? I mean, the Mets are certainly with the addition of Scherzer and all the money they spent.

I mean, to have your one-two be de Grom and Scherzer, that's pretty formidable. The Phillies, the Braves, who are they better then in the division? I think they could be better than the Phillies. Okay. They're better in the Marlins. I think they could be better in the Phillies. And the Braves just made a trade for Matt Olson, which means they're going to let Freddie Freeman walk.

Yeah, I saw that. So that's going to be a different kind of team next year, too. I mean, Freddie Freeman killed the nationals. Everyone knows that. We don't know what the impact of that will be. So will they be better in the Braves? I can't sit here and say now they would. No.

I would put the Mets in the Braves at one, too. But I think they could be better in the Phillies. All right. You ready for some tournament talk to finish up the show? Yeah, let me read you a tweet that just came out, though. I think you'll appreciate it. It is from... It's from Jeremy.

And this is what he tweeted 18 minutes ago. Tom Leverro, today is the day you drive Kevin Sheehan crazy and at least half of his listening base with the molasses-like slow burn reveal of your NCAA bracket. As Kevin drag you... As Kevin drags you through the show,

pick by pick. Oh, my God. And he says, he says, resist. It is your time to shine. Yeah, but you're not prepared. I know, I know. What can I tell you? You know, I almost.

You know, how much, I mean, I'm not, I mean, what can I do? I just came off a nine-day music road trip. I turned around and flew to Florida for spring training, and you want me to come up with a bracket? No, I, but it's so funny because we have our listeners so often will remind us of things. And, you know, if we were more organized, I think, and didn't have all these other things going on, we'd have like some sort of reminder on this day, a year ago, you guys did this. Don't forget to do it again this year. You know, that kind of thing, like for NCAA tournament brackets, because right when you say, I mean, every year it would be like, oh, my God,

what is he doing? Just give me the ups. sets in the first round by C. Do you know how to do that for crying out loud? And it's true. I know. It's painfully fun. I'm going to do something, and I did tell you this before the show. So, in 2019 before the tournament, we picked

our brackets. You did, I did, and Aaron did. And I picked Virginia win the tournament, which they did. But then I went a day later into this exercise, which was a bit of a rip-off from various people with a little bit of Kevin injected into it, that essentially takes the field of 68 teams and narrows it down to a handful of teams based on certain criteria that can win the tournament, and no one else can. And this is something that, you know, as you're preparing to fill out your brackets, there are various people that will do the 68 down to

the couple of teams that can win the tournament. And that particular year, because I went back and listened to it yesterday and the one from last year, because we didn't do one in 2020 because there was no tournament. You know, it was two years ago right now, two years ago, I forget to the day or not, it was probably like a week ago, two years ago a week ago, was the beginning of the pandemic shutdown. And I will give you credit, maybe it's your greatest call of all time. when you said, and I'll never forget it, you said, and this was before, this was when Rudy Gobert tested positive,

and it was the first big time name to test positive for the virus, and you came in and you were on the show the next day, and I was looking at, you know, Maryland in the Big Ten tournament and the NCAA tournament, you said, well, wait a minute, wait a minute, what are you doing? And I said, well, you know, they're Big Ten champs and, you know, they open up, they're going to play the winner of it, but I forget who it was. They're not playing the Big Ten tournament.

I said, what are you talking about? They're not playing the Big Ten tournament and they're not playing the NCAA tournament. It's over. The season is over. And I remember I said, no, it's not. They're going to play these games. They might, you know, and I told you about my CD's. neighbor at the time who said they probably will get you know get extra teams in the event that a team

test positive and has to tap out or you know forfeit they might have another team right maybe they should pick 75 teams in case somebody gets COVID before and you just laughed and you said no no no no it's over they're not playing the tournament and you were right I can't believe even to this day because they could have easily played the tournament. Obviously, in hindsight, in hindsight, it would have been totally fine, not because of what we've learned, you know, now, but because it really was with no crowds would have been totally fine to play in the moment. But nobody knew then, okay, and things were, you know, we were still learning about that. But I, that year, after picking Virginia the year before in the bracket in 2019.

I then came up with this exercise that I'm going to go through that didn't list Virginia as one of the teams that could win the tournament. And you mocked me for 10 minutes. You just, I don't, wait a minute. You spent all this time going through this formula and you picked Virginia anyway. I wish, you know what, I should just play. play that segment at the end of the show here for people to listen to from three years ago. Anyway, so here's what I did three years ago, and I did it last year, didn't do it in 2020.

Gary Williams said to me several years ago, if you can't score, you can't win the tournament. If you're just a good defensive team, you can win three games, you can win four games, you might make a final four, but you can't win six games in a row if you're not a team that can really score. And he also said, and score efficiently with really good offense, you know, definitely playing up-tempo and increasing your possessions per game, but also running really efficient offense. And so that started me down the path of creating, and it's partly a rip-off of other people, but I've injected some other criteria for me into this. So you start with, you start with, you. the field of 68. And the first way to knock down a big portion of the list of 68 teams is you've got

to be a top 15% scoring team in the country to win the tournament. Why will 14 of the last 17 tournament winners have finished in the top 15% of points per game? Virginia was one of those teams that did not that particular year because they did win the tournament. So you start with 358 Division I schools. You find the numbers, the highest average points per game numbers. And of the list of 68, 25 teams were finished in the top 15% of the highest scoring teams. Those teams were Wright State, Yukon, Montana, Memphis, Colgate, Illinois, Houston, San Francisco, Murray State, UCLA, Bryant, Baylor, Arkansas,

UNC, Kansas, Auburn, UAB, Kentucky, Gonzaga, Alabama, Duke, Iowa, Arizona, South Dakota, South Dakota State, who was the number two scoring team in the country, and Gonzaga. So that gives you, out of the 68 teams, 25 that are left, that can win the national championship per this little exercise. The second analytic, if you will, or key statistic, is the Ken Palm adjusted efficiency rating. Okay, it's not just scoring, it is scoring efficiently. And Kenpom.com, many of you who are college basketball people, probably look at it, but the adjusted efficiency number, which is point score, per 100 possessions, adjusted for the opponent.

If you finished in the top 10 of that particular metric, you won 15 out of the last 18 national championships. So now out of those 25 teams that finished in the top 15% of highest scoring teams, I'm looking for out of that 25, those that finished in the top 10 in the adjusted. Offensive Efficiency Ken Palm number. So that list got narrowed down to the following teams. Gonzaga, Iowa, Purdue, Kentucky, Arizona, Kansas, Duke, Baylor, and Houston. So from 25, we go down to nine teams that can win the national title.

We move on to criteria number three. And this is where I inject some of my beliefs and my common sense basketball approach to this. So I've gotten the offensive numbers, you know, the Gary Williams, you've got to be really good offensively. You've got to be a high-scoring team and you've got to be an efficient offensive team. And I've gotten us down to nine numbers with some pretty good, you know, 14 out of the last 17 national champs, been among the top 15% highest scoring teams, and 15 of the last 18 national championship teams have finished in the top 10 in Ken Palm's adjusted offensive efficiency number. Number three for me is, what do people always say about the tournament and about college

basketball in general? What kind of play is required? Good guard play. Shooting the three, good guard play, good perimeter play. The teams with the best guards have the best chance, right? We always hear that. College basketball is a game for the guards. So what I've looked for starting three years ago was I wanted two of your top three scorers to be perimeter players. And in this day and age, they don't have to have a guard, you know, a G next to their name,

but they've got to be a perimeter player. You know, they play more facing the basket on the outside, shooting threes, driving off that line, than they are a post-up player. So, of the nine teams left, how many of those teams have two of their top three scorers being perimeter players? Gonzaga is a no, because Holmgren and Timmy are two of their top three scores. So they're out. Right. Iowa is a yes with Keegan Murray, who really is one of the best players in this tournament and Jordan Bowhannon. Now, some of you will say, well, Murray plays sometimes on the post. He plays mostly as a perimeter player creating off the dribble, playing behind the arc, and then moving, he's got a good mid-range game too. Iowa is a yes. Purdue is a note. Their top two scores, two of their top three scores are their two big men.

Edie and Trevion Williams, who is one of my favorite players in college basketball. Look, Jaden Ivy might be the best player in the tournament, but two of their top three scorers are true big men, true big men, Edy and Williams. So Purdue is out. Duke is yes. I mean, they've got, you know, you can say Bancaro is a forward and play. No, he plays as a perimeter player, and Moore does two, and so does Keels and so does Griffin. Duke's a yes.

Baylor's a yes with Akinjo and Flagler and Cryer. Lots of perimeter play from them. Houston is a no, unless Sasser comes back, which there was a story yesterday that he might come back, but they're a no. They don't have two of their top three scorers right now that are healthy being guards. Arizona's a no.

Kansas is a yes. Kentucky is a yes as well with Grady and Washington. in particular. So from nine, we end up with five, Kansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Duke, and Baylor. So then the last piece of injected subjective criteria for me is I, you know I love basketball and you know I love to critique constructively coaching. I do think there are some teams that are not well-coached in college basketball. And I think there are some teams that are teams that are exceptionally well-coached.

So for me, the last piece of criteria, very subjective, is, are they well-coached? I'm not going to put a team in here that I think is not well-coached. It doesn't have to be an elite situation, but you've got to be, if you're watching them and you're a basketball person, you're like, that team's pretty well-coached. Well, Kansas, obviously, with Bill Self is. Kentucky is with Calipari. Duke is with Kay. And Baylor, Scott Drew won the national championship last.

year, it would be tough to say they're not. And with all they lost in the year they had, he's doing a hell of a job. Iowa would be the one you might contest. But Fran McCaffrey, even though he's never been out of the second round as the Iowa coach or the Sienna coach, where he went to the tournament multiple times, I actually think Fran McCaffrey is a decent coach. Watching them, I love the way they use pressure, full court pressure, half court pressure. I think they run good offense. Right now, they are as explosive as any team in the field. So all of the teams that made it through the first three sets of criteria,

I'm leaving there as teams that can win the title per this exercise. Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, Baylor, and Iowa. What are you doing there with your phone? What am I doing? I mean, I'm listening. I'm in awe. I'm in awe. It's brilliant.

You got phones that are beeping and everything else. All right. Since you didn't fill out a bracket, I'm just going to quickly go through mine for everybody. Take it for what it's worth. First round upsets, all right, that would be lower-seated teams, beating higher-seated teams,

not based on point spread because there are some point spreads that are really close. There are even some lower-seated teams that are favored. But we'll go based on seed. In the West, I think the Rutgers-Noderdame winner has a chance to beat Alabama, and I think Memphis is the nine beats the eight in Boise. In the south, I think TCU, the nine beats Seton Hall, and I think Michigan, the 11 beats Colorado State.

In the Midwest, I've got South Dakota State the 13 seed. Boy, they're playing my team in Providence with Jared Bynum and Ed Cooley. But South Dakota State's the second highest scoring team in the country. they've won a ridiculous number of games in a row. I think the 13 beats the 4 there. I think Iowa State beats LSU with their coaching situations. Finally, Will Wade gets fired. And I think Miami, the 10 beats USC.

In the east, I have Virginia Tech as an 11 over Texas the 6 and San Francisco the 10 over Murray State the 7. My Sweet 16 in the South region, in the West region, is Gonzaga against Arkansas and the Rutgers Notre Dame winner, which I think is going to be Rutgers against Duke, Arkansas Duke in the Elite 8. I've got Gonzaga out and I've got Arkansas into the final four. In the south, my Sweet 16, Arizona the one against Illinois the four, Villanova the two against Tennessee, see the three, man, this region is loaded. Those matchups would be great. I've got Arizona and Tennessee advancing to the elite eight. I really wanted to pick Tennessee because I like them a lot, but I picked Arizona to make the final four. In the Midwest, I've got Kansas versus Iowa in a sweet 16 game,

Wisconsin versus Auburn, and I've got an all-big 10 elite eight in the Midwest between Iowa and Wisconsin with Iowa advancing to the final four. And then in the east, I've got Baylor-U-CLA, which would be a hell of a game. Virginia Tech upsetting Purdue and facing Kentucky, and then I've got a Kentucky-U-C-L-A, Elite 8, Kentucky winning that. So the final four, I've got Arkansas, Kentucky, and an SEC Final Four matchup with Kentucky advancing to the final. And Arizona and Iowa, Lut Olson, the longtime great coach at Arizona, came from Iowa. Iowa beating Arizona in a semifinal game, a Kentucky Iowa final final with Iowa, cutting down the

Nets as the national champion. There it is. That's my bracket. I don't know if I'll post it or not. I might. But we can come back to this next week when I'm back. Brilliant. Absolute brilliant.

That's how you go through a bracket, you know. We would have been still, if Tommy had been filling out a bracket, we'd still be on our first pod of four teams in region number one, him trying to figure out whether or not he had an upset or not. Yes, but mine is more fun. Mine is more famous. How's that? It is more famous, that's for sure.

Yes. Do you have anything else for the show today? I got nothing else for you, boss. You have a good time out on the West Coast and don't get arrested. Well, I hope not to get arrested. But, yeah, right now it's very possible. There's big news coming. but as mentioned, oh, by the way, I did want to say,

I think it's surprising that Deshawn Watson has basically narrowed it down, or the teams have been narrowed down to the Saints, Panthers, and it would appear the Browns. I did have Mike Jones on the show earlier. He said Seattle's still in it. But I didn't think New Orleans had any opportunity with their salary cap situation. But it's interesting, the Watson situation, Tom. me, the number of teams that are really in play and super interested might actually be less

than what we thought. I think teams are still a little bit leery of, I don't know if it's the PR stuff. I think it's more about the guy they're getting maybe. Who knows? But if he goes to New Orleans and they keep, and Michael Thomas comes back and they've got Camara and they've still got some of their defense, they're going to have to cut a lot of people to make it work. All of a sudden, Tommy, that NFC, remember we said all the quarterbacks are going to be gone, and now Brady, Rogers, and Deshawn Watson will all be in the NFC potentially. All right, that's it for the day again. Tim Murray and Aaron Oster, Aaron produces the show, will be putting out a podcast under the heading,

the Kevin Sheehan Show. So you'll get shows talking about the tournament and free agency, et cetera. I'm sure they'll have some guests on this show. show, and it's possible if we can figure it out that Tommy and I'll call in on a couple of those days. All right, it's good to have you back. Glad you're back. Enjoy Florida. I'll enjoy the warm weather of the West Coast, and we will reconvene together a week from today.

Okay, boss.