The Kevin Sheehan Show - Washington-New England Recap

Episode Date: August 13, 2021

Kevin today with his recap of Washington's first preseason game of the summer which had more good than bad. You'll hear from Ron Rivera and Taylor Heinicke as well. Kevin also had a few observations about last night's Steelers-Eagles game and more.  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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Did they practice in pads on back-to-back days? Now off the play thing. It's pat to the time firing down the middle, and it's snagged by Terry McClure,

one of the better receivers in the league, and Washington has it in midfield. Ryan Fitzpatrick to Terry McLorn. I think we're going to hear that a lot this year. Good day to all on this Friday. August 13th. Yes, it is Friday the 13th. As I said that, I just realized that it was Friday the 13th. The day after Washington's preseason opener, 22 to 13 lost in New England, a game that many of you were super hyped for. I was just more interested in, but I have to say that I thought the game was played cleanly,

and it sort of exceeded my expectations in terms of some of the positives that came out of it. I thought there were a lot more positives than negatives. I will get to all of that in my game take coming up here momentarily. You're going to hear what Ron Rivera said after the game last night about Dustin Hopkins. You'll want to hear that. Also, what Taylor Heineke said about two of the offensive newcomers. I thought it was very telling. I'll play that for you as well.

Dwayne Haskins had a big night in Pittsburgh last night. Philadelphia approached their preseason game in a way that I, would approve of, and the Chargers, Washington's week one opponent, made a decision on how they're going to handle the preseason. So we'll get to all of that as well on the show today. Before we get started, I want to remind everybody, please subscribe to the podcast. It doesn't cost you a thing, and it really helps us. Number two, if you have a chance to rate and review the show, especially on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, give us five stars. and give us a one to two sentence review.

It'll take you all of a minute to do. And again, that really helps us as well. The podcast today is presented by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie.orgie and listen to the offer they have for first-time players at MyBooky. If you use my promo code, Kevin D.C. They will double your first deposit entirely. Okay, so if you deposit 500 bucks, they're going to give you an extra 500 to play with. If you deposit $2,000, they'll give you an extra $2,000 to play with.

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Get your first ever deposit match dollar for dollar. That's extra money credited to your account instantly for using my promo code Kevin DC after making your first deposit. Bet anything, anytime, anywhere with my bookie. I did not wager on the game last night, although interestingly, I think I mentioned with Tommy yesterday on the podcast, that the point spread when we were doing the podcast yesterday was Washington minus two. Well, apparently the game went off at Washington plus two, which is rather interesting for a preseason game. But apparently the line moved four points. So whoever was on New England minus the two, you got a big winner courtesy, by the way, of a 91-yard touchdown run.

By the way, I also noticed something just real quickly, just an observation, and I had predicted this a few weeks back. The Chargers have been pretty much throughout the offseason since the schedule was released. An across-the-board one-point favorite over Washington in the opener on September 12th. I am now looking at after last night, and maybe this has something to do with sort of the evaluation of some of the players for Washington, maybe the quarterback play, I am seeing now pick them across the board between the Chargers and Washington. That doesn't surprise me. I predicted early on that Washington would eventually go off as a favorite. I just think there is so much optimism about this football team from the public.

And I think that's because there's a lot of media optimism. So I would not be surprised if when we get to game day on September 12th or the week leading up to it, if Washington's actually favored over the Chargers. All right, three segments to the show today. The first one is my game take. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Day. So a list of the things that I liked from the games, some things that I didn't like, and that list is much shorter and a couple of other observations from the game last night. First of all, for a preseason game, I thought it was cleanly played. I thought both teams were ready for it, as much as you can be for a preseason opener.

You know, starters played at least a series or two on both sides. of the ball. You saw some urgency, you saw some physicality, you saw some crispness to the offensive play in particular. You didn't see a game that was marred with penalties. I think New England had nine penalties in the game. That's a lot. Washington had only three. You didn't see a lot of turnovers in the game. Washington had the one turnover, the Stephen Montez interception. I thought for a preseason game, because there was some crisp play, and it was played rather cleanly, and I think in a discipline fashion, for the most part, by two teams that I think are well-coached, one, elitely coached, I understand that.

I think you got a lot out of it in terms of player evaluation, and really, that's the only thing you can do in these preseason games is wish for no serious injuries. then evaluate, you know, individual play. Neither team's game planning. You all know that. I wouldn't take game situation and game strategy super seriously. So let's get to, you know, what I liked in addition to a game that was not impossible to consume. The last hour of it's tough. You know, the third and fourth quarter of it was tough. But, you know, there was some excitement there at the with Washington having a chance and actually thinking for a moment that they had tied the game. I'll start really with this.

I really thought Washington's skill position players offensively showed well, almost all of them. Starting with the quarterbacks, Ryan Fitzpatrick looked like he had a grasp of everything. He got his team in and out of the huddle. I think there was one time where I think Gibson was lined up on the wrong side, and he corrected him. Maybe that was the play call in the huddle. Maybe it was Gibson. I don't know. He's calm. He seems to have a handle on the offense. He threw the ball well. He's your starter. We'll get to Taylor Heinecke in a moment. But Ryan Fitzpatrick is your starter. He was five for eight and had the throw that we mentioned to Terry McLorn on that first drive of the game for 22 yards. And we will see a lot of that this year. but my favorite play of the game, and to me the most encouraging play of the game, was his third and 10 throw on their second drive to Logan Thomas, the back shoulder throw for 24 yards, move the chains.

That looked like a quarterback in a tight end that have played a lot of football together, and they haven't. That was a perfect throw that was perfect body positioning by Logan Thomas. That's going to be something that we, see a lot this year too. And we know that the quarterback play wasn't good enough last year and that the skill position play wasn't good enough overall. We saw a very good quarterback play last night for a preseason game in terms of individual evaluation from Ryan Fitzpatrick in his two series and then I thought from Taylor Heineke as well. I thought Heineke looked like he did in the

playoff game against Tampa. He has the ability to create and extend plays and make something out of nothing. This is what you get when you get a guy that was that productive at the college level. I've mentioned this about Taylor Heineke before. He reminds me of Jeff Garcia. Obviously, that's a phenomenal comp, and I'm not saying he's Jeff Garcia. But after that playoff game, with Cooley, I said, I think he reminded me, and I made a note of it during that playoff game, he reminds me of Jeff Garcia.

And Cooley said, yeah, that's a good. good comp. We found out a few days later that Heineke had actually worked with Jeff Garcia as he was coming into the NFL and trying to make his way. There's something very likable about his game and very intriguing about his game. I do not think he should start. I don't think he will start. I don't think there's a legitimate quarterback competition. He's been injured in almost every opportunity he's gotten to play in the NFL in a regular season game. So there's concern there. And the team obviously looked for a starting quarterback, both a short-term solution, which is the one they settled on with Ryan Fitzpatrick, but they were also trying to trade for a longer-term solution, see the Matt Stafford offer.

So the coaching staff doesn't necessarily believe that Taylor Heineke is a definitive long-term answer either. But they were intrigued enough by his performance in the playoff game, his performance against Caroline in the second half to sign him to a, you know, low-risk contract and bring him back. And I thought we saw some things from Heineke that we saw last year that make him really good when he's out there in a backup role. And that is he makes plays. He makes plays off schedule. He was making those plays with second-teamers against second-teamers. I think we understand that. And maybe even against some third stringers on the other side. But he's a baller. He's one of those athletes that, you know, just has a really good sense of space and timing and anticipation.

You know, it's the things that I've talked about, you know, when describing athleticism. There's so many ways to describe athleticism. You know, many just sort of rely on the, you know, how fast, how strong, how quick, how, you know, what's their vertical, et cetera. I think there's much more of a definition to an athlete. And I think a lot of it is, you good hands, good feet, good anticipation, good feel for spacing. And that's the kind of athlete Heineke is. Heineke's the guy that gets out in a three-on-three touch football game in your backyard or, you know, on a street corner, and is making people miss and dodging people and then throwing a ball with perfect lead, you know,

in perfect touch to a guy after, you know, he ran around for 10 seconds. He, you know, is, he was a good baseball player, good basketball player. He is just an all-around athlete that I bet, you know, is probably a good golfer. I bet he's probably a good tennis player if he ever picked up a tennis racket. He's a guy that can do everything. But he's not a starter. Ryan Fitzpatrick is your starter. But I thought He played well.

He had a couple of throws and a couple of misses. He probably missed on the second goal on the bootleg, a wide open receiver. I think it was Isaiah right. be wrong, but I thought he looked good. I thought Montez, I mean, given that we've never seen him, because he didn't play in the preseason last year, and the only time we saw him up close was when there was the threat of him playing in that playoff game against Tampa when Heineke got hurt, and he looked frightened to death. We could be projecting there. But I thought he did a good job, and look, he led a 92-yard drive with a chance to tie the game and a perfect throw on the two-point

conversion to AGG and he just didn't pull it in. You know, he lost possession briefly on the way down to the turf. By the way, AGG carried that ball back with him like he, you know, was absolutely sure that he had made the catch and it was overturned by replay. But, you know, Montez isn't going to be a starter in this league. You know, there was some talk about throwing in some packages for him. Bottom line is, though, I thought he was pretty decent. You know, he made a bad throw here or there.

He also made on that final drive multiple 30s. down conversions, including a 14-yard run with his feet on third and long. So the quarterbacks, I thought, were pretty good. The skill position players at running back, I thought were outstanding. Now, we didn't see a lot of J.D. McKissick more on him in a moment. Jared Patterson, I tweeted this out after the first series. I think he's going to be on the roster. I don't think you can cut him.

I think if you cut him, you're going to lose him. His production at the college level really dictated that somebody should have drafted him, but they didn't. And Washington immediately signed him as an undrafted free agent. He's a local kid, went to Vincent Pilate, part of the WCAC, played a high level of competition in high school football, played in the Mac at Buffalo, had the eight touchdown 406 yard game, was incredibly productive as a runner. Some of the question marks were, can he catch the football? well, he had four catches last night to lead the team for 30 yards. What he has is he's got incredible vision and super quick feet. I like him a lot.

I don't know how they keep him, but they're going to keep him. That's my bet right now. I don't think they will expose him to waivers, hoping they can bring him back to the practice squad. I think he's going to make the final 53. Does that mean you cut Peyton Barber? I don't think it does. I thought Peyton Barber looked good last night.

I know he missed the third and one. He slimmed down a little bit. I think Barber's another inside the tackles, good vision, you know, twists his body in a way that he doesn't take direct shots and he's able to get the extra half-yard or yard. I like Peyton Barber. I liked him at Tampa. I know he doesn't have sort of starters ability,

but he's their short yardage back. Gibson's obviously going to be the guy, and a lot of you thought Gibson missed stuff. I thought he looked pretty good. I thought Gibson looked okay running the football and definitely making people miss after a couple of catches, one catch in particular. Could they get rid of J.D. McKissick?

It doesn't really cost him anything. I thought McKissick was good last year, though. And I think Scott Turner likes the versatility of McKissick. You can split him out wide in an empty set, you know, five receiver formation. He's a tough match. I thought he ran the ball well times. at times last year.

It's going to be interesting, but I think Jared Patterson makes this team. By the way, I thought Lamar Miller and Jonathan Williams both looked good, running the football and catching the football as well. The tight ends, well, Logan Thomas is going to be a favorite of Ryan Fitzpatrick. And it's one catch last night, but it goes with everything we saw last year. It goes with the fact that they gave him a contract extension.

They really like him. He's a quarterback. He's got that other level of athleticism, too, the kind of guy that, you know, has feel and great spacing and great timing and great anticipation and really good hands. You know, Thomas and McLorn and Gibson, pretty good way to start this offense, you know, in terms of skill position players, with a quarterback that is going to be a major upgrade over what they had last year. I thought Reyes looked good, and I was skeptical about Reyes because when I was comparing Reyes when they signed him, to other great basketball players that turned into really good tight ends, Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, etc. I saw basketball players that were more fluid.

And Sammas Reyes was not a fluid basketball player at Tulane. He was more of a bully power player. But I thought in his first game, he showed good feet, good hands, good sense of spacing. I thought he looked like he belonged. I think Tamara Hemingway had the worst game of any of the skill position players. He got run over and protection one time. They threw a 50-50 ball to him that maybe shouldn't have been thrown by Heineke. But for the most part, you know, Diami Brown, you know, looked the part.

Steven Sims Jr. had a really good catch. John Bates had a third and 17, 19-yard catch that moved the chains from Heineke. I thought Dax Milne looked good. Ricky Seals Jones. I thought all of their skill position players, maybe with the exception of Hemingway, all showed me something. They haven't had that.

We've talked about the roster. The roster is better than it's been in a long time. Whatever the year is, if you want to go back to 2005 or 2000 or 1991, whatever it is, the roster is as complete or it has the fewest number of holes that it's had in a long, long time. And they added skill position players,

and some of the skilled position players they already had, started to prove themselves and will be better with a good quarterback. So, you know, on the list of things that I liked, I really liked the playmakers, the skill position players on offense last night, in terms of just evaluating the player and the way they played, all of the quarterbacks,

most of the running backs, most of the tight ends and most of the receivers played well. And I would have evaluated them pretty highly last night. And it's encouraging to see some guys who can really make some plays. And I think it's really encouraging to see Fitzpatrick and Logan Thomas connect on a back shoulder throw. It looked like they had done it for years together. And to see McClureen come underneath on that big throw from Fitzpatrick. To see Fitzpatrick work his way across a progression and hit Adam Hunt.

Humphreys for a third down conversion. He only missed one throw, and it was to Humphreys. Also on the list of things that I liked. I thought Sam Cosmy in his first game at right tackle, I thought he showed pretty well, and you'll hear what Ron Rivera said about him and some of the other young players, but I thought Cosme, who played, I think, every snap in the first half, they loved him. I told you guys before the draft, there were a few players that I I told you the offensive staff really likes. Cosmi and Diami Brown were two of them. The receiver out of Ole Miss was another one,

and there was another player that I can't remember right now. And they got Cosmy and Diomboe Brown. And when they drafted Cosmy, because I had heard that they were really high on them, I was thinking left tackle at the time. They were clearly thinking right tackle. He's your starting right tackle right now, right? I don't think it's going to be anybody but him. I mean, is it going to be David Sharp who's on COVID?

Is it going to be Cornelius Lucas who's missed some time? No, I think we saw what they believe their starting offensive line is going to be. You know, Cosme, Sheriff, Ruey, Schweitzer, and Leno. We saw flowers in there a lot last night. We saw Sadiq Charles take some snaps at left tackle. But I thought Cosmi was really impressive. He's on the list of things that I liked. I thought their punt returning situation, which I talked about yesterday, really was impressive.

You know, you can make a lot of big returns in preseason games. And we saw a guy in D'Andre Carter who decisively and comfortably caught the ball and then was decisive in his decision-making to get the ball up field. He had two returns, both of them 19-yard returns for 38 yards and an average of 19 yards per punt return. That's pretty damn good. Dax Milne had a 19-yard punt return. He looked good. Steven Sims Jr. did not do well on his one punt return,

but Steven Sims Jr. had a really good catch in the game as a receiver. So the punt return thing, at least on night one in the preseason from a player evaluation standpoint, gives you something to be, you know, marginally optimistic about. They need something from the return game, the punt return game. Lastly, Chase Young.

So thank God they didn't go and win that giant game in 2019, right? Can you imagine they had a really good chance to win that game at the end of that year? If they had won that giant game, which they were desperately trying to do in 2019, Chase Young would be a New York giant, not a Washington football team player. They lost that game in overtime. Thank God Daniel Jones led an overtime drive, right? It was the only drive. I think it was like, you know, one drive.

I don't think Washington never touched the ball, and they threw a touchdown pass, and they won the game. That was like the best possible scenario that day. You know, Haskins played well. McClorn was outstanding. It was a shootout game, but they lost it. They also had a chance, remember, to beat Philadelphia towards the end of that year, too, and they lost that game, thankfully. My God, you got a transcendent once-in-a-decade type of talent in Chase Young.

And I thought one of the more interesting parts of last night was that his move on the sack, which was not a sack. It was an incomplete pass. And by the way, I think that's correctly called. I thought Cam Newton's arm was going forward, and I thought that was an incomplete pass. First of all, he's not going to be solo, you know, blocked in most games. I mean, unless you really have tackles like Tampa did last year, and Tampa really handled him in that playoff game. But if you don't have a strong tackle, he's going to get chipped, if not doubled. They're going to game plan for him. He's a guy that finally defensively, they've got a guy.

that you have to game plan for. But I thought the use of his hands, the angle that he got his body in, and just the quick twitch edge speed. But the way he used his hands to create that lane, and as quickly as he got to Cam Newton, a big dude that he hit hard and brought down and forced to lose the football.

Again, his arm was moving forward, and it was an incomplete pass. It's hard not to be optimistic, that, you know, with sweat and with young and with Allen and with pain and with ionitis, that they're not going to be a really difficult front four to deal with week in and week out. So young, second year, full off season, young was hurt for part of last year. You know, if they allow themselves to play within that scheme, which is a good one with Rivera, has been. Sweat and or young is going to have a big year. And maybe it's sweat because of his

talent, but also because so much focus is on Young, or maybe it's both of them. I don't know, but that was a pretty jarring first series pass rush hit from Chase Young. As far as Duran Payne, I'm not as worked up as many of you are on him not falling on the ball. The ball was bouncing up a little bit. He should have grabbed it cleanly. But defensive tackles don't grab anything cleanly. And by the way, they don't fall on fumbles and protect the ball very cleanly and consistently either. I want to see an aggressive defense that tries to score. It did last year. It had to last year. You had the sweat touchdown in the Dallas game on Thanksgiving. You had the Chase Young score against the Niners. I want to see a playmaking defense for the first time

in a long, long time. And I think they've got the capability of doing that. Obviously, there are certain situations. And most of you would say it's every situation where you just try to fall on the ball. But if the ball's bouncing around and it bounces up waist high, I want to see him try to make a play with it. That is the list of things that I liked. The things that I didn't like, well, we start with the obvious Dustin Hopkins. It's amazing to me that Dustin Hopkins is entering his seventh season here. I've mentioned this many times. I'll do it again to be. beat the dead horse over and over again. If you watch Hopkins kick up close, and I have in Ashburn, there is no doubt in my mind why any coach, any special teams coach, any bystander is just wowed

by Dustin Hopkins. The ball explodes off his foot. It does. And it gets up quickly. It does everything that a special teams coach wants. He's got the strong leg. He gets immediate elevation, so there's no chance of it being blocked. But he's a very inconsistent kicker, and he has been. And that's a problem, and he's missed so many big kicks. The 2016 season is still the one that bothers me the most, partly because I understand they played poorly on January 1st, and my guy cousins played a bad game in a game against a team that had nothing to play for, and they lost to the Giants and didn't go to the playoffs. Instead of being 9, 6, and 1 with back-to-back playoff years,

they finished 8, 7, and 1 and did make the postseason. The defense was terrible in that game on January 1st as well, but I'm not going to digress any further on that. That season had an opportunity to be a 10 or an 11-win season. Certainly a 10-win season. He missed the kick in London. That would have been a 9th win. He missed two kicks against Dallas on Thanksgiving Day.

and another win, and he missed a big kick against Detroit in a game that they could have won. It's just, he's made some big kicks, too. He missed a big PAT against Seattle last year late in the season. I don't understand why they don't bring in anybody to push them. I don't think they will. You'll hear what Ron Rivera said about him coming up shortly. But Hopkins was obviously the number one trending player for Washington from that game. And, you know, a lot of you are sick to your stomach.

that he is not being competed with in camp. The guy that kicked for New England last night, he did miss a PAT, but he was three for three on field goals and looked really, really good. And remember, their lead kicker is Nick Fulk. So this guy, his name is Nordine, I think, Quinn Nordine. You know, do you trade for him? Do you send New England a sixth rounder?

And so we want him now? And we want him to compete with our guy for the rest of camp? I don't know because he's going to get released and he'll probably get picked up if he continues to kick this way. Hopkins was on the things that I did not like list. That's an obvious one. You know, the tackling wasn't great. The rookie Jamin Davis didn't show anything, but I don't have a big problem with that. He's thinking a lot.

They put him in a lot of different positions. It's a cerebral position on defense, middle linebacker. He's not just lining up rushing the passer. It's going to take some time probably. the guy like Davis, I would not come to any serious conclusion on Jamie Davis's first experiences as an NFL player. The tackling, it was sloppy in the second half, even in the first half. That's it. I hated that NBC Sports Washington started the broadcast with full-screen kairons showing football team. It was Patriots and football team. And then clearly they got a lot of

complaints and they dropped it and they put Washington in there. Remember, nobody, you know, should be referring to them as football team. It's not touchdown football team. It's touchdown Washington. It's not first down football team. It's first down Washington. It's not a full-screen kiron of the score football team versus New England or football team versus Patriots. It's Washington. That's the way you would say it. That's the way you would say it 50% of the time when it was Redskins. NBC Sports Washington shouldn't have made that mistake from the beginning. They did fix it. When we come back, I'm going to play some of the things that Ron Rivera said, including what he said about Dustin Hopkins. And I thought there were a couple of things that Taylor Heineke said

about two of the young players that I want you to hear. That's next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. I was picked up right where he left off. You know, you guys a high dynamic energy type player, did a lot of good things, made some good decisions. You know, and again, I just, I like who he is as a football player for us right now. That was Ron Rivera talking about Taylor Heineke. It did look like he picked up where he left off. By the way, Heineke's added muscle. He talked about that after the game.

Obviously, he wants to get himself into a position where he doesn't get injured when he plays. We'll see him a lot next week against Cincinnati. Hopefully we see more of Fitzpatrick. But I'm sure we'll see some Stephen Montez, too. But Taylor Heineke was pretty good, and that was Ron Rivera talking about him. By the way, I put out a Twitter poll last night after the game.

I said, who was the best quarterback in the game? You can find that poll at Kevin Sheen, D.C. on Twitter. 44.8% said Fitzpatrick. 29.6% said Heineke. 20.6% said Mac Jones, and 5.1% said Stephen Montez. I thought Mac Jones looked the part last night. man, he processes quickly, which you can tell, and the ball gets out quickly.

I would be surprised if Mack Jones isn't the starter pretty early in the season in New England. Okay, let's get to Ron Rivera on Dustin Hopkins. It wasn't long, but here's what he said when he was asked, are you concerned? No, there's not a concern. I think it's disappointing, you know, but at the end of the day, we have a new operation that's got to continue to get worked out. And we've got two more, two more preseason games to get it corrected. Look, bottom line when it comes to Hopkins, the things that I've said before apply. And they signed him to, you know, a one year, $2.35 million deal. You know,

there would be about a $1.9 million dead cap hit if they got rid of him. So I don't think they're getting rid of him. I think he's your kicker. I'd love to see competition brought in if he's struggles anymore in these next two preseason games, I think you'll have to bring somebody in. I mean, the last thing you want is a kicker going into the regular season with the yips. You don't want a Rojas situation from Ted Lassow, although he got some help from the sports psychologist. Maybe that's what Dustin Hopkins needs. But Ron Rivera is not concerned.

Now, that could be the public standing by my kicker. We're not going to act concerned. but in the meantime we're going to bring somebody in. We're going to read about it if they do. I bet he doesn't. I bet he doesn't bring anybody in. This was Ron Rivera talking about Sam Cosmi's first game. And then he works in a lot of the other young players as well.

Really like what we got from Sam. Sam needs to play. And that's the truth of the matter. And so does Jamon. So does Benjuiced. I mean, that's why those guys played a little extended into the second quarter. Very pleased we'll be soft from those guys. I thought John Bates got his opportunity.

I thought he did a nice job and did some really good things, as did Sam Reyes. I mean, there was a lot of positives, a lot of things that we're going to grow in and get better with. They love Cosme. I'm telling you, they love Cosmy. They love his athleticism. They love his smarts. And they think he's going to be an outstanding tackle in the NFL. And I thought in his first game, preseason game, they put him out there for a lot of snaps.

and I think he graded, I would bet you he graded pretty high for his first game. What about Jamon Davis, their first round pick number 19 overall? I thought he looked a little indecisive at times. They also appeared to be playing a lot of different positions with their linebackers last night. This was Ron Rivera on Jamie Davis. Well, just the feel and the experience of getting out there on the football field, more so than anything else. You know, we put them in a couple of leadership roles when we were in our base defense,

early on. We rotated them out early and had them with the second subgroup. And, you know, we try to stress them. We had them play a few extra plays, especially in the second quarter, and thought he handled it very well. Don't panic. You know, be concerned about the Hopkins thing. I get that. Please do not come to any sort of meaningful conclusion on Jamie Davis after a preseason game. They like what they've been seeing in practice. We'll get two more preseason games, and then he's going to have to be ready. This is one of those positions where it's not like they have overwhelming depth. You could always start Bostic at middle linebacker.

You could bring in Khali Kudson to play one of those outside linebacker positions. You saw a lot of mixing and matching of backers. I like Hudson. Most of you know that. Part of that is because I know they like them as well. And I saw a guy with a relentless motor last night. One of the quotes from Jack Del Rio during the TV broadcast was he just wanted to see the guys that give effort. They go down.

They get right back up. There's an energy level. There's a motor. This is what they're looking for. These weren't the things that Gruden was always looking for, you know, or any of their defensive coordinators were looking for. I like Hudson a lot, but we've got to give the Jamon Davis thing plenty of time. It might not be until mid-season or late season or 2022. before he becomes a player that looks or resembles a first round pick.

The last Ron Rivera Soundbite that I wanted to play for you is on the overall offensive skill position players, which was sort of at the top of my list of the things that I liked. Here's what he said. There was a lot of good things that we can work with that really were. We saw some guys that really did flash well. you know, the, I'm a little excited about our speed out there with Diami. I thought the overthrow was, you know, a little bit him not quite understanding, you know,

to, you know, that you've always got to get off that line like you're the guy. And he'll get better at that. And with his speed, he'll make those plays. We hit him on a couple of nice throws underneath and his speed showed. So that was one of the huge pluses. You know, using the tight ends was another plus for us. In the fourth quarter, you saw Stephen throwing the ball to the backs. Those are things that we got to be aware of because we do have some pretty good backs out of the back field.

They have a lot of versatility with their running backs as receivers. Gibson, McKissick, I think Patterson as well. Let's not forget, J.D. McKissick last year was number two on the team in receptions with 80. He was number two on the team in targets with 110. Antonio Gibson caught 36 balls last year. It's not that Ryan Fitzpatrick is a checked-down guy, but they're going to be called plays to get the ball out to Gibson, McKissick, and maybe Patterson in space.

We saw a lot of run extension throws in the Scott Turner offense last year, and I think you're going to see it again. These are guys that in space are really good at making people miss and getting yardage that isn't necessarily there with a lot of running backs. Great versatility with their running back situation right now. I think that's encouraging. All right, I wanted to play two quick sound bites from Taylor Heineke. He spoke after the game, and he was asked about two of the young offensive players,

Diami Brown and Jared Patterson. Here's what he said about Diami Brown. Diami's a special talent and you can just see every day in practice he's getting better he's understanding the offense better and he's got world class speed on the football field so I know a lot of the offensive guys

are very excited about him and I know Fitz is really excited about him as well so again we're really looking forward to seeing what you can do this year. Everybody loves Diami Brown out there they loved him before the draft they love him even more now he's another guy that can take the top off of a defense

to go with McLaurin and there is great excitement. You heard him even refer to what Fitz thinks of Diami Brown. This is, you know, who knows? Maybe it's Terry McLaurin, too. Imagine having both of them. Here's what he said about Jared Patterson. Listen to the comp he makes.

Yeah, he's a small dude, but he's got a lot of toughness, and he's really quick. You know, if you go back and watch a lot of the tape from Darren Sprouls back in the day, the Chargers, he reminds me a lot of him. So really quick, can make people miss. so you get the ball in his hands. It's really exciting to watch. Darren Sprouls, not a bad comp. My one prediction off of last night's game in terms of a new prediction,

Jared Patterson's going to be on the final roster. I think he is. I could be dead wrong. He could just be one of these preseason heroes that gets cut, brought back to the practice squad, nobody else is interested in him. He just looks the part to me. He looks like he's got all that you would want. in a change of pace back and potentially even a third down back. I wonder what they would do to keep him.

Would they get rid of McKissick? McKissick's not a big burn in terms of cap number. But McKissick was good last year, and I think Turner really likes McKissick. And he's more of a veteran guy on a very young team. But I think they're keeping Patterson. I don't think they can expose him. All right, one more segment. A couple of things from the other game last night,

including the way Philadelphia approached the game. last night. Also what the Chargers are thinking about with respect to their preseason, that is Washington's week one opponent. All of that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Finish up the show with a few things. First of all, I forgot to mention, many of you told me, and I just missed this during the game, that Bill Belichick seemed a little bit irked that Ron Rivera was calling his timeouts at the end of the game down 15 to 13. You know, after Antonio O'Gandy Golden's two-point conversion that was overturned. By the way, Rivera had two challenges that he was successful on, one or two, but that Belichick looked irked after he sent Hoyer out there

to take a knee up 15, 13, with a minute 26 to go. I didn't see that, but there would be no reason for him to be irked. I mean, you're out there. They're keeping score. They got a clock. And for Rivera, I would have been upset at he not called the timeouts. You had two times. You had two timeouts in a third if they had gotten a stop, which they didn't on the 91-yard touchdown run by Stevenson, you would have gotten it back with 25 seconds roughly, you know, somewhere maybe around midfield. And with Montez, give him another shot and give your kicker another chance to kick a game winner. Maybe bust him out of the, you know, O for two funk that he was in. I don't know why Belichick would have been irked at that. So there was one other preseason game last

night in Pittsburgh. Dwayne Haskins was apparently very good, 161 yards, 16 of 22, whatever. I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about Haskins. I think he's got some talent. I think he's got some gamer in him, but he's got to grow up. We all know that. Maybe Tomlin was the right guy for him. A lot of discussion in Pittsburgh about him winning the backup position over Mason Rudolph. The thing that I really wanted to mention about the game last night is that, First of all, Philadelphia in the starters versus starters, second teamers versus second teamers dominated Pittsburgh. They scored on four of five drives in the first half and had a 16 to seven halftime lead. But more than that, I've mentioned before that my preference to a preseason

game is a team that tries to get its quarterback and its receivers into you know, a big time rhythm by throwing the football predominantly. Philadelphia on 35 offensive snaps, its first 35 offensive snaps, called 30 pass plays. That was with Hertz and Flacco in the game. Now there was a couple of scrambles, there was a sack, but 30 pass, and may have been a penalty or two, 30 pass plays were called on their first 35 snaps. So clearly they're one of those teams that is going to treat the preseason as a way to get their quarterbacks and their receivers,

and they've got new quarterbacks too. I mean, Hertz is relatively new, and they've got, you know, new receivers out there with, well, Devante Smith wasn't healthy enough to play last night. But, you know, Jalen Rager in year two, et cetera. That's the way they were going to approach the game last night. They did that. Pittsburgh was more balanced.

Washington in their game, you know, ran 78 offensive snaps, which is a hell of a lot. 80, I'm sorry, 80 offensive snaps in the game. including a couple of penalties, but that's a lot of offensive snaps in an NFL game, especially one that isn't marred by lots and lots of penalties, or lots and lots of drop balls that stop the clock, etc. But anyway, I thought that was interesting about Philadelphia last night. The Chargers announced yesterday that they are not going to play the following players

in any of their three preseason games leading up to the season opener against Washington. Their starting quarterback Justin Herbert is not going to play in the preseason. They're starting wide receiver, their number one wide receiver, one of the best in the game. Keenan Allen is not going to play in the preseason. They're starting running back, Austin Echler, is not going to play in the preseason. And Derwin James coming off the last year's injury, but one of the best safeties in the NFL talents anyway, is not going to play in the preseason.

Brandon Staley, their new coach, treating the preseason as if it's just a pain in the ass and isn't worth anything. I think watching these teams handle the three-game preseason with the long lead time between the final game, the third game, and the regular season opener is interesting. You know, just to see what the philosophies are on how to handle this new preseason. And to hold Justin Herbert out of all three games, you're not going to play him at all? And so the first time he and Keenan Allen and Austin Echler walk onto a football field against somebody else will be the opener in Washington? Interesting. All right, that's it pretty much for the day.

You can follow me on Twitter. I put up another poll too. Just off of all of the calls I got this morning about Hopkins, I just said, which is the more likely happenstance before they open the regular season, that Heineke pushes Fitzpatrick or that Hopkins gets competition. 88.2% of the 1,200 votes in say that Hopkins gets competition. I actually would say neither. I did not give that as an option. I don't think Hopkins is going to get competition,

and I don't think that Heineke is actually going to push Fitzpatrick. No big controversy out of the game last night. The Hopkins thing has everybody concerned. I understand that. but, you know, Fitzpatrick didn't, you know, throw three picks, and Heinecke didn't throw for three touchdowns. They both played pretty well. And you got one preseason game in the book, and you know what? Basically, and I failed to mention this, I think. The biggest takeaway is nobody got seriously hurt. At least I haven't heard of anybody getting seriously injured. So there you go. Oh, I did watch

some of the Field of Dreams game. It was kind of cool, but I was dialed in. on the football after that. All right, that's it. Have a great weekend. If anything significant happens, I'll be in here to do something over the weekend. If not, we will talk again on Monday.