The Kevin Sheehan Show - Wentz Slighted...Again!

Episode Date: July 22, 2022

Kevin today on Carson Wentz' ridiculously low Madden 23 rating. Also, Kevin had a warning for those that think the Commanders' rush defense will match last year's lofty ranking. Mark Zuckerman jumped on to discuss the latest on Juan Soto as well along with other potential Nats' moves before the trade deadline.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Chean Show. Here's Kevin. Just one guest on the show today. Mark Zuckerman will be calling in from Arizona, where the Nats open up the second half of their schedule

against the Diamondbacks tonight. Mark I found out in our conversation, which you will hear a little bit later on in the show. Mark is from the Phoenix Scottsdale area. And so he's been home all week during the All-Star break, visiting with family. And I never knew that about Mark. As many times as I've had him on the radio show and the podcast, hell, he was a paid contributor to the radio station for years. I never knew he was from there.

I probably should have been more curious and more interested. I've always liked Mark. I've always enjoyed our conversations over the years. And we'll find out a little bit more about Mark. today and ask him about his upbringing out in the Valley of the Sun. The Nats and Patrick Corbyn tonight against the Diamondbacks. Patrick Corbyn's pitched better. We had a couple of those one-earned-run outings back-to-back.

I think it was two of his last three outings before the All-Star break, but his name is really being bandied about in all of the reports about what the Nats are looking for and what teams might be involved. And one of the big parts of the conversation now is, can the Nats find somebody to take Corbyn's contract with Soto? By the way, I had John Heyman from the New York Post and Odyssey on the radio show this morning. He was excellent.

You can listen to that by downloading the Odyssey app or going to the team 980.com. But I'm looking forward to getting Mark's thoughts on Juan Soto. that's what we will spend the majority of the time talking about. The show today is presented by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky.ag. If you use my promo code, which you should, Kevin D.C., they'll double your first deposit all the way up to $1,000. So if you deposit $1,000, you'll have $2,000 in your account to bet with.

Again, you've got to use my promo code, Kevin D.C. And if there's something when you register and you sign up written in the promo code section already, just erase it and write Kevin D.C. Remember, my bookie is a huge sports book, online sports book, and a very high-quality online sports book. Quality lines, fair pricing, et cetera. They've got all of the NFL preseason props. They have, by the way, I noticed this.

today. Not only the week one NFL lines, where Washington is a four-point favorite over Jacksonville on September 11th, the over-under in that game is 44. By the way, there's only one game in week one that has a spread at a touchdown or greater, and that is the Colts are eight-point favorites over the Texans. That's the biggest week one line by a lot. Most of the point spreads in week one are basically four points or less. There are a couple of fives. I think the Saints are five-point favorites over the Falcons. I think the Ravens are like six-point favorites over the Jets.

The opener, which is Thursday night, September 8th, featuring the defending champion Rams, they're an underdog to Buffalo. And the home opener and the season opener for the season, the bills are one-point favorites in SoFi against the Rams in the opener. Washington again, a four-point favorite. And the Colts, by far in a way, the largest favorite of week one, their eight-point favorites. But what I noticed when I was on my bookie a little bit earlier is my book he's now posted the week two NFL lines. That is a more recent kind of thing.

You used to have to wait until a week before the season just to get the week one lines. Now you get them right after the schedule comes out. But now you've got some places that'll have kind of season long odds week by week. Those are ridiculous. I mean, you have no idea what you're betting on at that point. But the week two lines are out. And Washington is favored at Detroit in week two by a point. So Washington is favored in its first two games at home against Jacksonville on the

wrote against Detroit. We've talked about this since the schedule came out. They really did provide Washington, at least based on last year's teams, the two worst teams in the league record-wise, the teams that had the number one and the number two pick in the draft last April, they are Washington's first two opponents, and Washington is favored in their first two games. Now, if Washington were to route Jacksonville and in week one, let's just say Detroit got blown out by Philadelphia, and that's who they play in week one at home, they play the Eagles. They are four-point underdogs to the Eagles. So the Lions play two home games to open up their 2022 slate. They're a four-point underdog to Philly in week one, and right now they are a one-point underdog against Washington in week two.

Now, Washington could be a much bigger favorite by the time we get there if Detroit gets blown out and Washington blows out Jacksonville. On the flip side, if Washington were to lose to Jacksonville and Detroit were to play a really good game and maybe beat Philadelphia, Washington would probably be an underdog in week two. That's the way those things go. Anyway, speaking of the Washington commanders. So the Madden 23 player ratings, which we've talked a little bit about this week, I can't believe I have spent this much time talking about Madden 23 player ratings. We talked about Chase Young being ranked so low 27th in the Madden player ratings. By the way, John Allen is the sixth ranked defensive linemen, not just defensive linemen, not just defensive.

defensive tackled defensive linemen in the league. So he is the highest rated Washington player for his position group. It's actually not just interior tackles where he'd be, I think he's number two behind Vita Vaya, or number three behind Donald and Vita Vaya. But he's the number six overall D-Lineman. So they think very highly of John Allen. But, but the quarterback ratings came out just moments ago. The Madden 23 player ratings for the quarterback position. And so we've talked a lot about Carson Wentz in the last couple of days. We'll continue to talk a lot about Carson Wentz until the season begins and then probably

even more. I can't imagine anybody's performance being more under the microscope this year for this team, then Carson Wentz. Chase Young is going to have a big microscope on him. There's going to be a lot of attention when he's ready to play and when he's 100%. But Carson Wentz, you know, there's just so many theories or so many opinions on what Washington is getting. And at almost every turn, whether it's, you know, quarterback rankings, you know, on ESPN or, you know, some sort of odds on his passing yardage, like we talked about yesterday, 26th, you know, in the league and in his over-under number on passing yards.

Well, Madden NFL 23 lists the quarterbacks in the following order. The highest graded quarterback in the Madden 23 player ratings are quarterback. Tom Brady, he's got a 97 rating. He's followed by Aaron Rock. Rogers, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow. That's your top five. Seems reasonable. I wouldn't put it in that order. I'd have probably Rogers Mahomes Allen, you know, I'd have Rogers one. But Brady Rogers, Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, you know, I'd probably have Herbert in there above Burrow, I think, now. I might even have Stafford, you know, approaching the top five, but that's their top five. Number

six. I think this is too high. But Dak Prescott has a rating of 89. And then you get Justin Herbert, who comes in at seventh, Lamar Jackson at eighth, Russell Wilson at ninth, and Matt Stafford at 10. Then at 11 is Deshawn Watson. By the way, the Browns signed Josh Rosen. So it's Jacoby, Brissette and Josh Rosen in Cleveland until Deshawn Watson is eligible to play. So Watson was 11th. And then it was Kyler Murray, who just signed a massive contract. Although, very interestingly, not the kind of deal that Deshawn Watson signed. Murray signed a $230.30 million deal.

All right. Adam Schaefter had all the details. 105 million fully guaranteed upon signing the deal, and 160 million is guaranteed for injury. So the average annual is 46.1 million, that's second in the league behind Aaron Rogers. But it's nowhere near the percentage of guaranteed money that Deshawn Watson's deal was. I'm not a massive Kyler Murray fan. This is a big deal on this five-year extension for Kyla Murray, you know, even if you take out the guaranteed, you know, money aspect of it, which, you know, we're heading more and more to more and more guaranteed money for NFL players,

especially quarterbacks. And you know who started all that, don't you? Hard to say his name, I know. But Cousins really is the one that started all of that. But in terms of the average, annual, you get Kyler Murray at number two, but the guaranteed, in terms of the practical guaranteed, Deshawn Watson had it all guaranteed, 230 million of it guaranteed. And that contract was the last big one to get done, and Kyler Murray had essentially 70 million of his not guaranteed. I think Deshaun Watson's a much better quarterback than Kyler Murray. I don't think he's one spot better than Kyler Murray, as Madden's ratings indicate. I'm not a big Kyler Murray fan. I need to see more. I need to see a lot more. He was God awful in that

playoff game. I mean, that was an embarrassing playoff game. Really for the Cardinals in general, by the way, I would throw the head coach in his first playoff game in there. But Kyler Murray in that game, 19 of 34, 137 yards, two interceptions, two sacks. He wasn't a threat running the football, and they got blown the blank out by the Rams in that playoff game. I don't know. There's just something that I'm not convinced yet about Kyler Murray. But he got a big deal. By the way, J.I. Hallsell, long-time contributor to a lot of the shows in the market.

He was, you know, on the salary cap, part of the salary cap group for the skins back in the 2000s, and he's an agent, a player agent right now. He sent me a note because I had asked him in a recent interview that I think we had here on the podcast, I had asked him how, you know, this money actually gets paid out. And when you have, you know, like in the case of Kyler Murray, $160 million basically that is guaranteed, whether or not teams have to put that in escrow. And there is what they call a funding rule where teams do have to put all of that future guaranteed money into escrow.

Now, the NFL is not going to go out of business. So it may be a little bit of an outdated rule, but you never know. I mean, God forbid there's another massive pandemic and, you know, football gets shut down for a couple of years and the NFL's in a different position. I doubt it. I mean, I think the NFL could be shut down for three or four years and it would still probably be healthy. They just paid each one of their teams $345 million in just media money. But anyway, J.I. pointed out to me that some of the issues with some of these contracts, sometimes they get delayed because the team doesn't have the cash to put into escrow when they're supposed to. Now,

I don't know when that funding date is and when they have to do it. If it's upon the signing of the contract or if it's at the beginning of a league calendar year, I don't know. But he sent me that note just to say this is always one of these issues where they got to put a hell of a lot of money into escrow. If $105 million was guaranteed at signing, so if that's what he got, that's $55 million in the rest of the guaranteed money. practically guaranteed that needs to find its way to escrow. But average annual, Kyler Murray now, number two behind Aaron Rogers, $100,000 more than Deshawn Watson. You know, if you go down the guaranteed money list and you look at some of these quarterback deals, because really the average annual doesn't mean as much as what was guaranteed in the deal.

And if you think about, you know, recent deals that have been done in the last couple of years, there are a couple of bargains. You know, at this point, you know, first of all, average annual, at this point, Kirk Cousins, who people used to say, oh, my God, I mean, he's among the three highest paid on an average annual basis. I mean, he can't be worth that kind of money. Kirk Cousins now, after renegotiating, is at $35 million a year. I mean, that's 10th on the list. You know, that almost puts him kind of in the general area of where he is. You know, most of you are rolling your eyes. Okay, maybe not 10, but in the next, you know, trunch of five players,

and they're all basically in the next group of five between $30 and $35 million per year. But in looking at the guaranteed money in recent deals, there's one that really sticks out. Derek Carr's recent deal that he signed, which he signed in the extension, I think, before last year, only included $65 million of guaranteed money. I mean, I don't think Derek Carr is a superstar, but if you told me I can take Derek Carr, Kyler Murray, I'm going to think about it a little bit. I mean, in terms of $100 million different, and guaranteed money, that seems to be a bargain that the Raiders got.

I mean, they're paying him an average of $40 million a year, but they guaranteed money was just over $65 million. That was it. So back to the Madden ratings. So Deshawn Watson was 11. Kyler Murray was 12. Derek Carr was 13. Ryan Tannahill was 14.

Matt Ryan was 15. Kirk Cousins was 16. I would have had cousins ahead of Ryan Tannahill Carr, for sure. I would have had him more in the 13 range. Mack Jones came in at 17, Baker Mayfield at 18. Jimmy Garoppolo at 19. James Winston at 20. So where's Carson Wentz?

He's got to be coming up soon, right? 21 Trevor Lawrence. tied for 22, Tuatung of Iloa, and Teddy Bridgewater, the two Miami quarterbacks. Bridgewater's going to be two his backup. So they're tied for 22nd. 24th is Jalen Hertz.

25th is Justin Fields. And then at 26, with a Madden, 23 rating of 73, tied for 26th, no less. Not even 26th by himself is Carson Wentz, tied with Zach Wilson from the Jets, just barely ahead of Jared Gough, Trey Lance, and Davis Mills. And that's your top 30. Marcus Marriota and Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones in terms of the potential starters bring up sort of the rear. But Carson Wentz is pretty close to the rear. I'm surprised at that. When we did the extension of the ESPN Jeremy Fowler top 10 through the honorable mention, and Carson Wentz wasn't listed on any of those things. And we took that list

and I extended it out to try to get to where I thought Wentz was. I had him at like 17th or 18th, I think, in the league, the Madden rating has him at 26th among the projected starting quarterbacks in the NFL. And the quarterbacks that are in front of them, I mean, that's what makes it kind of embarrassing. I mean, he's tied with Zach Wilson in terms of the player rating. And then Fields is in front of them. Hertz is in front of them. I think Hertz is good. I'm in the minority. I think Jalen Hertz is going to be good.

Teddy and Tua, both are in front of them. I don't have a problem with Trevor Lawrence being in front of him. I don't have a problem with that at all. I think Trevor Lawrence should be in front of them. I think that if you told me I get Trevor Lawrence right now or Carson Wentz, I'm taking Trevor Lawrence. You know, I've told you before what I think about James Winston, and I think Winston still has a chance at a resurrection of his career.

I don't know if he actually should be in front of, you know, three points higher in his player rating than Wentz. Garoppolo's well ahead of him. Baker Mayfield and Mac Jones. Mac Jones at 17, Mayfield at 18, and Wentz at 26. I mean, it's really interesting. There is just a lot of NFL people out there that are not buying Carson Wentz, you know, rejuvenating his career, you know, restarting his career in D.C.

The good news is none of this shit matters. matters. They're going to play the games anyway, and he's going to get a chance on the field with maybe the best weaponry he's had in a while, although there was another Bill Barnwell piece on ESPN.com ranking the playmaker groups in the NFL, you know, wide receivers, running backs tight ends, and Washington was 22nd. And the Indianapolis Colts were, you know, a head of them at 20 with Pittman Jr., Jonathan Taylor, Paris Campbell. So they actually like this, the Barnwell likes the supporting group that the Colts had last year more than he likes Washington's group this year.

Now, he does suggest that Washington's group could develop into something if Dotson becomes, you know, what they hope he'll become. And if Logan Thomas returns to 2020 form off of the torn ACL, and if Curtis Samuel plays games, because injuries are factored in to his overall rankings or, you know, injury history. And with Curtis Samuel and Logan Thomas out there, that's a problem for them. But I personally think Washington's playmaking supporting cast is going to be better. this year than it's been, and I think it's better than Indianapolis is, and I think 22 in the league is shorting it a bit. There are some teams, including Detroit's group at 17, well ahead of

Washington. You know, Detroit really is one of those teams that unlike Washington, there are, you know, I shouldn't say unlike Washington. I think odds makers really have shorted Washington more than anybody else. But some of these, you know, rankings here recently have not really been favorable or kind to Carson Wentz in particular, or even, you know, Chase Young coming off the injury. But there is a lot of buzz around Dan Campbell's Detroit Lion team. A lot of buzz. And their playmaking group, wide receivers running backs tight ends in the Bill Barnwell, you know, piece for 2022. They came at 17th, five spots ahead of Washington. They've got Amon Ross St. Brown. They've got T.J. Hawkinson and DeAndre Swift. And remember, Jameson Williams was drafted by the Lions,

but, you know, he is coming off ACL surgery. He probably won't be available, you know, until sometime after the season begins, I'm guessing. But, man, there's a lot of buzz on Detroit right now. A lot of, you know, a lot of optimism that the Lions can really end up having, Dan Campbell, as I mentioned, along with Brian Dable, is the co-favorant for NFL coach of the year. We had that conversation yesterday. And I think the thought is the NFC North is open more than it's been in recent years because Aaron Rogers doesn't have the supporting cast. with Devante Adams gone.

We'll see. I personally think Minnesota would be the next team in that division behind Green Bay with a chance to step up. But Detroit, the way they ended last year, you know, blowing out Arizona, beating Green Bay, although the Packers weren't playing for anything. They had very competitive games even when they were off to that 010-1 start. They lost a game. They should have won on Thanksgiving Day to Chicago.

They had chances against the Rams. They had chances against the Vikings. They actually beat the Vikings once. Let's not forget they lost a game in week three last year to the Ravens on the 66-yard field goal at the gun. Record-setting a kick by Justin Tucker. At the gun, it should have never been kicked. And they lost that game in 1917. So, yeah, I think we mentioned this, by the way, and it always reminds us.

me. Tom Dempsey, who had set the NFL record for the Saints, beating the Lions in 1970 with a 63-yard field goal, a record that held forever. He, in that kick, beat the Lions for the Saints 19 to 17. That was the final score. And when Justin Tucker booted that 66-yard field goal to set the NFL record last September. It was also to beat the Lions 19 to 17. All right. When we come back, Mark Zuckerman will be my guest, and we will talk a little bit about Mark and a lot about Juan Soto. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, let's welcome on to the podcast. Mark Zuckerman. Of course, Mark has been covering the Nats for a while now for Masson. You can follow him on Twitter at Mark Zuckerman. He's doing a really good

Nats chat podcast. I know the team's not great, but he's been doing a podcast with Al Galdi for a while now recapping all of the Nats games and talking a lot of Nats. And obviously, the Washington Nationals have been in the news here over the last week. Mark's joining us, by the way, from Arizona, where he just told me, and before we get into Juan Soto, this is where you're from. You grew up in Scottsdale. That's your hometown. It is. I was born in Pittsburgh, but we moved here when I was real young.

So I actually grew up in Arizona. There are some of us who actually did grow up here, believe it or not. So the thing was, most of my childhood, all we had in town here were the Suns. So I was a Phoenix Suns fan, but I was a Pittsburgh fan for the other sports, Pirates, Steelers, Penguin. because that's where my family was from, and it's the closest thing I had to hometown team at that point. And then eventually we had the Diamondbacks and the Cardinals and coyotes here. But yeah, no, this is home.

I'm actually, as I'm talking to, I'm sitting in my old childhood room, which doesn't look like my childhood room anymore. And I brought the family out here, and we had a nice little trip before the second half begins to get the time back. So I'm assuming your parents are still in the house you grew up in. Yes. I'm looking at, they got the wall here with everybody's measurements as they would grow.

You know, everyone in the family is, you know, heights along the way. And otherwise, my room has become my dad's playroom. So I'm looking at all kinds of his stuff in here. There's no resemblance to the room I actually grew up in. I mean, you know, it's one of those places you don't think about people being from, you know, Scottsdale Phoenix, because it's such a great place to go to. and I was out there recently on a golf trip. I mean, it is just a spectacular place.

I love the desert climate. You grew up in it. I mean, you know, there's that saying, it's hot, but it's a dry heat, right? And now you've lived in Washington where it's not such a dry heat. So what do you prefer? Oh, I still prefer this. I've maintained it for years. People don't believe me.

And I got to tell you, my wife and son, they've been. here before, but they both agreed that this was better. I mean, it's 110 here. I don't want to make it sound like it's not brutally hot, but you don't really go outside for more than a couple of minutes as you walk into the car or whatever else, and they both have commented how, like, they're not sweating here at all, or we went swimming the other day at my sister's house, and it's so refreshing. You get out of the pool, and it all evaporates, and it's comfortable. So, yeah, I will always take this over the humidity of D.C., even though I've lived in D.C. for 20 years now. Did you ever, as a kid wish that you could live in a place where it snowed?

Yes. I did miss that growing up. I mean, we would, this sounds crazy to people, Becky. We would take trips to go see the snow. We would drive north to Flagstaff, Arizona, where it's up at 7,000 feet elevation. And, yeah, we'd go sledding. We'd go see what the snow was like there. And so, of course, I think people know I went to college at Northwestern, which is in Chicago.

So I definitely got a real taste of it there. and wound up spending basically my winners in Chicago and my summers in Phoenix, which seems a little backwards. But for me, you know, I need to see what that was like because it's very different. So did you ever, I'm just curious, I don't know the answer to this question. In Phoenix, Scottsdale, going to school, were there ever days where it was too hot and you got off of school because it was excessive heat? no that never happened i'm trying to think maybe they would have canceled a recess or something like but the school gets out a little earlier they at least when i went you know it was probably closer to memorial day maybe june first they wouldn't let it drag on too much uh because of how hot it was

uh but i played little league on plenty of days and nights where it was well over a hundred degrees and you're playing out there and a lot of night games under the uh lights um i was here growing up. This was, the school was already out. It was maybe last week of June, the hottest day in Phoenix history, which was 122. And I remember that day, we went swimming, and I also remember they had to close the air, that shut the airport down because the manuals for all the flight operations only went up to 120. So there were no protocols for what to do if it went above that, so they just shut it down. So we're talking to Mark Zuckerman, and we'll get to Juan Soto, and we'll get to the Nats. but I've had Mark, you know, on the show so many times over the years.

Mark was an insider at the station for years and paid to come on the station and all of our shows for years. And as many conversations as we've had, I don't know much about you because it's always been business. And I think you're such a name now among the fans in this town that I wonder how much people know about you. But so growing up in Phoenix, you're old enough to have been in Phoenix where you just had the sons playing in that Veterans Coliseum, right? Which on TV always looked so spectacular because it was so bright, you know?

And for whatever reason, it was like, as an NBA lifelong NBA fan, there was the Mecca in Milwaukee when you watched a game on TV involving the bucks. You could barely see the players. it was so dark. And then there was, you know, that Veterans Coliseum in Phoenix, which held like, I don't know, 11,000 or something like that. It was always so bright, and it made, I don't know, that in the show Alice in the 70s made Phoenix such a desirable place for somebody who had never been there as a kid.

Was that your team? Oh, yeah. No, we went there all the time, and you're right. It sat maybe 11, 12,000, and what was great is you could sit, I remember sitting way up in the upper deck. And as a little kid, it felt like we were super far away. And then over time you realized like, no, you're actually incredibly close to it. It would shape like a saddle.

The roof, it's still standing, actually. They still use it for something. And so if you're up high, like the roof goes up high, but then it dips below. And so you actually couldn't see all the way across to the other side. But they were a great team. They were everything in this town. and they had a nice long run there in the 80s, early 90s where they were making playoffs every single year.

I'm a baseball fan first and foremost, of course, but it's possible that there's no team I've ever followed as closely for one season as I did the 92-93 sons that went to the finals. Markley, Marley, KJ team. I mean, I was in love with them. Everybody in town was, it was all anybody this town could talk about. and so John Paxson's three-pointers still haunts me to this day.

It was devastating. We were all convinced that the Suns had one game six. They were somehow going to win game seven and take down the Bulls. And I don't know if I've ever heard of this in any other city, any other team. They held a parade for them after all this. After they lost the finals, they held a parade, and I went to it. There were 300,000 fans in June and Phoenix who went to a parade to celebrate the Western Conference champion, Phoenix Sun.

I don't think I've ever seen that anywhere else. That's what that team meant to this city. I remember those finals very well, and I remember rooting for Phoenix because I was a big-time Barkley fan. And, yeah, I mean, that series included an incredible triple overtime game or four-overtime game. I can't remember exactly. Yeah, three overtime, game three.

Yeah, and was an incredible series. and Marley and Barclay and Danny Aange, I think, was on that team as well. You would know. Yeah, great teams. Yeah, it's kind of interesting, right, to be in a major metropolitan area, which Phoenix Scottsdale was. I mean, I don't know what the market size was back then, but I'm going to guess that it was certainly a top 20 market in terms of market size and yet have only one professional sports team.

Yeah, and, you know, I mean, at that point, the Cardinals had moved. At that point, the Cardinals were there because the Cardinals got there in the late 80s. Yeah, about 88 or so. So they were starting to, and really it goes, you know, my entire childhood and then going into college, that's when the city sort of became a real major market. And, you know, in my mind, I don't know if it made a difference or not, but to me, once you had three and then ultimately four professional sports teams, that's what sort of solidified it as a real city now.

But, you know, when the Cardinals got here, it was not the same thing. They were, in everyone's mind here, they were the St. Louis Cardinals playing in Arizona State Stadium, Sun Devil Stadium, which was awful because every seat was on metal bleachers in the sun. We would go to some games, but they did not draw well. The team wasn't good, and it very rarely been good since they'd been here. And it took a long time, I think, for there to be people who really called themselves Cardinals. fan. So it was for a long time. It was a son. The Diamondbacks

became a big deal when they got here in 98. The coyotes have never really been that big a deal. But I don't know. I'd be curious now, it's probably Cardinals' first town. Maybe the Suns, because they got good again the last few years, have picked up the dimebacks haven't been as good. But, I mean, for a long, long time, this was first

and foremost a Sun town and a great fan base, and it was sad that it took so long for them to finally get back to the point where they were competitive again. You know what's really strange? I'm just old enough. when growing up in the D.C. area, we had the Redskins. That was it. The senators had moved. There was no hockey yet. Hockey came in 1974. The bullets were in Baltimore. Although really, to be honest with you, my recollection of being a sports fan is really with the bullets being in Washington.

They moved here in 73. But, you know, during those years, I mean, even when hockey came here in 74, it was insignificant because they were horrible. But to be in the nation's capital, and at one point in the early 70s, you had one major professional sports team. And one of the reasons, and I've said this many times over the years, that college basketball became so popular, was in part because basketball is such a core part of this town

at every level, the youth level, the high school level, the college level, et cetera. But Maryland basketball, and Lefty Dresel's arrival here in the early 70s, there was nothing else other than the Redskins. And they were great. They were a consistent top 10 team during that first decade that he was the coach here.

And that built an incredible fan base that went beyond people who were in school or alums of the school. It ended up being in many ways the team of two markets, Baltimore and Washington, which, you know, I think the University of Maryland's always benefited from basketball-wise as being, you know, an appealing team to two, you know, major markets. But anyway, it is kind of amazing, though, right? The D.C. at one point, when the senators moved, had one professional sports team. That was it.

Yeah. No, it is. It's hard to believe. And it maybe shows you why the football team through all the years still hold such a stranglehold because that's the one constant through it all. You know, you had a break without baseball for 30 years, like you said. Basketball and hockey, you know, arrived along the way and had various levels of success. It shows you probably like I'm talking about the sun here, even as bad as they were for a long time, they still held a hold on the city because people remembered when they were the team.

And it may be the same thing now in D.C. with the football team. All right. Let's talk about the baseball team that has been here since 2005, thankfully. Like if you and I were talking a week ago and I had suggested to you, do you think there's any chance, like before the trade deadline this year they move Juan Soto? Like you would have thought I was high, you know, at that point. What happened over the last week? Well, so I think what happened is not necessarily anything that surprised anyone who would be in the know.

what happened, though, is that it became public. They've been talking for a while. They've been trying to make him offers and see if there's some kind of deal that could be struck to get them to sign long term. There have been a few offers over the course of this year as they try to get that done. And to nobody's surprised, he's turned them down.

I don't think anybody ever really expected that he would say yes to these. We've gone through all the reasons why it doesn't necessarily make sense for him to do it at this point. But once it got out from Ken Rosenthal, the athletic last Saturday, and you can decide who you think benefited from that getting out and who didn't. That's when this turned into a firestorm because now it's not just whatever the nationals

may be thinking about doing behind the scenes, but out the entire baseball world has reason to believe that they're looking to trade him. And so you see the firestorms created. That was my first thought when that report came out. I thought, oh, no, this is now going to dominate everything, especially at the All-Star game, which it did. and it's going to continue to be the story until there's some resolution to it, whether that happened on August 2nd or whether it drags on and goes in the next off season.

This is now the permanent storyline, and that's frustrating to a lot of people because I think most of the parties involved never would have wanted this to be public, because I think that does shape the way maybe they proceed. If all of a sudden there's a feeling of they have to do this or everyone just expecting them to do it, I think that's different than if it's lurking under the, you know, if Rizzo's making calls, hey, well, what would you give up for Soto and nothing comes of it? And nobody ever knows about it. But now everybody knows about it.

And so there's this expectation that, well, it's got to happen now. Well, what are you suggesting? Are you suggesting that if it hadn't come out, however it did, we'll get to that in a moment, that they wouldn't feel this pressure and that more likely than not, he wouldn't be traded before August 2nd, which is now a distinct possibility? I think that's possible. I think it's also probable that calls would have been made to say, hey, if we were going to trade Soto, if he was available,

what would you give up for? And now you get some offers, and maybe somebody would make an offer that was out of this world, and the next thing you know, out of the blue, they're trading him, and maybe that would be tougher for everyone to all of a sudden at the last second find out, wait, they did what? They traded Soto. But I feel like it would have at least provided that cover of if nothing ever happened.

Then we wouldn't really thought too much that it was in the works. Now that it's out there for everybody to know, it's going to dominate the storylines. And again, I don't know if he's going to be traded or not. I think obviously they are looking at offers, but they don't have to make them. If there's a deal that is just no-brainer for Rizzo, it says, we have to make it. this because of who we're getting in return, then I think it will happen. But they don't have to do this. They can wait it out either for the winter time when maybe there are more teams in a position to try to put a package together or to wait until there's new ownership in place. That was my thing

all along, feeling like I don't see how anything can happen, good or bad, contract trade, whatever, until there's a new owner in place. So this has now, you know, kind of changed the dynamic, I think, at that, at least in the public side. Maybe it doesn't change anything of how they're operating. behind the scenes, but everybody now is on top of this, and everybody is expecting there to be some major resolution of this here in the next couple weeks. All right. So you said, you know, you posed the question, who benefited from this getting out? Before you give me what you think the answer to that is, I mean, it seems like all points

to Washington having leaked this. Certainly Boris and Soto made us feel like the Nationals' leaked it. I had John Heyman on the radio show this morning, and he's not sure who leaked it. Now, you know, he's obviously close with Scott Boris and, you know, and covers, you know, the Nats and all of the teams in baseball, and it seemed like he was unwilling to really call either party out for leaking it. But what is your thought on who leaked this news? Well, what I'll say is this. And I was there in the clubhouse, you know, I don't know, 15 minutes after the news broke.

And a few of us who cover the team went up to talk to Soto, and he spoke to us for a few minutes about it. And he was legitimately upset by this. It was not an act. He was truly upset that this had gotten out. And you heard him talk about, you know, I always have tried to keep this thing behind scenes, keep this private. He did not want anything about the contract talks to be out there.

you know my initial instinct was I didn't see where any benefit would come from from the Soto side the Boris side of this to put that out there especially the timing of going into the all-star break why would that benefit them you know so then you turn the other side and say well then you would think it came from the national side but I don't know that for a fact I know there are people with the team who aren't happy this is out either so it doesn't mean it was a full-on organizational decision, if that's where it came from. I'll just say, Ken Rosenthal is the most respected in the business and what he does. So I don't think this was necessarily just a rogue, you know, one person calling up Ken Rosenthal and leaking something to him.

He's got sources. He worked the phone, so he may have been trying to get something like this for a while and found somebody who could give it to him and he pieced it all together. I don't know exactly, but I just know that when it came from him, I knew it was legitimate as opposed to maybe others who don't have as good of a track record as him. But like I said, I also knew the shockwaves that was going to send through the organization and through baseball. And it's absolutely come to fruition. I think what I was worried was going to happen.

Well, I mean, you know, the one benefit you kind of already discussed it earlier from the Nat standpoint is that it wouldn't be a bombshell. it wouldn't be a shocker if he got traded prior to the trade deadline. It's sort of setting everybody up for, hey, we tried our best, but he's unsignable, and now we've got to do what's in the best interest of the organization, at least that would be their opinion, and try to get the biggest haul we can back for him. I mean, that would seem to be the benefit of them leaking it out. The only thing I would suggest is that the offer itself, I mean, this is, this is,

25 years ago or even 10 years ago. Everybody can do the math on these deals and everybody knows what an AAV is, you know, and you can divide, you know, 440 by 15 to come up with what the AAV is and where it ranks in the average annual in terms of salaries in the sport. And maybe it actually backfired a little bit. But that seems like it makes sense to me is they didn't want to floor people if they end up dealing him and they wanted the fan base to know how hard they were trying. Yeah, I think that all is logical and makes sense.

And that was, you know, my thought too, that, and I go back to this, you know, we've caught through the sadly like three, four times now over the years with all their star players. And I think you've seen a progression in how the nationals have handled it with Harper and Rendon, Trey Turner. And now Soto, you've sort of seen. a little more forthcoming on their part, maybe a little more aggressiveness and trying to stay out in front of it in sense and be able to say to people like you just pointed out, hey, we offered him a record-setting contract. Don't blame us. You know, this isn't some phony

baloney deal. We would have made him the highest paid player in baseball history and he turned it down. So, of course, there's a PR element to that. Now, you're right, also that people are savvy enough to start to do the math and figure out, well, is it actually as good a deal as it found? But you still see that number, 440, and he says no, and you can paint this as, hey, we try, don't blame us. So it's complicated, and there's, you know, I guess I just, I keep coming back to, this has been a series of negotiations along the way, and that didn't mean this is the end of it. You know, now maybe in their minds, this is your last and final offer. But I felt like all along, you don't go and make a $500 million offer right now

because he says, no, now you've got to increase again to have another shot. So you have to do this in stages. And then, of course, the ownership question, which I just feel has been looming over at all. I just never expected anything to happen here until there's an owner in place. So I don't totally understand why it got out when it did unless somebody wanted it known, and maybe they want the baseball world to know that it could be available because they want to see what they could get in the trade for him. You haven't answered this question as you were going through it, but what do you think of the offer that they made?

Do you think that that, I mean, we understand how it can be painted from a public relations standpoint. We understand that more sophisticated fans, and you don't even have to be that sophisticated to figure out where it ranks, you know, in terms of an average annual. But what did you think of the offer? I thought that it was a reasonable offer to make at this stage of the process, but I also completely understand why it turned it down. I have never believed there was a reasonable chance that he's going to take an offer this year, maybe not even for another year or two.

But I get that they're going to make this an incremental stages. Like I said earlier, if they were to do the, hey, third, 13 years, it's 40 million a year, whatever that works out. It's clear, like, there's no question. This is the biggest contract, total and annual annual value, all that. I still don't know that he would take it. And now you've backed yourself into a corner. You're negotiating against yourself.

So that's why I felt like all along. This thing is not going to be resolved anytime soon. If you're Juan Soto, you not only want the money to be whatever you think you're worth, but you also want to know what the ownership situation is. You want to see if the team gets any better. You know, he's got two and a half years. My feeling all along was the national's best chances of resigning him is not only to make him a huge offer, but to show him that by 2024,

they've got a competitive team again, and maybe he does want to stay here. Well, you can't do that right now. And if you're Soto, why would you commit right now, given all the uncertainty and the poor play of the team? You're probably not going to. So because of that, I don't think it behooves the team to, make a blow your socks off clearly the best possible offer right now because you've now left yourself with nowhere else to go. And so I think it's reasonable what they offered, but I also think

it's completely reasonable for him to turn it down at this stage. Yeah, negotiating against yourself is never a good idea. Tom kind of agrees with you as well that he's, you know, unsignable right now anyway. Tom thinks he might, he could be unsignable until he reaches free agency. And Boris creates, you know, the all-time bidding war for a player. But that leads me to this. What do you think they should do? This is really at the core for a fan, the debate. Should they trade him now when they can get the biggest haul?

Because if they trade him to a contender, that contender will have his services for, you know, theoretically three post-seasons or more. And so now you would think, you know, you can get the most back for him, or should they wait, or is he so great, is he so generationally great? You know, as Tim Kirchon told me the other day, he's Ted Williams. Well, then why the hell do you trade Ted Williams?

So what do you think they should do? Yeah, I'm torn on this because I kind of agree with Tim on this, which is a good thing. It's a good person to agree with, by the way. Tim Kirchon knows we've talked about going to the Hall of Fame this weekend. who trades a future Hall of Famer at age 23? You know? Like put everything else out of the equation. Right.

You have a future Hall of Famer on your roster, and you've got him for at least two and a half more years. He's only 23 years old. Why are you trading him? There's no chance that whatever you get in return is going to be as good as Juan Soto. You're not. You may get three or four good players who help you. Maybe one of them becomes a star.

And, you know, I keep hearing people say, well, it has to be the Herschel Walker kind of deal to get it done. Well, one photo isn't Herschel Walker. He's better. He is better as opposed. Yes. Right? Yeah. So, like, and I guess there's a chance that he doesn't pan out.

Maybe he gets hurt or he just not, you know, he ages poorly and doesn't. But I just, I keep feeling like you've got an iconic player. I felt like all along, you could justify letting. Harper and Rendon and Turner and all the other guys go, if you kept the one, if you, if you were able to keep that one absolutely no question, best of them all, iconic franchise player, and to me that's Juan Soto. You know, he's the guy that when it's all said and done, his number 22 is going to be up there next to Zimmerman's 11.

I have no doubt of that. That's how good he is. Now, I get it. You may be saying if you hang on to him for the next two and a half years, he's going to become a free agent and he's just going to walk away and you're left with nothing. But I also feel like is that so terrible? To have this great player on your team, your franchise icon, especially when the team isn't very good, he is the reason to come watching, he's the reason to care about them, even if

at the end of 2024 you lose him, kind of like how they lost Harper, I don't know that it's the worst thing in the world to have gotten seven years of greatness from him. And then take your chances under a new owner. Maybe the team is in a better position. Maybe you can resign him at that point. I don't feel like they have to do anything yet. And that's where I'm surprised by it all. There's no urgency here that you don't have to do this.

And I also would question, and I don't know the answer to this. But I don't know that you're getting that much more for him in a trade right now than you would over the winner. I get it's a third postseason, but is it really that much more you're going to be offered? And none of these are sure things that you're getting in return. There's no such thing of a sure thing in a prospect. So personally, I would hang on to them. I'd wait this out, especially until you've given a new owner a chance at it. But there are baseball reasons to do it, and it's going to be really hard if it does happen.

But I understand why they would do it. I just don't – I'm looking at more an emotional level. Like, you're going to trade away a future Hall of Fame at age 23. These guys don't grow on tree. It's exactly the way I feel. And I said that with Tommy to Tommy yesterday and even Monday. Like I prospects, okay, maybe one of them could turn out to be a really good player. Maybe in the aggregate something could approach.

But the chances are that it won't. And two and a half years, things change. Like you could potentially maybe in 2024 be a lot better. And Cade Cavali could be a star. and Stephen Strasbourg could be healthy, and all of the sudden you're actually contending for a wildcard spot and with new ownership in place, maybe he feels more comfortable.

Who knows? But like I said to Tom yesterday, when it's what I posed to Kirch in the other day, if he really is Ted Williams and he's 23, how can you trade a Ted Williams at 23? And then at some point you're going to have to look back, you know, as an organization, or a fan and say, oh my God, Bryce Harper's in the Hall of Fame and Juan Soto's in the Hall of Fame

and both of those players started their careers here, but they didn't end them here. So you've told me what you think, that what you would, you know, in your mix, and I get that. It's complex. But you've shared with me what you think should happen, but what do you think will happen? I think it just depends on what the offers are. Again, they don't have to do this. There is no, honestly, there's no pressure on Mike Rizzo to make this deal now. I don't think.

Because if you're going to do it, you better be able to sell this to everyone as this was worth it. This was something we had to do. So if somebody comes through and you can say, hey, here are four or five slam dunk prospects and a couple of them are already in the big leagues, and they're going to help us win sooner, then okay. go ahead and do it. But if you don't have that, this is not a case of we just have to take whatever the best offer is. You don't have to do that. You can wait. Like I said, next winter,

there may be more teams in a position to try to do something, or you don't have to do it at all. Like we said, you wait it out and see what else may happen. One of the point I want to make, I was thinking about it as we were talking about it before. And I think this is valid because we tend to think, oh, just pay him however much, you know, he's Ted Williams, so you've got to pay him whatever he's worth. Okay, that's fine. But there's also a line of thinking that there's a certain number. I don't know what it is.

That once you get there, if you pay him that much, you are now hamstringing your own ability to build a team around him. If he's taking up so much payroll and you don't have an owner who's willing to, you know, compete with the Yankees and the Dodgers in terms of payroll, then it may be hard to build a winning team. And so do you want to have Juan Soto as a national for the next 15 years but not win because you don't have anything else around him? That's the position they're in right now. We see what the nationals look like with Juan Soto and nobody else, and it's ugly. So I do think that's something to consider. But again, let the new owner decide that.

Mark Lerner doesn't have to decide that. That seems like something to consider down the road. Yeah, I mean, if it is, you know, David Rubenstein and Ted Leonis, I mean, certainly the former is worth billions, and maybe the next owner is willing to go well beyond. You know, there's no salary cap in the sport. And if you've got that kind of money, maybe they want to become the next Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, you know, et cetera.

Who knows? But I mean, I get your point. They don't have to do anything. And it should be a knock your socks off offer or they shouldn't do anything. But if you had to wager, do you think they would, do you think they will or won't get that kind of offer by August 2nd? I mean, I think there's a good chance. As much hysteria as there is right now around the sport,

and maybe that's the reason that it got out because they were trying to create this hysteria, then maybe you will all take the two teams that are willing to go head to head and increase their offers and compete with each other. So maybe you can pull it off. So I guess I would say that I think there's a good chance that it happens, but I also, like I said earlier,

I would say that it doesn't have to happen. I would say there's a good chance but not a guarantee. I'm just reading right now because Bob Nightingale just posted a story that he's got seven potential landing spots for Soto. And he's the second guy that's done this. I think Haman did it as well. The Nats could be trying to move Corbyn's contract as part of the deal as well. Do you buy that? Yeah, but let me make one point on that.

they would love to move that contract. But here's the problem. When you do that kind of thing, you're asking another team to take on all that money because they have no interest in the player. So you get less back? You get less back. If you're the nationals, the point of this is not to just shed payroll. The point of this is to get good young players because that's what you're lacking. So to me, I don't think it makes a lot of sense to include. But you ask, I understand why you ask. But that's, to me, a much harder sell because now you're telling everyone, we're just trying to shed our payroll and start all over again, and that's not a good look. All right. Just give me your quick thoughts on, you know, this travel story, you know,

Soto traveling to L.A. commercially. Tom told us yesterday that it's collectively bargained. MLB pays for the All-Stars trips and guests to L.A. They're not allowed actually to, you know, fly them out there on a charter. The reason Atlanta and Houston had a charter heading out there is because the managers and staff were involved in managing the game. This is what Tom told us yesterday on the podcast. Boris obviously wasn't happy and really tried to demean the nationals as being super cheap for not doing it. And I suggested, well, he could have done it. But Haman told me today that that's against the rules as well. And Tommy mentioned that yesterday as well, that agents can't fly them out there on their own jets or pay for, you know, a private jet.

So what did you make of that whole thing? Yeah, I think we've learned a whole lot in the last 48 hours about how All-Star Travel works, more than we ever needed to know. My first thought was what you were kind of suggesting at before, and I can't say that it never happened, but what team is going to pay for a charter for one player? to go cross-country. I don't know of that happening. Yes, if you have a big group of guys, I have heard of cases where they all flew out together.

I've even heard of cases where, you know, whatever team they were facing going into the All-Star break, well, hey, you've got three All-Stars, we've got four, let's band up together, we'll all travel together. I've heard of stories like that. I can't say I've ever heard of a chartered flight for one All-Star, and I think that was Scott Boers trying to seize back control of this whole story and trying to, you know, oh, poor Juan Soto, woe was me.

And again, I guarantee you, knowing Juan, he doesn't want that. He's not complaining about this. He doesn't want that out there. This is negotiating on Boris's part, and I guess it's a brilliant job by him because everybody's talking about it now. To me, this is the biggest non-story ever. All right. Last one.

There's a trade deadline, whether they trade Juan Soto or not, which means they can do other things. What do you expect from them by August 2nd? Yeah, I mean, I do think it's pretty clear that Josh Bell will be gone. They like him a lot. He's a great guy. They could look to resign him over the winter, but he can actually bring you something to return.

It doesn't cost to a contending team what Juan Soto would cost. So I think that was worthwhile. They signed Nelson Cruz all along with this idea that he could be traded, but he has not played very well here lately. And in a way, if you're a team interested in Josh Bell, then if your team interested in Nelson Cruz, then you're probably more interested in Josh Bell. So why are you going to take one over the other? So it could be tougher to move Cruz. I think they will, or at least certainly try.

And then I've thought that Kyle Finan all along was an intriguing one because he's a young reliever who has three years of control. If you're a rebuilding team, a lot of times, lay-in relievers are not a priority for you. what do you really need them for if you're not winning games anyways? And teams get desperate, as we've seen the nationals over the years. You get desperate for relief pitching, and you're willing to give up something decent. So I wouldn't be surprised if they'd do that. But obviously, none of these guys are bringing anything close to in return. What Soto wouldn't, and honestly, I don't think anybody's bringing what they got last year

in the Scherzer and Turner trade. You're not getting Josiah Gray and Kaver Ruiz for Josh Bell. So that could be another reason why they would at least be looking at trading Soto because he's the one chip they have that's going to bring you some bona fide future stars. It's 100 degrees in Phoenix right now as I'm talking to you. And there is an excessive heat warning out there in the valley of the sun. Back here, it's 92 right now. And I guarantee you, you are 100% correct.

It feels much better where you are than where we are. I appreciate you doing this. Enjoy the rest of your time off before the Nats open up this series with Arizona this weekend. Enjoy it. Thanks, as always. All right. Thanks, David. Mark Zuckerman, everybody.

Mass and sports, read them. Nats chat podcast with Galdi, listen to it. At Mark Zuckerman on Twitter. Give him a follow. By the way, it's going up to 113 degrees today in Phoenix. It's 100 now, but they have an excessive heat warning because it's heading up to 113 degrees. But it's a dry heat.

It's a dry heat. One more thing to get to before the end of the show. Something to just think about as it relates to the Washington Commander's 2022 schedule. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Rate us and review us wherever you can, whichever podcast platform you're listening to us on, if it allows you to do so, it's a huge help for us. Apple, in particular, if you can give us five stars and write us a quick one to two sentence review, it's much appreciated.

So I wanted to finish the show with something that may be a repeat. I can't remember if I've already talked about this. If I did talk about this, it wasn't in as much detail as I'm going to talk about it right now. It's just something I've been thinking about as it relates to the team. the commanders, that is, and this upcoming season. Remember that last off season heading into the 2021 season, many of us, I wasn't the only one, warned some of you that said the defense is going to be a top five defense. It's going to be the Chicago Bears 85 defense. It's going to be the strength of the team. And I thought it was going to be the strength of the team as well. Don't get me wrong.

I was excited about the defense, and I kept saying over and over again, I think the defense will be improved and better, even if statistically, it doesn't rank as high as it did in 2020. And then we focused in on all of the opponents and the backup quarterbacks that they faced in 2020. You know, they faced, you know, Ryan Finley in the second half when they played the Bengals. They faced Ben Danucci, you know, for the Cowboys. They faced Nick Mullins in San Francisco. You know, they were facing a lot of backup quarterbacks.

They got Nate Sudfeld in the fourth quarter of the biggest game of the year. And so that made it a little bit misleading in terms of their overall DVOA defensive ranking, which was very high. But at the same time, I think it was fair to say this could be a really good defensive team. And if it's not a dominant defensive team this year, it could be in 2022 or 2023. as it matures. But I thought last year, because of the quarterbacks that they were going to be facing last year, and as we know, it was one of the all-time schedules in terms of the quarterbacks. You know, Herbert, Allen, Ryan, Mahomes, Rogers, Brady, Wilson, Carr.

I mean, the list just went on and on, and, you know, not even mentioning Prescott twice. And so I didn't expect the defense to suck as badly as it did. It was a massive disappointment last year for sure, and it wasn't anything that we thought it would be, even though there was a warning about trying to turn it into a top 10 or top five defense last year when they were going to be facing a far different group of offensive football teams and quarterbacks than they had before. But what I wanted to get to is this. Last year, Washington obviously gave up a lot defensively. were a bad defensive team. They finished 31st and third down defense. They finished 27th overall

in Football Outsiders DVOA metric. They finished 28th in past defense. They were easy to throw the football against. But many of you, since the season ended last year, have suggested that Washington was an outstanding rush defensive football team last year. And true enough, they finished ranked seventh in the NFL in football outsiders DVOA metric, seventh overall in rush defense. Now again, they played a lot of teams that wanted to throw the football and had a lot of success throwing the football. And so as you take it to this upcoming season,

there is a conversation of got to get that pass rush, got to be better in the secondary. We're going to be okay against the run. We're going to be fine against the run. No worries there. Just have to improve the past defense. The NFL changes every year. Teams change, and by the way, the teams you play change every year.

And that leads me to this. And if this is a repeat, I apologize. But it's a repeat with more information. More information, excuse me. The information is this. Washington faces a schedule this year. with incredible rush offenses from a year ago that probably won't change that much from a year ago. If you look at just the DVOA metric from last year in terms of rush offenses,

they face last year's number one rush offense in Cleveland. Now, maybe the Browns will be a little bit different. They could be with Deshawn Watson. They face the Indianapolis Colts likely not to be that much different. because Jonathan Taylor is still going to be a major focal point. Indy was the number two rush offense DVOA. They played two games against the Eagles who had the third ranked DVOA rush offense in the NFL, and they play the 49ers who were fourth in DVOA rush offense.

They play five games in this upcoming season, nearly a third of their schedule, against the four best rushing teams in the NFL last year. Let me add to that. They also, if you look at just traditional rush offensive numbers, average yards rushing per game, Philly was one, Indy was two, Cleveland was four, Tennessee who's on the schedule this year, the Titans are they were five,

San Francisco was seven, and Dallas was nine. That is eight games, eight games against top nine rush offenses from last year. So they've got their work cut out for them. And I haven't even mentioned a team like Minnesota who had Dalvin Cook injured for portions of last year and wasn't ranked as high as their potential suggests they can be. Minnesota finished 27th DVOA and rush offense last year, 17th in average yards per game. But the Vikings with Kevin O'Connell, they're going to throw the ball a lot with their weapons and with cousins, but they're going to also try to run the football with Dalvin Cook, you know,

debatably pound for pound, their best football player. here, Jefferson. They also have on this schedule a team like Atlanta, who may be one of the worst teams in the league. Atlanta last year was at the bottom in terms of rush offenses, but now they have a dual threat quarterback in Marcus Marietta. They may completely change what they want to do. Why? Well, Arthur Smith is the head coach.

He couldn't do in Atlanta. Atlanta last year, what he did with Tennessee and Tannahill and Henry, but with Marriota, they're going to be more, I would imagine, a run first than a dual threat run team. So, yeah, I mean, Green Bay, by the way, can run the football and may get back to having that more of a focus without Devante Adams on the field. By the way, Chicago last year, in traditional average yards per game, they were 14th. So if you're just looking for something to kind of pay attention to, the rush defense last year was pretty solid. For reasons that make sense, which you start with, they had such a bad past defense, and they were so awful in,

covering and getting to the quarterback and getting off the field. Teams just attacked them through the air. And the teams they were playing were teams that preferred to throw the football. All of those great quarterbacks. This year, different. And I will tell you, as a fan of football for my entire life, there is nothing more frustrating than when your favorite team and you're watching that game can't stop.

the run. It is painful when you get run on. And they're going to face teams that are going to try to run the football. Jacksonville in the opener will have Travis E.T.N. back in the lineup. They missed him, their first round pick from last year, their second first round pick from last year, 25th overall after they took Trevor Lawrence number one. He'll be back. Detroit with D'Andre Swift, they're going to try to run the football. Philly, Dallas, Tennessee, or their next three opponents. Chicago, Green Bay, Indy, Minnesota, and Philly again. The good news is they do get Houston. And the Giants, and we don't know what the Giants will look like at all. Just something to keep in mind. I mean, DVOA from last year, top four rushing offenses, five games against the

top four, Cleveland, Indy, Philly, and San Francisco. If you go with just traditional numbers, they play eight games against the top nine rush offenses from last year. And again, some of those teams that were ranked low are going to look a little bit different. Atlanta's going to look different, definitely. Minnesota, you know, you had a situation last year where, you know, Dalvin Cook wasn't healthy for the entire season. Even when he played last year, there were games in which he wasn't healthy. He missed four total games on the year.

We're still rushed for 1159 yards, but if you get 17 games of Dalvin Cook this year, Minnesota is going to look like they have in previous years. They're going to be able to run the football. All right, that is it for today. Enjoy the weekend. I'll be back on Monday.