The Kevin Sheehan Show - WFT OTA WRAP

Episode Date: June 4, 2021

Kevin is joined by Ben Standig/The Athletic to talk some Wizards and NBA to start before getting to a Washington Football OTA wrap-up. Who stood out? How much optimism is there about the offense? What's the real reaction to Chase Young not showing up any of the OTA days? Then, Eddie C. from Florida, who nailed The Preakness on this podcast a few weeks back makes a return visit to pick tomorrow's Belmont Stakes.  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. Ben Standing's going to join us on the show here to start. We're going to talk some NBA playoffs briefly, some Wizards briefly. And then we'll get into what happened this week from OTAs.

And then at the end of the show, Eddie C, if you remember, Eddie C, was on the show prior to the Preakness. The third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes is tomorrow. Eddie C gave you the top two finishers in the Preakness, Ron Bauer and Midnight Bourbon, so we'll get his picks and get an update on Bob Baffert and some of the stuff that's going on with that at the end of the show. But Ben Standing is here with me to begin the program today. And I want to start with something that you're paying attention to,

and I'm paying attention to, and I think we're both into it because we both love basketball, and we don't hate the NBA like a lot of our friends. do. And we don't find it boring. I find the regular season to be a little bit boring. But let's start before we get to the remainder of the field or the remaining field of eligible teams for the title. LeBron, James, and the Lakers are not one of them anymore. I just want to get your thoughts on the Wizards and whether or not you think Scott Brooks is going to be back and what direction you think they'll take in the off season.

So this isn't reporting or anything. This is just sort of, you know, thinking about it and, you know, talking to people, but just like getting a my sense. Like I'm, there's not a lot of topics in the world that I'm, I'm adept at discussing in depth. Like, you know, don't ask me about cars or fine dining or women or pretty much anything. But I can talk about like what the mindset of that place is. And based on my sense of just how things have gone there over the years,

and kind of the lay of the land now. You have Russell Westbrook on the book for two more years. The owner has repeatedly said, we won't tank. He is about making the playoffs more than he is winning the title, in my opinion. All that stuff, if you make me predict, I will predict Scott Brooks is back. The only reason I wouldn't would be is if, you know, there's other factors with the new organization following a year of the pandemic, where, you know, revenues were surely down. And somebody says, hey, we can't just run it back.

we need to, you know, do something to get people back in the building. But I think the Westbrook factor is pretty compelling. There's an easy narrative for them to fall back on. Look how we finished strong in the season. We won 17 of the last 23 regular season games. You know, if Westbrook hadn't been hurt earlier in a year, we hadn't been dealing with maybe the worst COVID situation in the league, so on and so on.

Why couldn't we have been a higher seat rather than just in the playing tournament? So I think they can justify it. And I just, if you, again, if you make me get, guess. My guess is that's what they would do, the line of a Brooks contract with Westbrook's last two years and go from there. But we'll see. I personally would think a change is an order. But like I said, if you make me guess, I would guess he's back. Yeah, I think, but you don't think they've arrived at that decision yet, do you? Because I think if they had arrived at that decision, Tommy Shepard would have said it yesterday rather than what he said, which is today's not the day to

answer that question. And we know about Ted and the group at Monumental, the owners of the hockey team and the basketball team, they are very deliberate in everything they do. They're very analytical. They do deep dive after deep dive before they make decisions. You know, there's nothing impulsive about what they do. But I'm just curious, I think if they knew he was gone, they would have said it yesterday. And I think if they, I'm sorry, I think if they knew he was going to stay, they would have

said it yesterday. Excuse me, that's what I meant to say. Right. I mean, I guess you could look at it in a different way. If they knew he was gone, they would have said it yesterday. Because I don't think you, why have a press conference in which he also, Scott Brooks also spoke yesterday. If they definitively knew he was out, then there's no reason. Well, I guess we could say it about both things, because if they knew he was going to stay, Tommy Shepard wouldn't let it drag out. Well, I could think I could maybe make the argument the other way in the sense of you want to at least give an impression of deliberation, right? I mean, obviously, it's not like the season just ended and somebody said, oh, hey,

wait, Scott Brooks's contract ended. We have to make a decision here. But I think there isn't a view of, hey, maybe at least think about it. And, you know, look, keeping Scott Brooks will not be a popular decision among fans in general, It's been five years that they've had three losing seasons. They have made the playoffs three times, including his first year where they got 49 wins and things were on their upward trajectory. And it's gone the other way largely since.

But I'm just saying like I think just for appearances, if you're really going to make this move, you know, I don't think you do it yesterday. I think you wait and give, you know, give it time to settle, maybe even actually settle, right? Think about it. But I'm saying even if you've made a call, I don't think you're going to announce it yesterday. And by the way, we don't definitively know Tommy Shepard's deal. I believe he said he's under contract, but we don't know definitively if that's a locked-in contract or what.

And so there's also that side of it as well. Yeah, I think you may have convinced me. And I think the reason is, and I think you sort of said this, if they are going to keep him, if they have any self-awareness as to what their fan base wants, which is a change, the majority want to change, they have to. to give the appearance that they're considering moving on from him. I think there's something that makes sense about that. I would also just suggest that more likely than not,

they're not entirely sure because they are a very deliberative group in general. That that would be my gut right now. Your gut is that he comes back. And I think if I had to wager right now, I think I'd actually wager on the opposite that he's not back. But I don't, my guess is that they don't know for sure either way right now. Yeah. I mean, you know, look, I guess I don't really understand how you could be unsure, right?

It'd be one thing to say you're unsure who the next coach would be, right? I mean, you used to go through a search or whatever. I don't know how you haven't figured out what you have in Scott Brooks. It's been five years, for better or for worse. I'm not saying it's, yeah, but if you believe in the, I mean, what's the, what are you going to determine about everything over the next few days? I mean, I guess, you know, when Ted, when Ted, when Ted Leonas just went through a search for the GM, he supposedly talked to 78 people about that, which was, that's my point. Right. Well, that was also having total silliness. If you actually

looked at the list of the people he was talking to, but the, but this, yeah, this is what they're like, they wanted to give off the, a look of this is a deliberative process, even if, as the GM situation went, it landed on a guy who had been in the building for 15 years. And for what it's worth, I think Tommy Shepard's done a pretty good job. I mean, you know, I think if you look at almost all the moves they made this year, the little ones, the big ones, everything kind of worked out, or at least was up more positive than negative. And, you know, he's done some good things on the margins, you know, trading for Davos Burton

last year and Daniel Gafford this year for basically, you know, not much. I mean, Gafford, you give up Troy Brown. But you know what I mean? Like he's done good work, some of the free agent signings. And look, even the Westbrook wall trade, if you give that, you know, I think that's more of an ownership decision. But in terms of, you know, if you're just going to label everything under the GM heading, that that worked out positively, you know, in large as well. So to this point. So I think Tommy's done a good job. And I would personally think it would make sense to bring him back. But yeah, it's conceivable that everything's in play. And therefore, there is more indecision right now. than I'm sort of picturing.

Yeah, I mean, I just think it's the nature. I'm not saying that individually, these people don't have a really strong sense of what they want, but it is always been an organizational consensus, deep dive, lots of evaluation, lots of, you know, considering everything and talking to lots of people until they arrive at sort of a consensus. He is not an impulsive, you know, slam his fist down on a table. It's over. This is what we're doing, Guy. I'm talking about Ted, of course.

I agree with you on Tommy. I think Tommy really knows basketball, and I have no problem with him continuing as the GM. My preference would be that they overall try to go in a new direction, even though I know more likely than not, the new direction won't produce championship caliber teams either. but I think this is a rut they are in. I think their biggest upside is 48 wins and a five seed and maybe, maybe to win a series. But there's no championship caliber, no championship contention with the current construction of this roster and staff. What do you think?

Yeah, I mean, I think the problem with this team, even though the strong close to the regular season, was fun. And look, in the year we've all had and considering how loud it was to watch. The other night wasn't fun. No, no. The playoffs, the play in the playoffs were less, less fun. Some good moments, but, you know, some, some duds that we didn't see over those last 23 games, when even when they lost, they were losing by, like, at the buzzer.

But, you know, yeah, by and large, like what the ceiling here is a lot lower, you know, if you compare it to the wall and Beal era, right? The thing was that both of those players were ascending. And even though the LeBron James and Petman in the Eastern Conference was obvious, and that's why nobody really thought the Wizards were an NBA contender by any stretch or title contender. We didn't know where things were headed. In this case, Beale continues to get better every year, and he's only 27. He'll be 28 later this month.

But the Westbrook thing, you know, look, for better for worse, we know what Westbrook is. The ceiling is obvious. And they don't have enough else. The third best player on the team, at least based on money, Davis Burthans, was more or less a no-show in the. the playoffs. And there's reasons to think that that could continue going forward. And, you know, Rui Hachamor showed some signs, you know, of progress during the year and in the playoffs. But what about, you know, the consistency is the next level and so on. So it's hard to look at this team and think that anything more than a five or six seed is, is conceivable in a sport in which,

realistically, most of the years, four or five teams, we know going in have a shot at winning at all. And if you're a fan who is its, you know, rings or bust out to all about being a contender, then honestly, I'd be disappointed. If you just can look at the wizard that, hey, this is really entertaining because Russell Westbrook is an absolute force of nature or Bradley Beals one of the better players in the league and so on. Well, then you can probably get by for the next two years. But if you're looking at this like, well, when it's, it's been 40 years, one of the wizards back in contention, I'd say realistically, you're probably having to wait a couple more years at least. and that's assuming unless Tommy Shepard pulls off, you know, a pretty sneaky move that seems unlikely based on the limited options he has at his disposal at his disposal this off season.

Yeah, or if somehow they hit, you know, on a pick at number 15 that turns out to be, you know, what we've had, you know, some middle of the first round guys do. Yeah. I mean, if Hacchimora has a leap where he's, I keep saying, you know, he has like a Pascal Seacum leap, which nobody saw with that guy, then sure. I mean, things could get interesting, but look, even still, Westbrook, you know, for better for worse, he's not always the guy you want as your sort of lead at the end of games and big games.

And, you know, there's always that aspect of it. But at least if we just give the allure of contending, you know, yeah, something I don't expect it is like to happen. It's just that I, every year when we get to playoff time, I've always felt as a lifelong, lifelong basketball fan and NBA fan and Wizards fan for that matter, that you really don't learn about teams until they start playing true meaningful games where the opponent's not on the second half of a back-to-back

or they're not caring about really giving effort that night or playing defense. These are the games that matter. This is where you judge players and you judge teams. And this team was a number, major disappointment in this series. I never expected them to win this series. I predicted five games, but God damn it, I thought they were going to win the other night. That team was not the number one-seated team that they played on Wednesday night. That was a team without its

best player in Joelle and Bede, and I thought the Wizards were at least equal to what the 76ers were going to put out there. And not only were they not equal, it wasn't even close. And their two best players were disappointing. Beal did a nice job early and then fell apart because offensively, when the game slowed down, he was a turnover machine. They didn't even know how to handle a half-court, a double-teaming of a player. They didn't even know what they were doing. Youth coaches would have been able to explain to that team how to beat that double team much easier. Watch Portland last night as they came at Lillard early with a double team and see how Portland handled it. I just look at this and I go, it needs a new start. I mean, I'm not in for,

you know, wow, that's seven straight triple doubles and they've won four of those games and they're inching up in the standings. They're seventh now. They might be able to get to sixth because I know what's going to happen in the postseason. They're not going to win. They're not going to beat anybody good. So, you know, it's, I think I said this to Tommy yesterday. It's the Brad pit line and Moneyball to Jonah Hill. It's like, look, if championship is the goal, what are we talking about here? But to your point, it may not be the goal. There may be a realization that this is a business and we need to be in the playoffs every

year. We need those extra home dates for the revenue that turns us into a profitable organization. And if we, you know, take the big swing at trading Beale and getting a hall of picks and over the next three to four years, try to revamp and reshap. shape our roster in the hopes of winning and contending down the road. We're going to be out of the playoffs, out of the conversation, out of everybody's, you know, the interest level, and that will be painful. And by the way, there's no guarantee at the end of the road that you're a contender.

In fact, it's actually less than 50-50. But this group ain't going anywhere. This group, these players, Bradley Beale, Westbrook, Hachamura, Gafford, Brooks and his staff, they're not going to win more than one playoff series, and that's a reach at this point. I felt much better about the Randy Whitman group, but then again, I was not fully aware of what John Wall and Beale would be together, and I thought it would just keep growing and growing until it was, you know, something equivalent to, I don't know, at least at the time I thought Lillard and McCollum at the very least, but it's not even that. And they haven't had the playoff

success. Yeah. I mean, I would just say like, you know, to the point of like, I'm sure, you know, on the record, nobody over there would say they're not trying to win the title. So of course they would say that. But you just mentioned Moneyball, fantastic movie. You know, I did more of the watch the movie and then read the book, but okay. Great movie. And like, so let's just use that as an example. When the owner tells Brett, the Brad Pitt character, you know, hey, um, nice job, but your budget's not changing. Right. It's not that the owner is saying we don't want to win a title. He's just saying, I'm giving you all of these constraints and you have to work around it. Right. And that's, that's what we're talking about here, whether that's, you know, they were the 28th

team to have a G league team. Then this year they didn't even have one because of the pandemic, which I'm not arguing is good or bad. I'm just saying other teams did. They didn't, you know, the facilities relative to other teams in the league. Like I joke to somebody yesterday that it's more likely now that we have this, all this talk on like 60 minutes about UFOs and, you know, I think it's more likely we have first contact with an alien life form than we do the wizard to go into the luxury tax, right? Like I'm not even joking about that, which isn't to say that they should with this group. It's just to say they aren't doing all the full throat

or things that other places are for better or for worse. And when you when you have that, you have to look at your, look at your ceiling. Now again, you could conceivably, I mean, I guarantee I look at some of the teams left in the playoffs.

I'm sure some of them are also in that general boat. But, you know, a guy like Tim Connolly in Denver, who, you know, has done a great job, even without Jamal Murray.

Yeah. They still have a deep team. Obviously, you know, Nicole Yolkich could be the MVP. He's going to be the MVP. I mean, I presume he will. He was a second round pick. Right.

You know, they've had, you know, Monty Morris is a guy who they found later on and so on and so on. So, you know, I look, again, Tommy Shepherd's only been on the job for relatively short amount of time, even if he was connected to the previous, you know, with Ernie Grunfeld. So we'll see. I have faith that Tommy Cheper can do some right things. But, yeah, it's just hard to do it. And then, like I said, the Westbrook thing, like here what I would just say to sort to recap this season, they became, it was a absolute symbiotic relationship between Russell

Westbrook's mood and the rest of the team not named Bradley Beale. When he was all in, aggressive firing on all cylinders, all that, that's how they played. And when he was distracted, like he seemed to be in game five, that's how they played. And I don't know how you work around that. And you mentioned before about like things like getting out of double teams and the coaching. Like this is part of my issue with Scott Brooks. He's not a player's coach, as Bradley Beal said the other day he's a star coach from Oklahoma City to hear he doesn't seem to be willing to put guardrails on his stars even though even the best players need them at times I'm not saying that you have to tell the best players in the league you know what to do but you need to keep them in check all of us

need coaching right I mean coaches are there for a reason it isn't just to pat somebody on the head and say okay you're starting go ahead like talk to them as a people what's going on I think Bradley Beale could use some of that at times. He's obviously an incredible score. But yeah, there are times where it's like he's been told so often he kind of has to do all of it that he kind of forgets that he can pass the ball instead of fighting through a double team. But I don't think the coaches tell them these things. And I definitely don't think anybody is telling Westbrook these things. But I also don't think anybody, Westbrook would probably listen to too many people. He's going to do what Westbrook does. And that's also part of this equation.

Scott Brooks at least kind of knows what he's dealing with. You could bring in some interesting assistant coach. I don't know. Will he, will that person, male, female will that person know how to deal with with Westbrook for better or for worse and if not then what you know there's there there are some confusing aspects of this and this is the thing with the wizard it's never just simple so simple you can't just start over i would i kind of wish they would be able to just start over but they can't so they're in this middle ground where it feels like they often have been for the last four years the one opportunity to start over is they've never had an asset that could bring back enough that would give you a chance at a start over like

they have with Bradley Beal. That's the only difference here, right? They actually have an asset that could give them a chance at a rebuild start with just, you know, I don't know if it's a hardened haul, but whatever it would end up being would be something that they've never had before because there would be significant interest. Now, the other, by the way, I think it was, I think it was a very, very interesting way that you put that. I don't think I've heard anybody else put it this way, and it's one of the reasons I love Ben. that Scott Brooks isn't a player's coach. He's a star coach. But it's more than that. You really don't see any of this stuff clearly until they're playing postseason games. I love Russell Westbrook and

have throughout his career. Before he even got here, I had finally come to the conclusion, you cannot win with him this time of year. It's more apparent now than ever after watching. this past series. I actually really think Bradley Beal is an elite level score, but I don't think he's an elite player. I think he is going to make the third team this year, the NBA all three, and he deserves it based on the year he had. But if he's your number one, you're not winning in the postseason. You're not a championship caliber team. You know, there are, what we saw the other night was as frustrating as frustrating gets because they were absolutely. absolutely embarrassing on defense. And a lot of the embarrassment on defense at times has been

influenced by their two supposed star players who are often disinterested, who are often distracted. My God, I guarantee you we could count a half dozen times from this past series where Bradley Beal didn't even make it back into the television frame on defense because he was bitching and whining and complaining so much about something that eight out of ten times I think he was wrong about. And, you know, there it is. You know, you're star players. He's a star players coach. He's not going to push. He's not going to confront. Anyway, whatever. And by the way, the whole league complains, and I understand that. I watch every night. Okay, Luke is insufferable. LeBron's insufferable. to get any of him anymore. I just don't know, you know, I guess if they don't make big changes,

you're hoping that, you know, that they end up, you know, Franz Wagner ends up being a superstar, or Chris Duarte, who I love out of Oregon, and I think he is going to be a really good pro, ends up being like a true superstar, that somehow you get that mid-first or even second rounder that ends up becoming a top five player in the league, like a legitimate MVP player, which they do not have on their team. They do not have a player on their team that is an MVP caliber player. And just to be clear, I think people

always misunderstand this. You can have the first pick in the draft and that guy could be a bum. Of course. You could have the last pick of the draft and that could be a star. All we're talking about is the opportunity. This is similar to the Washington football team and I wrote about this the other day, the idea of, you know, between the

Wizards and the football team, they had very similar seasons, started off slow. We talked about the draft and then all of a sudden they got hot, made the playoffs and both fall out of the lottery picks, as it were. And for the football team, that meant not the opportunity to draft one of those five quarterbacks. I have no idea if any of those four five quarterbacks will be good. They all might be bust.

That's not the point. The point is they lost the opportunity, just like the wizard fell out of the lottery, lost the opportunity now to get a top five pick in a year in which this draft is considered to have five guys at the top who all could be arguably number one pick type talent, right, according to the people who study these things. And that's what we're talking about. You could, yeah, Kauai Leonard, right, was the 15th pick. Random things happened.

That's not. Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell were all middle of, I forget exactly what numbers they were, but they were in the middle of the first round. Right. You made the point. Janus was as well. Yeah, Janus was as well. I mean, and Yokic was the second round pick.

He's going to be the MVP. And Yokic is a true, is a player that can lead, that makes you a championship caliber contender, even without their second best player, they're into the second round. without Jamal Murray. Anyway, real quickly, before we move on to the Washington football team, give me right now your NBA finals matchup in your winner. Wow. I mean, it is in a world where there's no LeBron James, you know,

that was just easy to always just pick whatever team he was on. The West is crazy. And in the east, man, I mean, I don't know. It's hard to know. I would have probably said Philly, but now without Joelle and Bede, with that with uncertainty there. and that next the Bucks Net series is nuts. Give me, this may be a little bit of a surprise.

I guess I don't know. I kind of think the Bucks are going to beat the Nets. I just think defensively that they'll be able to get stops here and there and the Nets won't. I don't know. Maybe I'll be, I worry about Yonis in the last two minutes of any game offensively. So maybe that'll be crazy in the Nets when every game by 20. But I'll go the Bucks.

And in the West, oh, man. I guess I'll go the D. jazz just because they seem to be the healthiest and fairly deep. I really want to pick Phoenix, but Chris Paul will not be 100%. So give me Utah, Milwaukee, which would be Adam's first nightmare. Exaster for the league. Yeah. And the winner? Well, I don't know. If I'm going to go this far and, you know, I'll go with the bucks. Okay. I'm definitely concerned. Yon is at the end of games. He's not an ISO player. they've got, Drew Holiday and Chris Middleton are going to have to be the guys who score. But defensively, I think they can do some things where the Nets can't.

If like I said, if Embed was healthy, I probably would pick Philly, but he's not, I don't know what to make him right now. So it's funny, we had this conversation with Scott last night and he's like, I go, I think Brooklyn's going to win the title. And I hate the way they play. And I would never in the past have picked a team that plays the way they play this time a year. But they have three of these guys. It's just impossible. No team can actually, no matter how much ISO ball they play, nobody has three great defenders. And he said he agrees with you. He thinks the Bucks can win. But my answer to that was,

I think they can guard him to a certain extent, too. I just don't trust Janus. I don't trust Janus. He hasn't given me any reason in the postseason to trust him. So I like Brooklyn coming out of the east. I do think Atlanta is really an intriguing team. They really can score. And Trey Young, where was he picked? Sixth or seventh in the first round? He was the fifth pick when they swapped with for Yokic. Yeah, exactly. So I think Brooklyn's going to be very hard to beat four out of seven and I am rooting against them. And then in the West, if the Clippers had won game five, I think this is who I want to come out of the West. And I think they're going to force a game seven, and then I think they're going to somehow lose game seven at

home to Dallas in a series where the home team is yet to win a game. The Clippers with the Lakers out, God, I really want to see them make a run. I think Utah's the best team, though. I think they're the best overall team. I think they play the right way. And yet, what's interesting about Utah is, you know, not in the same way that Miami made it last year with one great player. Utah has more than one great player. I mean, Donovan Mitchell's really good. Rudy Gobert is obviously a massive defensive presence, and Conley has had some incredible games so far. And by the way, Bogdanovich, who we all remember from the first rounder at the trade deadline in 2017 here, I mean, he's lighting it up for Utah. I like Utah, and I think it's Brooklyn, and I think

Brooklyn wins the NBA title. I hate to say it. I can tell you what the NBA is rooting for. They're rooting for Brooklyn and the Clippers. They'd love to see the Clippers get back into contention here and get back into the mix to have L.A. and New York. One last thing on this, because I had somebody tell me who is close to sort of the NBA circles about two months ago. they said, Adam Silver and the people behind the scenes are just saying to each other, LeBron is killing us,

just killing us. You know, with his activism, with his Twitter, with his social media presence, the whole thing. And, you know,

and if you noticed, it was funny, really recently, LeBron's been very quiet. I have a feeling somebody got him a message and said, you've got to stop.

You're hurting us. With that said, The flip side of that is, the NBA playoffs from a television rating standpoint moving the rest of the way are dead without LeBron in it. Dead. Like, I remember hearing that from this specific person who I won't name, and I said, that's all well and good. And I get it to a certain degree. But if he's not in the NBA finals or at least deep into the playoffs, the NBA is going to die on the vine television ratings wise, which it will without him. in it and without the Lakers in it. By the way, how soft is Anthony Davis? Seriously.

Yeah, I mean, obviously, I wasn't tracking his specific issue too bad and he didn't look good at all when he came out of the courts. I least I give him somewhat credit for trying. Charles Barkley, you know, and I'm not saying, you go to Barclay for the entertainment, not necessarily the analysis, but he was really going to go in on Davis saying whatever he's doing from a training perspective is not working. He needs to do something different. at his age, he should not be as it constantly hurt. You get past into your 30s, okay, things start to fall off. But, you know, he gets hurt way too often.

And for the Lakers, obviously, you know, as good as LeBron still is, it's clear he's not what he was. It's weird just to see LeBron be mortal at times physically as he got tired last night, a little bit in the fourth quarter came out, and that's when Phoenix kind of pulled away again. But, but yeah, Davis is whatever. I look as much as I sort of get super frustrated with the the constant fawning over LeBron and how people just are so blind to

to the nonsense that comes out of him, his camp and so on. It's, you know, he is an unbelievable player. And like you said to your point of the finals, it's like, it's like a television show that you're used to every year.

Yeah. I know from April to June, this show will be on my television and I'm going to tune in. It's just been that way for a decade. LeBron James will be on TV during these months at all time. And whether you hate them or like them, they were watching them. For the most part, last year, the ratings were dismal in the bubble. And the NBA hasn't done well.

But it's not the tiger effect in golf by any stretch of the imagination, but it's probably the next closest thing to the tiger effect. Because obviously the NFL is not reliant on its star players. playing in its biggest games necessarily. All right. I do wonder in that sense, if the best player for the NBA to come out of the West is Luca Donchich, because he is the guy.

Yeah, but most sports fans don't even know who Luke is. Like we do, and basketball fans do, but people all know LeBron, and even if you don't love basketball, you know, he's the reason to tune in. People don't understand, and by the way, Luca was phenomenal the other night, as was Devin Booker last night,

as was, by the way, Michael Porter Jr. who had 22 points in six and a half minutes of the first quarter. It was crazy. All right. Let's get to Washington football team stuff right after. Ben wrote this morning actually about the offense, or yesterday he wrote about the offense. We'll talk about that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Ben's continuing with us on the podcast. Coming up will be a Belmont Stakes preview with Eddie C who picked the top two horses of the Preetness when he was on with us that Friday before. the preakness. All right, you wrote, The excitement over Washington's offense is sincere and for good reason. Did you write this column now because of stuff you learned from the OTAs?

No, and like, I guess, like, I wasn't even thinking to myself. I was sort of columnizing it. I guess my editor kind of went that path in terms of the headline. But it was just more like, look, you know, as I sort of wrote, like, you know, spring training, OTAs. This is the time of year for straight up optimism, even if you're the worst team in the league, right? The Jets or the Jaguars, we've got this new shiny toy of this quarterback.

Here's reasons why to be optimistic, right? So that's just like a baseline for every team. But I just feel like with Washington, I mean, look, I mean, again, we've all discussed this before, but just like really kind of look at it again. Their offense last year was abysmal. Four quarterbacks, the first quarterback, you know, just didn't even know how to play the position in a professional, as a professional starting quarterback.

The guy who did the best for them, just him walking onto the field was the success. Forget doing anything else. And Alex Smith was obviously limited in various ways. And then, you know, they only had one receiver that scared anybody and so on and so on. The defense, you know, I think was perhaps a touch overrated based on some of the stats, but obviously pretty good. And now it's a chance to get a lot better.

But in the offense in particular, man, And if they just become ordinary, think about how much better it would be than what it was a year ago. And you now added Fitzpatrick, you added Curtis Samuel. We'll see about these other pieces, the Adam Humphreys and the Diombe Browns, what they do this year. But, you know, there are a lot more options than there were a year ago. And that's why I think, you know, when you're just listening to, just listening to how they're all sort of talking about it, you know, the coaches, the players. And it's just like when you see them all out in the field, I mean, there's just more, you know.

I mean, also like at this point last year, obviously there were no OTAs. I wasn't thinking Logan Thomas was going to be anything. I was like, what are they going to get a real tight end in here, right? A starting tight end. He obviously turned out to be a thing. Antonio Gibson, he had 11 touchdowns last year and over 1,000 yards from scrimmage. He didn't even know which running lanes to attack at the beginning of the year. He only, you know, he barely played running back in college and they switched him to that in the NFL level.

Now he has that experience, not to mention just, I mean, every team in the league obviously went through the entire COVID. situation with limited workouts, but this was a team that was a new coaching staff having to do it. And so I just think for all these reasons, and, you know, there's reason to be optimistic. I'm not saying they're going to the Super Bowl, but I'm just saying for the basic point of on paper, here's what they have, even at a time of the year where optimism is the norm, there's actual reason to be optimistic because of the fact that the moves they made have seemingly all been, you know, pretty good on paper. You know, as you're talking, I was going to follow up with what I did on radio this morning,

which was basically two segments of calls on, you know, how much or more excited you are, you know, are you more or less excited after this, you know, off-season's pretty much come to a completion? Now, there's always the Aaron Rogers thing, but I'm kidding, because it won't be here, I'm sure. But there's so the net of it is for me on that is that I'm excited. Like I think that they have, there's a lot to look forward to the roster-wise. I also am a guy that never plays the schedule game, but I can see the quarterbacks that are lined up waiting for them. And this was a defense last year that was massively improved and it was a good defense. It was not an elite defense.

They won seven games essentially against five backup quarterbacks. and the two starters they beat weren't very good last year in Wentz and Rathesberger. But there's something else that has me optimistic. And I listened to Scott Turner yesterday in his press conference because we had Rivera and Del Rio on whatever day that was Tuesday of this week. And then we had Scott Turner and I think Kyle Allen spoke yesterday. I actually didn't listen to that. But, you know, at the end of last.

year, I came to the conclusion that they got it right with Scott Turner, that he's going to be a good offensive coordinator. I'm already bought into Rivera and Del Rio and the defensive staff and the head coach. I was probably as, if not more optimistic than most of you listening when they hired Rivera. I thought they did much better than I thought they would do, and I was always a Rivera fan. I'm not saying he's an elite head coach. It's not Belichick. It's not Peyton. But he is, you know, you know, to me in that range in which they haven't had somebody like him since Mike and his staff. And like there's a professional competence to the football operation and to the coaching staff that I believe in. But Scott Turner was really this time last year. We weren't sure.

We weren't sure about the quarterback. We weren't sure about the coordinator. As you mentioned, we didn't know anything about Logan Thomas. We didn't know anything about these running backs. I mean, people were all focused on the wrong guys. I mean, our fan base was all into Thaddeus Moss and AGG. And it turned out that it was Logan Thomas and Antonio Gibson. I think people were excited about Gibson. But anyway, you know, Scott Turner said something in his presser yesterday.

He was asked a lot about Ryan Fitzpatrick. And he said, you know, you've got to play to everybody's strengths. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses and you have to play to a certain guy's strengths. we're going to approach Ryan Fitzpatrick differently than we would when we had Cam Newton and Carolina. That's an extreme example, but there are levels to that, and that's just how we look at it. Ryan is a very self-aware guy. He'll tell me, I've run this concept, I don't have a real good feel for that one. And then we'll have a conversation and we'll look at it, and he said there are lots of plays that can be running football.

We can be selective and work to do what's best for our guys. One of the things for me on Scott Turner last year as a takeaway was I really liked his game plans for each of their opponents. Like I noticed, and it was pretty early on, okay, against Baltimore, you can't drop back and throw the football with Dwayne. All right, the ball's got to come out and we're going to go horizontal. But against Dallas, they can't stop the run. We're going to line it up and run it down their throat. I thought he had week in and week out different game plans that not only addressed his team's strengths and weaknesses, but really attacked the opponent.

I never necessarily felt that way about Jay, who I always thought was a good past design guy, and everybody told us that. But it was going to be Jay's system. You know, Jay was going to put his system and the guys were going to have to figure it out. I just think they have a really good coaching staff right now. I think they've got a staff defensively that's hard-nosed discipline. They've got a disciplined, hard-nosed head coach that doesn't want to put up with mentally getting beat, which is what's happened around here for many, many years.

And with Turner, Turner is a lot like his dad. Now, we all have one memory of him here, and that is really good offensive, of coordinator, not a good head coach, and Norve always had it schemed up for that first drive better than anybody. But really, what I'm hearing from him and what I saw last year was Joe Gibbs. I'm not talking about Joe Gibbs, the head coach, but the way he thinks is I have to adapt to what I have. You know, I don't have a system that I'm going to force on everybody. I'm going to adapt to the people that we have. And by the way, he was on the spot early last year with a quarterback that he didn't want.

And maybe we would have seen different results had Kyle Allen started earlier, or Alex Smith had gotten an opportunity earlier. Who knows? The offense wasn't good last year. And yet, I have a lot of confidence in Scott Turner. It's a gut thing, but it's also based on. the games last year and what he was working with and how he was able to accomplish at times moving the football

with the group that he had. And some of the things that he said and has said in this offseason, I think offensively they're going to be better because they've got a quarterback that's better than anybody they've had since Kirk Cousins. So just by that, they should be better offensively. But I also have a really good feeling, excuse me, that the staff is a really good staff

and that they're going to get more out of less and they're going to put people in positions that make sense. You know, we're not going to see Ryan Carrigan in coverage or Montez's sweating coverage on defense, and we're not going to see, you know, offensively, if we've got a guy that can throw the ball down the field, a lot of horizontal football. The horizontal football last year was because of who he had a quarterback.

anyway. Yeah. No, I agree. I mean, any criticism of Scott Turner earlier last year, I just kept thinking was, how do we know the quarterback he's using is on training wheels? Yeah. And, you know, then, you know, Kyle Allen, obviously a little more experience and professional, but like, you know, he's not, he's not a definitive NFL starting quarterback.

And then the next guy, you know, obviously Alex Smith was incredibly limited. And then the next guy who played the best, who had the best start of any of them, was on a couch a month before. But when Scott Turner was, take anybody other than Haskins, you could see him opening up the playbook. There was creativity. There was aggressiveness. And to your point about not forcing a playbook down somebody's throat,

this to me is always what I care about any coach. I don't care what it is. This is why maybe it's being reared on Joe Gibbs and knowing he came here with Eric Coriel. It is being reared on Joe Gibbs, no doubt. Yeah. He came here on Eric Coriel and then five, oh, and five starts, said, okay, let me rethink this.

I've got this running back and this offensive line. We're going in a different direction. And then later this career, he switched it up again. Throwing bombs with ripping. Right, right. And that to me is what a coach is. It isn't, I do it. That's why Spurrier, I was like, oh, this is never going to work.

Not to go back because he had a, he had his thing. And after he was doing and everything else didn't matter. In general, whatever it is, you have, look, this is a life thing. You have to look at your personnel around you and determine here's the goal. Now, how do we get there based on the pieces that we have? All right. A couple of quick questions about OTAs, and then we'll wrap it up on this topic. Did you get a sense from anybody that they're really excited about a player or two or three? Like there's an early buzz about any of the new guys.

Or maybe one of the guys that wasn't significant last year? Let me think here. My brain is when I have to think about stuff, it doesn't always work. I mean, I've heard they're really excited about. Diami Brown and Cosmi. Yeah, I mean, I think the Cosmi thing, look, obviously, you know, the, as we've discussed at length, you know, moving on from Morgan Moses wasn't just about,

everybody wants to, you know, focus on the Moses part, but the Cosmy part of that is a huge deal for that. That's why, you know, they didn't, they, not only did they draft them, but they feel comfortable enough that he'll be able to contribute in some capacity. This year plus they do have Cornelius Lucas. There was a play in OTA. I was noticing where, you know,

there's no tackling. no hitting. So, you know, if I tell you somebody had a long run, don't go crazy. But like Jonathan Williams, one of the deep backups, he's, you know, got the ball, is 20, 30 yards down the field. And I noticed there was an offensive lineman booking, like ahead of him clearing out space. And then I looked and saw that it was Sam Cosmy. And, you know, Brandon Sherf, when he talked to us the other day, had a fun reaction to sort of getting a load of Cosmy, what he brings from a size and speed perspective. And he said, yeah, this guy's strong, but we also saw his speed today. And, you know, they don't have to just throw Cosme in there and say you're the starter.

You know, with Damon Davis, it's kind of hard to not put him in with the starters because there's really no other option. But at tackle, they have some other players and they'll let Cosmy kind of earn his way in. But I think from an athlete, you know, a physical athletic standpoint, I think they like what they see already. You know, you just mentioned, and I actually forgot he was on the roster. This is the Jonathan Williams that played for the Colts, right? I think that's right.

He was on the lines. He was on the practice squad here a little bit last year. Yeah, but he had some good games for the Colts. I believe if it's that Jonathan Williams. I forgot. And well, maybe, or I just didn't realize he was on the roster. It could be a different one, but you said he was a running back. Yeah, I think it's the same guy.

I mean, for what it's worth, I think the third running back spot, like, I think we're all probably just penciling in Peyton Barber, because that's what it was a year ago and he was effective in short yardage. but I don't know. I keep thinking if Antonio Gibson missed time, who would be the, who would be your real starting running back? I don't know if there's an answer to that, which is why I kind of think the third guy is sort of open.

Maybe, or at least maybe a touch more open than we're maybe assuming. Maybe I'm wrong. Is anybody excited about Bates, the tight end from Boise? Well, I mean, I think they obviously like his aggressiveness,

the blocking, but those aren't things that are, you know, those aren't fantasy football type things that, like, like when you're just sort of walking, it you get too excited about it and to be honest i think when most of us are watching the backup tight ends everybody's seeing what samus reyes doing even though um you know what can't be expecting

much he was working with the ones they had both reyes and bates you know like a two tight end set with the ones um this week that that we saw so you know uh he he still looks you know miles away which is reasonable uh of course but yeah i think bates is interesting but to what extent like it wouldn't stun me that if the second tight end in actuality is like to mark Hemingway a guy that they knew from the Carolina days brought in last year he has some more experience as a blocker it wouldn't stun me if he's the number two but ultimately clearly bait is the guy who would you know they envision in that spot uh you learned something or I guess the guys that were out there for OTAs learn something about what they're thinking in terms of

punt and kickoff returns tell us what that is who are they who are the potential punt returners and kickoff returners on this roster. So Rivera gets asked about this the other day. And it's always interesting to see what names come to mind, you know. And he ticks off DeAndre Carter, who some people listening to this, may not realize that that's a human being on the roster. Who is that? You know, he's like a water buggy, wide receiver type guy who they added in free agency,

you know, cheap contract. But he has some experience in that realm. He mentioned, uh, Dax Milne. the seventh round pick from UIU. He mentioned Stephen Sims who handled punt return duties last year. Right. And then he later brought up Danny Johnson, who was better on kickoffs but did some punts as well.

And what I found interesting about all those names is that if you made me predict right now, who's going to make the team? Right. I don't think any of them make the team. I think Danny Johnson could, but he didn't even play corner last year. So it would just be as a returner. So I'm like, wait a minute.

All everybody you just name, I don't think is on the team. So maybe he's talking about pre-stop. season punt and kickoff returns. It says to me that... Isaiah Wright's still on the roster, and he was involved in some of that stuff, right? Yeah, he didn't mention him, and I just don't, yeah. But yeah, sort of the same boat. It is sort of interesting.

Like, well, wait a minute, who's the actual person that's going to handle this? Who's going to be on the team? Now, obviously, Rivera is, I presume has more of an open mind about this than we're all kind of looking at it and saying, well, Stephen Sims probably not looking good for him. But even if he does make the team, he wasn't exactly good on the punt. returned. Did he mention Humphreys? He did not. And I think when we when we spoke to Humphreys back when he signed, he said that he was, that the return, being a returner wasn't mentioned to him when they had the immediate

conversations. Because he has done it in both Tampa and Tennessee. Yeah, yeah, for for for for sure. So yeah, I think that's a really interesting one. And like, you know, typically when we talk about who's going to make the roster, we look at the end, we think of it like, well, will they keep a fourth running back, or will they keep a 10th offensive lineman or a fifth safety? But really what we're saying is which special teams players are going to make the team and they just happen to play these other positions. And the return one is, yeah, if right now I project the 53-man roster, I'm not really looking at it like one of these people is the returner because I'm just figuring that somebody is going to figure something out,

whether that means, I don't know, you mentioned Humphreys, somehow, I don't know, Curtis Samuel or Dami Brown or one of the second put guys in the secondary, but it's an odd scenario right now where the obvious, if you had to say who would be the returner, as the coaches did, it's not somebody that any of us are projecting who is actually to be on the team. All right. Lastly, Chase Young was a no-show for all six OTA days. He'll be there at minicamp next week. Nobody was openly critical of it, nor did I think they would be, and I don't even think they can be. What do you sense, though? that, you know, Jack Del Rio and Ron Rivera and that group think about Chase Young

just completely blowing off the six OTA days. Yeah, I mean, look, I think they can't be thrilled about it. I'm sure Del Rio can't comprehend it, really, right? I mean, especially in his perspective, he's not the head coach. Rivera has talked about, you know, over and over again, even beyond Chase Young, that it is voluntary, which is true. I mean, you know, it's always been such a weird thing. Why are these things voluntary in nature?

but we all know if you don't show up for an OTA historically, you know, that's not a good sign. You know, people, people that's frowned upon in any of these establishments, right? So the fact that the NFLPA has told their players this year, hey, it is voluntary. Don't be afraid to exercise that, especially in this time of COVID and things along those lines. We know Chase Young's working out, and ultimately that's what matters to a degree. Are you putting in the work? Are you showing up at camp with a, you know, with a gut like me? are you showing up in camp with a, you know, a 12-pack like he typically would have, and it looks

like it'll be on that front. I think what's interesting to me, I did this bit on the podcast the other day. Rivera always says something is important, not interesting, you know, don't make something as interesting and important. So I did this bit with few topics. Is something interesting or important? And the idea was, okay, so for Chase Young, him not showing up, interesting or important. And I said that in the short term, it's just interesting. It's not the biggest deal. We probably We won't even talk about this, assuming, you know, he's, there's no real issue here going forward. But it's important, I think, because Chase Young is a clear leader on this team. And right now, I don't know why he didn't show up.

And if whatever the reason he didn't show up is something he's going to continue to do going forward, now I think maybe next time there's other players that don't show. I mean, Montes-Witt didn't show the first week, came back last week. John Allen was there the first week. It didn't come this week. But what if next year more players decide not to go because they're seeing that Chase Young, a leader on this team doesn't go. Not showing them for OTAs does not limit your opportunity to win the Super Bowl. I think the Ravens typically have a bunch of their normal vets not show up for these

things. So it's not the end of the world. But it is an interesting central dynamic. That's what I'm curious about why. I don't so much care that he didn't. I'm wondering why Chase Young didn't and what this means going forward for him and perhaps for others on a team who might be influenced by him. All right. Ben Standing, everybody. One of my favorites. I appreciate. Appreciate it. Always do. Ben writes for the athletic. Subscribe to it. You can follow him on Twitter at Ben Standig. And he's got a podcast. Standig, room only anywhere you got a podcast. Also, Ben joins me on my radio show on the Team 980 every Monday morning at 8 a.m. Talk to you soon. Appreciate it as always. Always appreciate it. See it. Up next, the Belmont Stakes. Eddie C joins us from Florida. He had the pre-com. winner nailed on the Friday before it. We'll see if he can get the Belmont pick right as well.

That's next right after these words from two of our sponsors. So a few weeks back on the Friday before the preakness, I had the pleasure of having Eddie C on the podcast. Eddie C is a local guy, good counsel guy, grew up in the Maryland suburbs, but lives down and now in South Florida and has become what I like to call in the sports betting trade a sharp. He has really figured out horse racing and horse race betting. And in the preakness, he basically not only gave us the winner,

but he gave us two of the top three finishers. You gave us Ron Bauer, you gave us Midnight Bourbon, and you said, this is where you need to look if you're looking for Wise Guy action, which you sort of are. You had that one nailed. You know, that particular night of the Preakness, I was with a lot of your friends from up here, and they had all listened and bet your suggestions.

I, however, did not, not because I didn't trust you, but because I just haven't bet on a horse race in a long, long time. Apparently, I got thrown into a pool anyway with a loser from the Preakness and immediately was asked for money when I arrived. at our good friend Carlos's house. But anyway, you nailed it. You nailed it on the preakness, and we're going to get your Belmont selections here shortly,

but you had to feel pretty good about the preteness results. Hey, Kevin. Appreciate the kind words. Way too overwhelming, to be honest with you. But yeah, the preakness worked out well for me. I mean, one of the things I thought about the race that we didn't really discuss was I didn't think half the field was all that good to begin with. And again, in you and I talking, looking for value, I just thought that Rom Bauer, who I always thought

was when he was a two-year-old horse last year, had a lot of potential that he was an improving horse and maybe he's just starting to figure it out, you know, just like a lot of horses take a little bit longer to figure things out. So, yeah, I felt pretty good about it. I mean, the exact have paid well, the win paid well, so it turned out to be a pretty good day for me. Yeah. It is funny as I looked up as the horses were coming down the stretch, and I'm like, Rombauer, good God, Eddie C. nailed it, nailed it, and then Midnight Bourbon finished his second. And remember, when we talked on that Friday before the Preakness,

we weren't even sure in the moment whether or not the Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, was even going to run. and now there's more controversy associated with this horse and the second Kentucky Derby post-race drug test that was done. Catch everybody up to speed on Bob Baffert's Medina Spirit Kentucky Derby winner and whether or not that's going to be taken away. Yeah, so, you know, typically, and this happens in, you know, in human sports as well, when a horse is drug tested, they take two samples.

And in some cases, you know, not just blood samples. In other cases, they also take urine samples and they'll do DNA testing as well. But with Medina Spirit, the first blood test came back as a positive. And just recently, earlier this week, the second split sample came back positive as well. Right. So immediately after that, Churchill Downs put a two-year ban on Bob Baffert horses running there. Wow. Before I get into that, what that really means is there's no, they're not going to take down Medina.

They're not going to take away the win from Medina Spirit yet because there's also, based on lawsuit, there's also going to be a year. sample and DNA samples being tested. The big thing about this is that usually when a horse is injected with the steroid drug that that they found in them, that's an immediate suspension when it becomes an overage. But in this case, it was an ointment prescribed by a veterinarian. And as we spoke about it, it is the trainer's obligation and responsibility. responsibility to know anything that's being given to the horse. Right.

They just overlooked the ingredients and the drug was in there. So, but ultimately, I think what's going to happen is that they're going to strip the win from Medina Spirit, Bob Bafford, and the owners of the horse, and that they're going to bump up the second and third place horses. And, um... And the second place finisher at the dirt. Herbie was mandalone or mandolin?

Yeah, mandolin was second. Yeah. And, you know, it's, it's, unfortunately, it's another black guy

for horse racing. Yeah. And, you know, I was talking with a couple of people about Baffert. You know, Bob Baffert,

arguably, you could argue, is the greatest trainer in the history of the sport. Right. But unfortunately, what's happened with him in recent years,

he's going to be likened more like, the Rick Petino of horse racing, if you understand. Sure. Yeah, so I am curious about one thing, and that is, why was Medina Spirit allowed to run in the Preakness? Was it because that second test from the Derby had not yet been processed? I think that's part of it.

I think part of it is also that, you know, Bob Bafford, history in the Kentucky Derby, you know, Churchill Downs wanted him to be a part of the Kentucky Derby. He had won six times prior to that. So I'm saying why did they allow the horse to run at the Preakness is what I meant, if I didn't say it that way. Okay. To me, that's a, I'll give you my opinion. I don't know it factually, but, you know, Pimlico, Laurel racetrack. as well as Gulf Stream Park and San Anita are owned by a company called the Strona Group,

which actually now goes by first step. But Bob Bafford is hugely regarded and respected in California where San Anita is. So the Strona Group owns that track, and because they own Maryland racing as well at Laurel and Pimlico, they didn't want to ban them. So, and on top of that, by not banning them, it brings, you know, the casual horse racing fan, they know who Bob Bafford is, you know, this silver hair, good-looking, charismatic guy. So, you know, they wanted more viewership and maybe even more betting. So that's a simple answer without.

The horse, though, did pass some sort of test prior to the preteness for, like, immediate, like, The test that is going to hang Baffert for two years and perhaps strike Medina Spirit as the derby winner is the second test post Kentucky Derby. And that wasn't processed until recently. But the horse was tested prior to the preteness, was it not? And it was tested and it came back negative for whatever it was that was found at the Derby. Yeah, you know, in all big racing, the horses get tested pre-race and post-race. So, yeah, all the horses were tested and he came back clean. You know, and I think we, I alluded to the fact that he may have, he may possibly come up positive

because they may have been treating him with the same ointment because they didn't know until the Monday before the preakness that he came up positive for the derp. Right. So, but, you know, what, what this is also spearheading and just let me touch on this real quickly is back last year in 2020, Congress passed what's called the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority Act. And because horse racing doesn't have like a commissioner office like every other sport does, it's been state regulated and also track regulated by the. owners of the tracks and they kind of take a blind eye and let things happen without big penalties. So now Congress has stepped in and the integrity and safety authority is going to be anti-doping medication, reform, track safety, and total oversight of the industry, which is needed. And that's going to make a big change in what happens moving forward.

And it's also going to create stricter penalties for, you know, drug, over, overuse like what happened to Bob Baffert and other trainers. All right. Eddie C is joining us. Follow him on Twitter at It's Me, Edie C, ITSME, Eddie C. He's got a lot of followers,

and he is a sharp when it comes to picking horses, and a lot of you will be tuning in as the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, goes tomorrow afternoon. So let's get to this. race tomorrow afternoon. I looked at the odds, and before you make your picks, I am curious. I do know that the Belmont is the longest of the three Triple Crown events, and it tends to take into consideration sometimes the fact that some of these horses that win the Derby and

Pretenness are not more longer-distance horses. But Ron Bauer is not the favorite. Why not? Well, a couple of things. The two-horse essential quality is the favorite, and deservedly so because he was also the two-year-old champion. He won the Breeders Cup Juvenile as a two-year-old and had never lost the race until the Kentucky Derby. And I've watched the replay a few times. essential quality got bumped at the beginning and ran four or five wide throughout the race, ran more ground than any of the horse in the race, and just kind of flattened out at the end. Finish fourth, right? Finish fourth, but only by a length. And he ran, he ran like almost 10 lengths more than Ron Bauer did. Now, that being said, you know, this race, it's a pretty,

strong field, even though there's only eight horses, but a big change in the race happened yesterday when the jockey of the six horse, known agenda, the jockeys called Irad Ortiz Jr., who is arguably the best jockey in the game right now. He was running in a race yesterday, and his horse took a bad step. He fell and got injured, and he's out for a few weeks, so he's not going to ride the six horse. So right now, we don't know who's riding the six horse yet, even though I have a guess of it's either going to be his brother, Jose, that's going to ride him or this guy, J.J. Castellano, J. J. J. Castellano, who has a big relationship, longstanding relationship with the trainer Todd Pletcher. That being said, no agenda was going to be my choice as the top choice, and also morning line

six to one odds, so I like the value of them. But I can't tell you if that's going to be my top choice today without knowing who the jockey's going to be. Right. Go ahead. No, I was just going to say what's interesting about looking at the odds to this race, and you would have much more information than I. But you've got four horses, your top four horses are all essentially, I would not call them

co-favor. It's essential quality right now, two to one, Ron Bauer, three to one. Hot Rod, Charlie is seven to two or three and a half. half to one and rock your world is nine to two or four and a half to one that's that's pretty tight for the top four horses typically um in a race like this is it not yeah it is for a race like this it's it's it's a little um kind of awesome yeah and it's also not the norm usually you might have you know you may have one horse that's a standout favorite with maybe a close second choice and then everybody else is going to be a value play.

But, you know, as you look at this, as I look at this race, it's the seven-horse Rocky World. He's the speed of the race, and he should go to the front. He had a terrible break at the, when he ran in the derby, where the jockey, Joel Rosario, he lost his stirrup at the, right when the gates opened. up and then he got banged up. So he had zero chance. And he was like the second or third choice going into that race to begin with. And he's a very good horse. He hadn't lost the race prior to that

as well. So he's going to be the speed. And then you have the two horse essential quality and the four horse hot rod Charlie should be very close to the lead with them. Now, it just depends if anybody runs and pressures rock your world because if they don't, I, I think this horse could go gate the wire and never get caught. But I think essential quality is going to be right close to him within a length of him all the way around. And seeing as though he ran so much more ground than any other horse in the derby, I think he's going to, I think he's central quality to two horses going to end up winning. And unfortunately, value-wise, I think he's going to go off at like even money.

six to five, something like that. Okay. So that's your pick, essential quality. It's what I think is going to happen. Whether I bet it or not, I'm not sure yet, but yes. All right. So is that last time you framed it, and this is what led to a lot of people playing it and benefiting from what they played based on what you said. You said, the wise guys are on the following horses,

and Rom Bauer and Midnight Bourbon, who finished one, two, or two of the three, I think you mentioned. So who are the wise guys on in this race? I would have said before what happened yesterday that the six-horse known agenda would have been it. And if J.J. Castellano gets the mount, I will be playing the six-horse known agenda. What will happen to the odds right now, six to one?

Where was it before the jockey news and where will it be if the right jockeys pick to ride known agenda? I think the odds on known agenda will probably drop to about four to one, maybe three to one. I think the odds on Rombauer and Hot Rod Charlie will probably go up. I still like Rambauer as a horse. The only thing is I don't think there's enough speed for him. him to close into. So it's an interesting race. I sometimes, one of the things I say is don't overthink it. You know, don't try to pick value when there isn't value. If you were to play a, say, a $20 straight exacta, the two horse with the essential quality over the seven horse rock your

world, you're going to get value in that payback because it's still going to pay about $20. for the exact thing. You'll get back a couple hundred bucks for that. Right. Let me add one thing, though. I do have a contact up at Belmont that's been there for the last two weeks. I call him Rufus, and he's been giving me updates. You call him Rufus?

Rufus, yes. His real name is Bruce, but all of us, and he's from Kensington just like I am. Okay. So Bruce, aka. Rufus, told you what? Yeah, so he's been up there the last couple of weeks watching the workouts and, you know, talking to some of the people on the backside and stuff like that. And he was telling me that known agenda looked fantastic. So I don't want to tell you that it's only two six. I mean, more than likely I'm going to play known agenda, the six horse,

with the two and the seven, you know, essential quality and rock your world. for just like we did for the preakness i'm gonna i got to stick with my guns and use known agenda all right known agenda but you like the favorite essential quality you like rock your world as a speed horse and depending on how this thing runs maybe you know gate to finish um but uh but you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna you like known agenda obviously i would check in with eddie before the race on twitter to get his thoughts about whatever jockey decision is made there, right? Because that could certainly influence how you feel pre-race.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and I don't know if you saw the Kentucky Derby or not. Known agenda was in the one hole, which is right by the rail. Right. And it's a terrible draw in a 20-horse field. And 100 yards in, he got destroyed by a couple of horses and had no chance. And he actually ended up running okay,

but he was one of the top four or five choices. that race going into it. So that's another reason why I like it. And the breeding, I'm a big breeder. I look at the, at the bloodlines of, from the sire and the dam side, and the breeding on known agenda is impeccable breeding. So that's the other reason. All right. So tomorrow, check in with Eddie via Twitter. It's at It's Me, Eddie C. Known agenda, which you're predicting will go off somewhere in the four to one range. and will not be the favorite even at that point. You think essential quality goes to even money.

Close to it, yes, for sure. Prior to the race. Look, you're going to pick known quality here to win the race. That's going to be your bet right now, as of right now. And as an exact you would go what? I would I would box which means yeah two horses have to come first and second in any order yep yeah I would box known agenda with essential quality

and then I would box known agenda with rock your world but you know again on a betting standpoint I'm betting known agenda because of value in in reality essential quality is definitely the horse to be Eddie, thanks. As, I mean, this, hopefully you go two for two here. And then we can start picking races that are just on television that people want to bet over the summer or into the fall. Well, I'll tell you what, Kevin, sorry to interrupt, but yeah, we got, you know, I don't know if you've ever been up to Saratoga.

A bunch of guys, I know, go up there every summer and have quite the weekend. So I know that you've got a place up there, and that's where you spend a lot of time. So I may take you up on your offer at some point. Well, the racing up at Saratoga, that's where every weekend is a big race. They put it on TV, usually on NBC or NBCSN. So, you know, if your listeners are willing to listen, and if you think we've, bring value. Yeah, we could do the, you know, once a week for Saratoga or every other week for Saratoga because it's that's, that's my home. As I, as you know, that, it's my house.

Known agenda, box, exact a box, essential quality in known agenda and rock your world in known agenda. But Eddie's making it very clear that the jockey decision on known agenda is a big one. So follow him on Twitter and get the latest on that and that he does think essential quality is going to win this race. But for value, known agenda at, you know, a projected 4 to 1 somewhere in that neighborhood is a good play. Eddie, thanks as always, really appreciate it. Hey, appreciate it, Kevin. Take care, man, and have a great weekend. Everybody else, have a great weekend back on Monday.