The Kevin Sheehan Show - Who Wins The NFC East?

Episode Date: November 24, 2020

Cooley in today with Kevin. Cooley has his recap of the Washington win over Cincinnati. The guys discussed the toss-up nature of the NFC East and made a pick on who wins the division. Cooley previewed the Dallas game on Thanksgiving and Kevin finished up with some thoughts on John Wall's situation with the Wizards.  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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. All right. The schedule's a little bit different this week. Tommy joined his chef's Vegas.

Coolie couldn't make it. Coolie's on today, but not with film breakdown. Because he's busy this week. He's back east. He had to, you know, move out of his house, which he sold, settle on his house. And we're probably not going to have a film breakdown this week before the Thanksgiving Day game. But we will have a full film breakdown because you'll have plenty of time over the holiday weekend to get the Dallas film done. And maybe we'll do that on Monday.

Typically Monday is a recap day, but there won't be a game on Sunday so we can recap. We can do film breakdown next week, maybe Monday, Tuesday. How does that sound? Yeah, we're probably not. We're probably not going to do it Monday. We might be able to do it Tuesday. But just, sorry, my apologies. I will be driving home on Sunday, Monday.

Oh, you will. Okay. That's going to be a little bit difficult to do the film breakdown. But I was thinking we could do the offense and defense Wednesday, Thursday, although that's a huge extended period of time. That's up to you. Boy, you just changed my projected schedule. After I told you, I was dependable.

I'm not. But I did text you and call you yesterday with no response, so I don't feel too bad. You actually called me last night, and I actually fell asleep pretty early last night. Like seven? and then got up very early. Believe it or not, I think I was out last night at about eight. I didn't see your message until I woke up this morning at about 3.30. So yeah, I had, I definitely needed to catch up, and I caught up with a nice long sleep,

got up at 3.30. I was not going to call you back at 3.30 this morning. I don't think that you would have appreciated that. And I wasn't even going to text at 3.30. You know, that's actually an interesting question about texting. and emailing in, you know, very weird hours. Like, many times I'll wake up to several texts, and I don't text people back,

because texts typically will ping a phone and make a noise, and people are going to be sleeping at that point. An email, however, sometimes people will have an email make a noise, and other times they've got the email reminder or that you've got a new email on silent. I think it's safer to email at 3.30 in the morning, to someone on the East Coast than it is to text. Would you agree with that?

Yeah, I think it's a lot safer email than it is to text. But the thing is, is if you don't want text or calls or anything at 3.30 in the morning, then put your phone on, like, a sleep mode. Yeah, I know. And then you don't get anything, and you can say receive messages or calls at 6 a.m. I mean, how many times? Obviously, our friend's in a different situation, but, you know, you have kids, in college. You might want to make sure that your phone's on at all hours.

My phone is on. First of all, it's on because I use my phone as my alarm. Well, that would stay on. I mean, it would stay on as an alarm. I know. I know I can do that, but I have everything on. So if you called me in the middle of the night, I would hear the ring. If you texted me, I would hear the noise it makes when I get a text and when I get an email. Although I don't think I see, I don't think I get anything when I get an email. Anyway, this is not important. I just wasn't going to text you back at 3.30 this morning.

And it sounds like, let me just clarify, the schedule as follows, is you're going to be on today. We're going to talk about what you saw Sunday and preview the Dallas game because you won't be doing that tomorrow. Are you going to watch the Dallas game on Thanksgiving Day? Absolutely. I'm going to watch the Dallas game. Okay.

So then maybe you... I mean, this is a huge matchup. We got a division right here, bro. Yeah, it's for first place. So maybe on Friday you'll jump on to give us a quick recap of what you thought of the game. Yeah, I told you. Friday I will be available. My next two days are incredibly busy.

That was part of my math. So that you apparently just looked at, didn't reach. Well, I've got it now. So Cooley with us today, no film breakdown this week. He's with us on Friday. And then film breakdown of the Dallas game will actually come almost a week after the game, as we are then preparing for a game against the Steelers at that point. And then after that, we'll be back to normal, I promise you.

And then we'll be back to normal, but if they're out of it, like if they're at that point three and nine, nobody's going to care anyway. I'm not sure how many people care now. They might be three and nine and right in it. That's true. That could happen. All right. What did you make of the Cincinnati win? I think it was a two-part game, one Joe Burrow and one no Joe Burrow. And I think to me, you know, when you look at beating a bad team, which is what I said they had to do last week, I think that's exactly what they did. Now they were, to me, you know, bend but don't break to some extent on defense in the first half of that game. But at the same time, other than the one touchdown, which was a hell of a catch by AJ Green, they did a heck of a job forcing field goals.

the Bengals kicker missed to them. So it's a game they could have been easily down 21, 24-7 in the first half, but the defense stood up big in the red zone and Layton drives and got stuff. Offensively, I thought they were really consistent. I thought they were going to have to play with balance, and that's to me exactly what they did. They ran the ball really well. I thought Gibson looked good.

McKissick didn't have a ton of carries, but he had big gains on some of those carries. And look, Alex was pretty consistent. didn't have to do much, you know. Made some throws when he had to, but they were just better than the Bengals. And the 20 to 9 score essentially showed exactly what it was. You know, they pushed the ball down the field. You asked for some of that.

You got some deep shots. You got a connection with McLaurin. You got another deep shot that didn't connect. You know, you had, I actually thought that Scott Turner, I thought Alex Smith played well again for the second straight week. And I thought Scott Turner did a really good job of play calling. Now, like you said, it was two different games. And whether or not Washington would have won the game had Burroughs stayed in the game,

I think it's a toss-up. Tommy was on yesterday, basically saying they would have lost. They got two very good stops to start the second half. And they had a 14-9 lead, and would have had a 14-9 lead had Burroughs step back out into the field after the touchdown that gave Washington the lead. So it would have been a very close game had Burrough State in it. But I thought Turner, I think Cooley, he's doing an excellent job of spreading the ball around,

but also making sure that his best players touch it the most. We haven't always been able to say that in recent years. No, that was one of the things that drove me crazy with Jay's offensive system, offensive style. And to some extent, the way Sean called plays, I think, when he was here. And I think Sean did a phenomenal job fitting a quarterback. But to me, offensively, you take your list of players or your list of eligibles and you say, okay, Terry McLaurin's got to get 10 targets in this game. He has to.

We're going to find a way. If we're through the first quarter and he doesn't have at least two targets, we're going to him. We're going to win because their players are going to make plays. That didn't happen with Jay in that offense. It wasn't a target particular player offense, and Scott does do a very good job. I think some of that is just that Turner Coriol approach that I remember specifically with Al Saunders, this is the same system. This is the Saunders' thousand playbook system.

But the big part of it is more, I remember Al having a board in his office, and on that board, it had every player, how many touches they need. needed, and then a list of at least that many plays that their player was the primary or the number one. And if we didn't, if we hadn't gotten them the ball, here's where we were going to do it. We'll dial this up. Cooley hasn't gotten the ball. Why screen? Let's go.

We'll demand that he gets the ball with a screen to him. Interesting. They do that with Gibson. I think they do that with McKissick. They don't have to do it as much with McKissick because he ends up getting checkdown after checkdown. But, you know, I think they have a good system for how many touches they want every guy on this offense to have. You know, Terry McLaren right now leads the NFL in Yak, which is for receivers. Anyway, Alvin Kamara leads the league in actual yak, but I'm talking about wide receivers.

And it's interesting because half, almost half of his yards, receiving yards, or yak yards, you know, I don't know if that's typical or not. I think it's a lot. It's sort of an indication that there aren't a lot of air yards to a lot of the quarterback's passes. But I love it when he touches the ball. I love it when McKissick touches the ball. I thought Gibson, and I wanted your reaction to this, I thought Gibson, we already have talked about the power,

almost the deceptive power that he runs with, but I thought he ran with better vision the other day, too. Kevin, I think Gibson gets better every single week. And the thing I, you have to continue to keep in mind is he's a rookie. Not just the fact that he's a former receiver, which every single person that calls a game has to tell you. Sparodita and Archelaida have to say six times in the game.

You know, he was a wide receiver at Memphis. Like he was a do-it-all guy at Memphis. Right. And he was excellent with the ball in his hands. And when you look at yards for rookies in the league right now, it's Gibson right there. He's having an unbelievable rookie season. We've been critical of his vision and some of the cuts he's made in the film Breakdown stuff, but that's because he's an NFL player.

If you look at him as just a rookie, he's really grown, and he's becoming a very good back. And I did think that he ran with good vision. I thought they would be able to run it on the Bengals. So that was the other thing when we talked to. I thought Cincinnati was a team that was giving up five yards a carry coming into this ballgame. And running the football was going to be a really good way to move it. They, well, I'll ask you the question that I started to answer. I said it was a toss-up.

If Burrow doesn't get hurt, do they win the game? Does Washington win the game? Yeah, there's no reason to say that they are not going to win that game. I think it becomes a different game. You know, I think Ryan Finley is a decent quarterback. So do I. He wasn't in this game. He was three for ten.

He was not in this game. And he was not to some of the pressures. But you look at the way this game began and the way it started playing out. Burrough was awesome, man. I mean, he was excellent. But they went, Missville, Goal, Fumble. Then they got a touchdown field goal. miss field goal.

Who's to say that they're going to score touchdowns on all of those drives? And the other thing about it is, in turn, they were able to just operate with balance offensively and they never had to panic on offense. I don't believe, I didn't believe, and I just don't see it in Cincinnati defense to say

that if the Bengals had gotten to 21 points in the first half, that it would have been a given that they would have won the game. If they would have scored a touchdown in the second, half a and Burrow would have been in. I'm not saying it's a given that this couldn't have been

a 31-28 game. Yeah. So would they have won the game? It would have been a much more contested ballgame. But the other thing I like about this team

is you watch the game is we keep talking about maybe it's not a dominant elite defense at this point, but there's some big-time players and statistically against the past, they're number one in the league,

and they're good against bad teams. And that shouldn't be a lot to say. But think of all the years past where we have the third string quarterback and a backup right tackle and all these things. And we weren't any better. No. We're dominant against bad teams.

I mean, they got carved up a little bit in the first half. It looks like they were playing a lot of, you know, Ben don't break. I mean, you know that Joe Burroughs 21 completions in the first half were the most by any quarterback this year in the first half. They weren't getting any pressure, but the ball was coming out quickly, so there was that. But, no, I know what you mean.

I thought that the last two possessions of the first half were crucial to hold them to just three points. And then there was clearly something done in the first two drives of the second half that allowed the first two, three. re-enouts of the game and, and, you know, introduced the Washington special teams to the Cincinnati punter because he had not punted in the first half. And so that, I think that things may have been on the verge of changing a little bit anyway. What did you think of Cincinnati's decision to go for fourth and goal from the three? I just, you didn't think about it. I think it,

no, I did think about it, but you look at the percentages that, you're going to get that. And I'll tell you this, Ron Rivera would have went for it. He'll go for fourth and goal from the 14. Fourth and goal from the 13. Or fourth and 13 from the 17 or whatever it was. I think it's a really, I mean, it's always a really interesting decision. And I think coaches base it on the fact of we're not going to be able to get back down here. So we need to get seven in this situation. But at the same time, it's just, I just, I like getting points there, man. What would we decide a two-point conversion is like 47, 48%?

Yeah, somewhere on there. And I think that's got to be essentially the percentage that you're going to get. What do you do in that? I mean, to me, it depends. Everything is situational. Everything depends on the game. Everything depends on where you're at. You've driven, you drove 14 plays, 75 yards, seven minutes. You did not get stopped in the opening drive, and your guy missed the 34-yard field goal. Your next drive is 11 plays 74 yards. And you almost had one of those plays there picked by Darby in the end zone. Remember when he jumped the slant in front of AJ Green.

And then it's fourth and goal from the three. I'm kicking the field goal. It's early in the second quarter. You've already proven you're going to be down there. You're going to have a chance to score. Did your kicker get hurt? No, that wasn't the case because they tried him out for a 58-yard or at the end of the first half, or I made a 50-something-yarder and then trotted them out for a 58-yarder at the end of the first half. So, I don't know, fourth and goal from the three to me is not fourth and goal from the one, or even fourth and goal from the two. You know, you're lining up a yard deeper than the two-point conversions ball spot. So spot of the ball. So I think in a game like that, you take the points. You're down 7-0, you make it 7-3, and you know you're going to, you have a pretty

good feel at that point that you can move the football because you have. And they continued to move the football for the rest of the half. They didn't punt the rest of the way. I also thought on that play and I wanted to get your thoughts. I mean, Chase Young makes a really good play to force the fumble. But the first guy that's there to slow him down is Apki. And he doesn't really even make a tackle attempt. It really frustrated me to watch Apke Sunday. He dropped the interception. we know. But I also don't, it's funny because I think he runs hard and I think he runs to the ball hard. But then he does the thing that a lot of DBs do. They just sort of lower their shoulder and try to knock you down instead of tackle you. And that play drove, they've got to

find an answer. And they don't have one unless Deshaezer's back for the next game. You only give up nine points. Well, that's because Ryan Finley couldn't do a thing. I mean, the was over when Burrow left early in the third quarter. I mean, the thing I keep going back to is, Kevin, I'm completely with you. I actually was reading something. I was like, Chris Cooley says, the Redskins must die and Eric Reed. I love all that Chris Cooley says from your podcast, by the way. Chris Cooley says they have to release Dustin Hopkins.

But like, I keep forgetting. Did you say they had to release Dustin Hopkins? You didn't say that. Apparently, because that made news. I didn't see that. That's funny. it was one of those things that I just pulled up the other day, so we must have, I think we said that last week. I don't know, man.

Yeah, there's definitely got to be an option out there. I think Eric Reed might be that option. I thought they had to sign Eric Reed, not necessarily three weeks ago, and I said that to immediately demand that he's the starter. But remember when I said that? I said that before the Shazer got hurt. And I said that in the way of they're going to need that depth. And if you have Eric Reed, and he's here for two weeks, you can get him ready to play. He'd be playing.

Remember, he felt it was a bit of a slight to be told that he'd be signed to the practice squad. He would have already been on the roster and signed to the roster at this point with the injuries they've had. Yeah, definitely. I mean, like the thing with Troy, Troy dropped a pick in this game, too, that was like dead in his hand. Yeah, terrible. But, yeah, like, some of the, it's just an angle thing. Like, Joe Burrow, on that's the fourth and three you're talking about, that's the weakest-ass cutback moved from right to left you've ever seen. And Troy goes falling down blazing by him.

I know. I mean, I guess you're sitting there as a safety saying, if I chop my feet at all and slow down, that Burroughs will move. may take him in, or you sense that his momentum may take him in, so you've got to put a big hit on him? Either way, the fact of the matter is, is Troy cannot line up a hit like that and make the play. No. But I'm not saying you have to find an answer because of that play in particular. Oh, I can see Amari Cooper. I can see Amari Cooper or CD Lamb running right by Apki on Thanksgiving afternoon for big plays.

So a couple of things before we get to talking about the Dallas game. Number one, according to pro football focus, and it is what it is. Schweitzer and Brandon Sheriff in this game were the two highest rated guards of the NFL Sunday, of the NFL weekend. I did think and see some plays that Schweitzer made. You've actually liked Schweitzer at times this year. More than what? Yeah.

I think Switzer's a tremendous football player. The thing I've said about Switzer is like he's growing in a big way. But I think it was last week or two weeks ago I said, this dude's coachable because you're watching him get so much better, dynamically better, and his technique and footwork in the run, and as he continues to adjust to the speed of what he's seen and how he's lining things up, he's going to be a good player, but he's really coachable.

Foot speed is one of the only things that I think Switzer left. There was a guy that we went Who was the center we drafted a few years ago that went to the jets Or the guard Spencer Long? Yeah Spencer Long. So I think there's way more physical than Spencer Long. But Spencer Long was a guy that I thought was really slow-footed

Who in three seasons became much more agile. I mean one of the reasons I bring it up is You know the free agency class Which included Kendall Fuller Ronald Darby, Kevin Pierre Lewis, J.D. McKissick, Cornelius Lucas, and West Schweitzer. You know, all of those players, Logan Thomas, too, all of those players have made contributions to this team. Like, they actually had, they didn't spend the massive money on Amari Cooper. Their biggest signing was Kendall Fuller, and he's more than lived up to, you know, the contract so far.

He's played very well. I thought Darby had maybe his best game against Cincinnati. They did a good job in free agency in the offseason. Who makes most of the free agency decisions, do you think? Well, I think that Ron will make most of the free agent decisions. I think that Kyle is going to have a board and a list of guys. And keep in mind, that free agency process began well before Ron got here, the free agency evaluation process.

for Washington began last season. And Alex Santos was a big part of that process. I know whatever. That that was the name who was in charge of a lot of that. Kyle kind of took over as not just the director of college scouting, but the head of personnel. I would take Kyle's word on these guys, and I think that they go back and forth with each other.

But in the end, when Ron's making those decisions, I think Ron would be the guy that would essentially make those decisions. Okay. You know, it's funny, though, you mentioned both of our guards being the highest graded through the week, and it's funny as I do grades. It's almost like you should grade on a curve. You're playing Aaron Donald, and you have what seems just an average game. That's a day.

You can play in the Bengals defensive line, I just haven't seen it. Right. And you have an A performance. Like, yeah, it's on the curve, man. Yeah, and I guess it. You should have had a good game against the Bengals. You should.

I have two things for you before we get to just your thoughts on the Dallas game. So Ron Rivera yesterday in his presser, the day after the game, presser, you know, said many things that essentially were, you know, and I'll paraphrase. I really like some of the things we're doing. We're really progressing. You know, I'll read you. He had it in a couple of answers, but then I'll read you the longer. You know, about, he said,

he was asked about the team staying motivated, even with a losing record. He said, I think they see it. I think they see the growth. He said, you look at our running back situation. We've got some young guys that are involved in the running game. Yesterday I saw the way Scotty handled everybody, brought everybody in, gave everybody a chance to run the ball, they ran it hard. Those guys see it. They see the young receivers going out there and making plays and coming out with huge momentum swing plays.

The guys see it. When you see things that prove you're getting better, it makes you want to keep going. It makes you want to keep learning so you can get better so you can be better. That's what we've got to do. We've got to continue to grow. Keep that excitement about getting better as a football team alive. I think that's what it is. That's why in spite of the record, they play hard. I'll say just the fact that we're not in a very good division right now and we're a half game off the lead. It's a reason for guys to show up and prepare and get ready to see what happens. That was the longer quote, but in earlier quotes, he said, I'm optimistic about the direction that we're headed. I'm really optimistic about a lot of things. He said after the two losses to the Giants and the Detroit loss, it didn't feel as bad as it had in the past about losing. It sucks to lose, but sometimes, and sometimes it's miserable, but coming in and just kind of looking back on those three games for me and thinking about the progress we're making, the development that's happening, the growth that you see. I'm optimistic. It's positive right now. Are we where we want to be? No, not even close. But they play hard.

They put themselves in position to win. Now it's a matter of winning. It's learning how to win, but it's been very positive. So I did a call segment this morning and asked the question, do you feel like watching this team as a three and seven team with, you know, three wins over Philly, who was basically without their offensive line, Dallas in the same case and without their quarterback, and Cincinnati, who lost their starting quarterback for the second half primarily, does it seem to you like they are heading in the right direction?

like there is something building here. I truly, truly want to say yes to that. But let's keep in mind they played since getting waxed by the Rams, the Giants, the Cowboys, the Giants, the Lions, the Bengals, and they won two of those five games. They are capable of playing decent football against really mediocre teams at this point. As they get past this next weekend,

play Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle, Carolina, that to me will be the more telling storyline of what this team is done as far as development. I think that they'll play decent football against these teams. So the answer to your question is, I do think they are growing. I do think they are developing. But at the same time, I can't definitively say that

based on playing some games against bad teams. This makes it tough for me. You know, I think they had no chance against Baltimore. They got absolutely hammered by Los Angeles. Yeah. But at the same time, I mean, you make the quarterback change, and you are getting better as an officer. offense.

They've been better since the quarterback change. I mean, and the Rams were the best defensive. Yeah, you can't even debate that anymore. This is something that obviously they knew they would see. They would see more production overall offensively, whether it's against bad teams or good teams. They just are better. And I said the same thing on radio this morning. It's like the Cowboys actually on Thanksgiving Day, it's going to,

to be interesting because they actually have some speed on defense and they can rush the passer a little bit. And then the Steelers obviously in the 49ers defensively back-to-back weeks will be major tests. The Rams, after watching them last night, not that we haven't known how good they are defensively, but they're certainly among the best defensive teams in the league. They're one of the three or four, five best defensive teams in the NFL. It's interesting to watch that, you know, because when they went to the Super Bowl a few years ago, even though the final score of the Super Bowl was 13 to 3. They got there and they were turned around because of their offensive, you know, ability. They're number one in the simple stat, yards allowed in the NFL per game. Washington, by the way,

in yards allowed, you know, and this is where you see defense is ranked for those of you that don't know. Sometimes it's very misleading, this particular ranking. Washington's, sixth in the NFL right now in defensive yards allowed. Third down percentage, Cooley. I mentioned this earlier on radio this morning. You know, last year they were 32nd among 32nd among 32 teams. Washington was their ninth in the NFL and third down defense this year.

They're a vastly improved defense, even though I think over the last couple of weeks, there have been a couple of things that have bothered us in watching them. But they're vastly improved. But yeah, I'm with you. I want to see it. I think Thursday's, you know, this isn't the Dallas team that they faced a few weeks ago. It's a slightly different team, a bit healthier.

And it's a big game. And Dallas, you'd think after the way that they got their ass kicked at FedEx Field. Now, they did it with JMU at quarterback. I mean, they're going to have Dalton here. Well, they did it with Dalton. Early. Yeah, and Dalton was smothered in that game. He was.

He was. He played more than a half of a game. When did he go out of that game? I forget. I forget when he went out. Actually, no. I totally forget. They couldn't stop the run in that first game.

I remember that. That was Gibson's best game. Yeah, they couldn't stop the run. Dallas's defense has been better. Really? Yeah. I mean, when you say better, they're not embarrassing. No.

Their best defense can be their offense. They should be able to move the ball and score points. Look, their last three outings since the Washington game, they played Philadelphia in that Sunday night game where they were much more competitive with JMU at quarterback. It was a close game, but that may be a reflection of how bad Philly is. Then they surprised everybody and nearly beat Pittsburgh. And I told you last week that there's a Vegas tell about the Cowboys, that the Vegas thinks Dallas is better than everybody else does,

and that's one of the reasons I had them in the smell test against Minnesota, which I'm now six and oh in games involving the Vikings. either against them or for them. And now they're a three-point favorite on Thanksgiving Day. Two weeks ago, we would have said they would have been a three-point underdog against Washington at least. At least to pick them. Yeah, now they're a three-point favorite in the game.

But we'll see. One more question before we take a quick break, and then I just get your quick thoughts previewing the Dallas game. Right now, and I still don't see the odds, I've been looking for them all morning long. I'm not sure why my primary sites have not updated the NFC East odds. I'm looking again just to see if maybe they're out now. They're still not.

I will try. You know what? I'm going to try another site real quickly to see if they've got any futures here. I think my point that I'm driving at is I think right now the odds are going to almost be equal across the board for every NFC East team. to win the division. I think maybe the Cowboys might be back in a position where they're a slight favorite. Philadelphia is going to drop significantly after Sunday. They stink and what's going on with Carson Wentz. Who the hell knows what's going on with Carson Wentz? But let me see if I got some division odds here. Maybe I do have some updated division odds. I think Dallas is the pick for everybody

to win the division, but I think a part that has to do with the record. or excuse me, with the current schedule. I'm thinking that... Philly's going to play Green Bay, New Orleans, Arizona in the next three games. Dallas has the easiest schedule. The Giants have the second easiest schedule. Skins have the 30s second hardest and the Eagles have the toughest, the rest of the way. I cannot find it.

It's weird. I mean, my bookie doesn't have it, or they don't have it. They haven't updated their futures yet on... It gives me a moment, actually, to just mention my bookie.ag. Sign up with my promo code, Kevin D.C., please, and they will match your deposit all the way up to half of the amount. So if you deposit 500, they'll give you an extra 250 to play with. They've got so many prop bets. I love their site for all of their prop bets.

But right now, they don't have the division odds up either. For whatever reason, none of the, they're struggling, all of the, Vegas is struggling right now with the division odds. I've seen the updated

NFC champion, nope, they're not even up. They're not even up. Here's the reason why you've got to struggle with the division odds because how far do you make it to have a season.

If something comes up in the next two weeks. Well, but you usually, but I look at this every week. Usually by Monday night, early Tuesday morning, after the Monday night game, excuse me,

early Tuesday morning, they're out. You've got the updated division odds. You've got updated, you know, everything in terms of the futures. MyBooky, as I mentioned, they've got so many great futures bets opportunities. And you can bet the game in so many different ways. Go to my bookie.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. And again, they'll match your deposit up to half the amount all the way up to $1,000. So if you deposit $1,000, they'll give you $500 to play with for free. Their sports book is outstanding. They've also got a live online casino and race book as well.

But Thanksgiving, got a triple header as of now. Baltimore's got COVID cases with Ingram and J.K. Dobbins. There is some discussion about that game, maybe being pushed back to the weekend or Monday night. But you've got, you know, Detroit, Houston, Washington, Dallas. Two three-point numbers. Houston's a three-point favorite at Detroit. Okay. Houston, and I told you about Houston being a tell.

I'm sorry? I know they did. They got gusagged by some XFL quarterback. But I told you the other thing, you know, I gave out Houston. The smell test actually had a good weekend. It was 11 and 7, but it was 4 and 1 in the NFL, and Houston was one of those teams against New England. And I told you, Vegas has given Houston a lot of credit all year long,

because I think they realize that they're more capable. And they're a three-point favorite over Detroit. Detroit scored 30 against Washington and got shut out by Carolina. I haven't even talked about that. Anyway, my question is, who's going to win the NFC East? Right now, you have to make a wager. Let's assume all of them are essentially even money propositions. Who would you bet?

I'd have a hard time not betting Washington. I know. I'll give you some reasons why, if you want some reason. reasons why. This game is one of the most indicative games to the season. I think this is the Code Red game. This Thanksgiving game could really be the game that's for the division. Because I think, okay, let's just look at Philly, who's leading the division. Seattle, Green Bay, New Orleans, Arizona, are they going to win any of those games? Maybe not. Maybe not. That's 10 losses. That means the best they can do is 5-10 and 1.

Now, they get to Dallas and then Washington in the last two games. Might be too late. They might have to win one of those games. New York's schedule really isn't as easy as everybody's making it out to be. They play the Bengals next week, and I'll be interested to see what will burrows out. So that's a game they should win. But then they go at Seattle, and then they play Arizona and Cleveland, and then Baltimore. I know.

New York might be, at most, a one or two-win team, moving forward. I don't see New York getting past six. I see him getting two six. I think they're good enough to get to six. If it played the whole season out, they have two wins over Washington. Right. They're my pick. I don't know if I'm, I still, talent-wise, I think Dallas should do it. But they're going to play Washington and then they're going to lose a game at Baltimore. They're not going to beat Baltimore. That's not going to happen.

But then they play Cincinnati, San Francisco, finish with Philly. New York. Dallas could really hit in at three wins. They could get a win on Thanksgiving, two weeks against Cincinnati. That puts them at five, and then they could really, Dallas could get to seven pretty realistically if the season plays all the way out. It's crucial for both teams on Thanksgiving Day. I think the loser, while of course they're not going to be out of it mathematically. It's that the winner really emerges as one of the teams now with, if they don't have the best chance, they are tied with either the Giants or, I don't, I just don't see the, I don't see the Eagles. First of all the Eagles seem to be falling apart. And maybe all

a sudden they'll get it together because they're capable of getting it together, especially on defense. But they, Seahawks, Packer, Saints, and Cardinals. Like you said, I mean, could they beat the Cardinals? They could beat the Cardinals. Are they going to beat Seattle or New Orleans or Green Bay? I don't know. Could they beat the Saints without Drew Brees if he's not back by then? He'll be back by then. I think... I'm looking at the schedules and that's fine. I'm also taking into consideration the team that I think is the best team out of the four right now. And I think it's the New York Giants.

think the Giants are the best team right now. And I think that they will figure out a way to get to six. And six should do it. Six in ten should do it. Now, if Dallas gets to six and the Giants are at six, it'll come down to division record because the Giants, I'm assuming for the Giants to get to six, they've got to beat the Cowboys. They lost to them earlier in the year. The Giants have two wins over Washington and a win over Philly. So they have a four and two division mark. And the Cowboys at that point would have losses to the Eagles, Washington, and the Giants. They'd be three and three. So the Giants would win a 6-10, 6-10 tiebreaker with the Cowboys.

I'm going with the Giants. I think that 6-10 wins the division, and they're at 3 right now, and they would have the tie-breaker advantage more likely than, well, they would over Washington, more likely than not over Dallas. I think they can win three more games. I think they can beat the Bengals. I think they can win one of the three against the... the Seahawks, Cardinals, or Browns, and then I think they can beat the Cowboys in the final game.

Some dude at 7-11 asking who was going to win the division yesterday, just yesterday, and I definitively said the Giants are going to win the division. It's crazy. I don't know why I told you Washington. I think Washington has a chance. I'd love to see Washington have a chance, especially this young team, how impactful it would be for them to have a sense of winning the division. I mean, the crazy thing is for all these teams.

is at this point you all suck, but you can throw it out. You can throw it out. You're oh and oh. Yeah. And you are where you are. And Washington's fairly healthy. Right. Although they need a safety back.

They need Everett back. They do need a safety back. There's no doubt about it. And there's other needs that they obviously have. But there's also young guys playing pretty good football. And I think that's really exciting. I just, we've been watching really good football or fairly consistent football

to get to two and five over the last six weeks against five bad teams. Right. How can I truly say they are a good enough team to win certain games? I can't, I can't definitively say that. And I do think, I think it's a totally fair conversation to say they have played five games here. You know, throw the ram game out.

Alex came in after Kyle Allen got hurt. And you had, you know, it was a hideous game. And then Kyle Allen was back. And I'm talking about the five games, the last five games. They've lost three by a grand total of seven points. You can say that about a lot of the giant losses, too. They've been very close and winnable games. And like you said, and we've seen.

said before. Giants, Cowboys, Giants, Lions Bengals. So let's see what happens. You know, I'm not necessarily saying the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. I think there are a different cowboy team than we faced a month ago. But let's get to Steelers, 49ers, Seahawks, and even Panthers, because I think the Panthers are certainly a capable team. And let's take that four-game stretcher. And even the Eagles to end the year against a good defense, especially if it's a meaningful game. And let's judge them on that, obviously even more critically because they're playing better teams. I mean, they are going to be playing more likely than not an undefeated team in the Steelers if they beat the Ravens on Thanksgiving night. The 49ers season has gone sideways, but they're

still good defensively, and Seattle is a very good team, of course. All right, take a quick break for a word from one of our sponsors, and then Cooley will give us a few things to think about in terms of the Thanksgiving Day matchup against the Cowboys, and then we'll let him run for the day. Okay, Thanksgiving Day. 48 hours from when many of you are listening to this today, until Washington goes into Dallas to face the Cowboys in a game in which the winner, at least temporarily,

will be in first place at 4 and 7. I will have my Washington wins if tomorrow. Cooley, again, wrapped up in a very busy, week is just going to give us a few thoughts on how they beat the Cowboys on Thursday. Go ahead. Well, I think offensively they're going to have to score, and Dallas is a team that they can do it on. In Minnesota, maybe a better offense than Washington right now with your guy, but with Dalvin Cook and their ability to truly have balance run the ball. But I don't see Washington as a team that can't have balance. You watch them run it really well against the Cowboys defense. they're going to have to play a little bit more disciplined offensively.

I don't think Dallas is just going to give you plays. At the time they'd played early in the season, or earlier in the season, Dallas had lapses defensively where they were just giving things up. That could still happen to some extent, but I think you're going to have to earn it a little bit more offensively. You're going to have to move the chains. You kind of mentioned a week ago,

third downs will be critical in this game for this offense. Some big plays and third downs and played disciplined and without penalties and turnovers. They're capable of doing that with Alex Smith. And to me, Dallas is going to find a way to score this week. They are better on offense than they were when we played them the last time. So it's going to have to be 24 plus, I would guess, to win this game. The flip side of it, Ezekiel Elliott seems to be a little bit more on track.

Remember the last time we played them right in the middle of that fumbling session where he just wasn't running the ball hard? I don't think it was lack of effort. I thought it was more lack of. belief in what he was doing. He had 100 yards, but they gave him the ball 21 times against the Vikings. And if I was playing us, I would treat us so similar to Minnesota. I would say, Lord, we got to control the ball, we got to run the ball against Washington.

We've got to limit some of their possessions, not because we're afraid of them, but we don't want another team that has to play balance football to be able to play balance. And so this is the Washington defense that really has struggled against the run in the last few weeks. Not against the Bengals, but the Bengals didn't even try to run the ball, Cove. And they didn't. They didn't really try to run the ball. So I think you've got to stop Ezekiel Elliott in that run game. And if they can do that, then they'll be in some decent situations to shut down these receivers.

To me, Fuller's good enough. Darby's good enough. Some of the secondary plays are good enough. When Moreland comes in, to be able to have an impact against Cooper and Lamb and Gallup, I think it starts with shutting down Ezekiel Elliott and then it really transcends into

you know limiting plays by all of these receivers they're good enough defense to get stops and anywhere on the field to just limit some of the big plays of these receivers I don't care if here's the stat line from last week from Minnesota two per six receptions 81 lamb four receptions 34 Gallup two receptions 29 yards essentially

you held these guys, the Viking tell them to 12 receptions for about 120 some yards. If you're 15 receptions between these three for under 150, you'll win this ball game. As long as Zekyll Elliott doesn't run wild. One of the things that I noticed in that

Minnesota game with the Cowboys is that Dalton was getting the ball out quickly. You know, they were not taking deep shots. Lamb and Cooper were catching it in the mid-range in the medium range and they were getting the ball out quickly, you know, and that's what Washington's faced really during this stretch. You know,

they faced quarterbacks, especially the last two weeks in particular with Stafford and with Burrow, where the ball was just coming out quickly. It almost, when you throw nothing but quick game, it really does negate a pass rush. I mean, the difference between Finley in the game and Burrow in the game. Burrow didn't hold it. Finley did. Finley got rocked, and Burrow, you know, didn't get hit until the second half. And unfortunately for him, it was a double. devastating hit. That injury looks even worse after the MRI. It's the MCL. It's the ACL. It's structural damage. I mean, that thing could be a year plus. It's a shame because he really is so, so good. It sucks because he's so exciting for the NFL in general. Yeah, agreed. All right. We'll talk

Friday after the game and go do what you need to do the rest of the day. I appreciate you checking in. Thanks, buddy. Have a good one. I'm going to finish up with a few thoughts on John Wall and what Tommy Shepard said yesterday, the Wizards General Manager, about trading John Wall right after I tell you about Window Nation. Window Nation knows that you're spending more time than ever at home this winter in particular, and they want to make it more comfortable for you and your family. By sticking with Window Nation this year, and many of our listeners did, they were able to keep their family of employees busy throughout these uncertain times,

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estimate. So at least call them up if you've been thinking about Windows and get an estimate from them, and then you can do with the estimate what you choose. 86690 Nation, Windonation.com. Tell them Kevin Sheehan sent you. I wanted to finish up with Tommy Shepard, the Wizards General manager who I had on the radio show last week. Everybody in town likes Tommy a lot. I'm really rooting for him to succeed. I think he really knows hoops. And I think he will be a good general manager. The news last week that came out about a wall for Westbrook deal that came out from the athletic, Tommy Shepard didn't necessarily deny it on my radio interview with him last week, but yesterday in a conference call with reporters, he said, quote, no, he, John, didn't

request a trade. John and I talk pretty much once every other day, and I've been to many of his workouts throughout the summer. We have always been on the same page, same wavelength, same with Bradley. There's no issues with John and I. There are no issues with John and the Wizards. There's no issue with anybody. He said, I've seen enough of him the last two years and certainly this summer to know that he's gotten his explosiveness back. He's very comfortable from third. three now, shooting the three, and that is something I think will be a huge weapon for us moving forward. He's excited about getting back here. It's a new story now with John and Bradley. It's not a sequel. They haven't played together in two years, but they both look forward to playing together.

That is where we are, and that is where we move on to closed quote. He also said that John has not asked for a trade, said that, and that goes against some of the reporting last week. So I want to just mention two things. Number one, on trading John Wall, I can't tell you if I'm for it or against it because I don't know what kind of condition he's in. If you tell me that we're getting the John Wall pre-injury, the John Wall of 2016-2017 back, then I want John Wall back. I want to see John Wall with a much-improved Bradley Beale,

with Davos Bertons, who they re-signed. I want to see that. That's what I want to see. And I'm a massive Russell Westbrook fan. I don't want to see that trade if John is John health-wise. If he isn't, then the ability for Tommy to trade $135 million worth of remaining contract and get Russell Westbrook back, even if Westbrook is past his prime to a certain degree. And by the way, has also missed games in recent years. I would probably do that deal. Neither one of those situations is going to produce a champion. I think we all know that. You know, you pretty much have to have a much better player than any one of those three to have a chance to contend for a title. But I think a John Wall of 2016-2017

with Bradley Beale and Davos Bertans and the other pieces, I think they're a 43-44 win team, even in a very improved Eastern Conference. And that would be for the bottom four seeds in the East, a five, six, seven seeds, something like that. I think they're a playoff team. And I think they would have the capability of winning a playoff series. They're not going far.

You know, I mean, who knows? I mean, could they make a deep run to the Eastern Conference finals? They've been very close to that on two different occasions with John Wall and Bradley Beale. If John doesn't get hurt in that one series against Atlanta, probably in the Eastern Conference Finals, and then they were in a Game 7 in 2017 against the Celtics with the lead in the third quarter of Game 7 had it. They were very close to the Eastern Conference finals. So on whether or not they should be trying to deal, John Wall, you'd have to tell me

with certainty what his physical condition is. And I think only the team knows that. And maybe even the team doesn't know that, and they won't know that until we see them in games. and then if they are concerned about it or if they aren't really sure about it, then you may want to take the opportunity to move them if you get that opportunity. Remember, the Wizards had the opportunity to trade Gilbert Arenas with the bad knees to Orlando. They basically found a willing participant in a one-sided deal, if you recall. They took back Richard Lewis's contract and some other things to get rid of Gilbert's contract with, I think Otis Thorpe was the GM at the time.

if Wall really is never going to be Wall again physically, well, then you've got to get rid of... If somebody's willing to take that contract, you take it. So, again, I'm not sure what the answer is there, because I don't really know what his health is, but if he is John Wall of 16-17, I want John Wall back. Then there's the other part of this, and the other part deals with the business of the Wizards.

And I think this is a really important subject because I don't think a lot of people have given this thought, and I think if you do give it thought, some of you out there are like, Shan, it's not a big deal. It's not a big deal that he was in Brooklyn on video, giving and flashing gang signs, okay? Which is what happened, and Tommy Shepard was on with me last week

and said it was a very disappointing thing for the Wizards to see that. This happened, you know, over the summer, Wall profusely apologized for it. He was attending a party in Brooklyn, and he was recorded flashing gang symbols with both hands. And the apology on Twitter went, quote, first and foremost, I want to apologize to my family,

my teammates, and all those that have supported me. I made a mistake, something I regret. I will continue to work hard to be better on the court. More importantly, off the court, closed quote. Now, John Wall never gets in trouble. John Wall, incredibly charitable in the community. John Wall's done all the right things off the court in this community, whether they are for self-serving reasons or for true, genuine, you know, heartfelt reasons.

I don't know, but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt because he's been involved in a lot of activity and a lot of charitable activity in this city. He really has been, and John's never gotten in trouble off the court, ever. He's never been a problem. We can debate his game, and his game has limitations. as we all know, but John's not a guy that gets into trouble. And so I say and I bring up the gang symbol issue, not because I think it's part of some sort of long record of John causing problems,

because it's not. But this was very troublesome for the organization. And this is why it was very troublesome. You may say it's a benign thing. It was very innocent. Who cares? It's not a big deal. You might say that.

But for Ted Leonis and for the business people in an organization that fights to break even every year, and the Wizards are one of those teams, they're not the Lakers, all right? They are not the Warriors. They're not one of these prime NBA market teams that sell out and have big local television deals and draw big local television ratings. Ted Leonis needs the playoffs. He needs two to three home games extra. every year just to break even.

And so especially after the year that we've just gone through with the NBA, you know, missing many games and the Wizards, you know, they ended up in the bubble. But revenues down significantly and the future revenue stream in question, you can't have events from your best player or moments from your best player that turn off potential ticket buyers, corporate sponsors. this is, again, maybe something to some of you that's very innocent, very benign, doesn't mean much, but I guarantee you it means a lot to Ted Leonis, it means a lot to Tommy Shepard, it means a lot to the business people in that organization. This was disappointing. John has a responsibility,

as does almost anybody in any organization, when you are paid a healthy amount of money to be concerned about how they go about paying you. And in the business of sports, to be able to afford John's $43 million a year salary, they have to generate revenue. And they do that by hopefully fielding a competitive team, first and foremost, that wins. That'll do it more than anything else.

But then to have their faces of their franchise, past and or present, not do things like what John did in Brooklyn. because that is a turnoff, whether it is to you or not, it is to some. And corporate sponsors and big ticket buyers. I'm not talking about the people that are going to buy a pair of tickets in the 400 section. I'm not talking about the people that are going to buy four tickets down in a really good section at Verizon Center. All right, I'm talking about the businesses that are going to buy a block of 30 tickets or buy a suite or lease a suite.

These are the things that are very critical to the revenue stream. of an NBA team, to the profit and loss opportunity of an NBA team. And when you have a guy that you've paid the Super Max deal to and he's going to make $135 million over the next three years, you need that person and it's much better when that person is mature enough to recognize how much they impact the business's ability to pay them. You know, a lot of these guys, and I'm not suggesting it's John, just think it, they think it grows on trees. They just think, oh, they're paying me $43 million. They got it.

Well, they have it because they're projecting that they're going to be able to generate more in revenue than they're paying out in salaries. I think most of you understand that, right? Revenue, less expenses equals either loss or a profit. you want your revenues to exceed your expenses, and when they don't, you lose money and you're in trouble. And the NBA is not the NFL. You know, it's also not the NHL. You know, the NHL desperately needs LiveGate. They're going to lose some franchises if they go another season without live attendance. They are. The NBA does not have the television deals the NFL has, but it's got healthy television deals. But still, for a lot of these teams in the NBA, it is really

not necessarily paycheck to paycheck. I'm not suggesting that. But they need their highest priced players, the ones that they've committed hundreds of millions of dollars to, to not do things that impact their ability to generate sales revenue so that they can pay them that hundreds of millions of dollars. And it's always nice as an employer when you have your highest paid employees recognize that revenue is king, that you've got to help with sales, that you can't hurt sales, because ultimately that's how you get paid. If they don't generate the revenue, eventually, you're not going to get that next deal. So anyway, I know for a fact that this was a real issue with the organization would happen there. And they liked John and Ted loves, has loved John over the years.

But then you combine that with the, you know, is he going to be completely healthy, even though Tommy Shepherd said they have no interest in trading him. I do believe that they've had conversations about trading him. All right, that's it for the day. Tomorrow will be a football Wednesday. Skins beat Cowboys If. I'll have an early smell test and I'll have a special guest on the show tomorrow as well. So tune in for that. Thanks back tomorrow.