The Kevin Sheehan Show - Wimbledon & Derrius Guice

Episode Date: July 15, 2019

Kevin opened with the Wimbledon final and the incredible era of dominance by Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic. Then it was the injury to Derrius Guice and the biggest concern area for the Skins entering 2019. He finished up with Melvin Gordon and Aaron talked Madden Ratings. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, I'm here. Aaron is here. This show's presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com and tell them that we told you to call. So this morning, Aaron, in the sports talk world is one of those days where your ability to figure out what's important to the majority. of your audience is tested because you had yesterday a tennis match between Roger Federer and Novak Joakovich, which became an all-timer, an all-timer. And it seems we say that a lot. I don't know what it is about the, you know, best game ever, best match ever, best player ever were creatures of recency. Oh, yeah, it's everything is the best or the worst. Much more so than I remember years ago, but maybe that's me distorting the past. I don't know. But yesterday was at the very

least a riveting sporting event. And it was by some measurements the greatest Wimbledon match ever. And some might argue the greatest tennis match ever. For me, I will tell you, as a longtime tennis fan, Borg Macon-Roeckin-Roe-1980 Wimbledon finals, the best tennis match I've ever seen. Yesterday was great. Some say the greatest ever. So that's where the challenge of a day like today comes in, because most of you who listen to this show and other sports talk radio or podcast shows, most of you don't care at all about tennis. But yesterday was one of those days where it started to snowball throughout the morning. It became a compelling sporting event. As it went on. It took over social media there for a few hours and many of you tuned in for it,

you know, later in the match and stuck with it because it was truly captivating. You know, you probably didn't give a crap about it at 8.30 Sunday morning or even 9.30 Sunday morning with the match already underway, but it grew throughout the morning and then into the afternoon and in this day and age of everybody being connected through technology and social media, once it started trending, Aaron, it gained steam and everybody started to tune in. And by the time we got to the four-hour mark, all right, so that was about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, 1.15 in the afternoon. It became, by the way, the longest match in Wimbledon history at 4 hours 55 minutes.

By comparison, the ladies' final on Saturday morning took 15. I digress. Many of you were watching by the time we got to the four-hour mark. And learning as I did, by the way, I did not know this. I did not know before yesterday that Wimbledon had instituted a fifth set tiebreaker at 12-all. Did you know that? I did not know that. I mean, it was new for this year, right? It's the first year. Yes. Again, like, and we've had this conversation in the past. I used to be a massive tennis fan. Liz Clark and I used to have conversations all the time about tennis and people would be milling around and saying, what are you guys talking about? We're talking about tennis. Oh, and they would keep walking. But I don't care as much anymore.

I've sort of fallen into, I love golf, I love golf a lot more than tennis, and I've really stopped paying attention to it. So it was news to me yesterday when I finished playing golf and was watching the final hour and a half of the tennis with a bunch of guys. It was news to me that they had a tiebreaker at 12 all. Didn't know that. If not for that tiebreaker, this match might still be going on. Remember the match a few years ago between John Isner and Nicholas

Mahoot? Yeah. Or Mahoot? 70 to 68 in the fifth set? 11 hours, over three days. But anyway, it was a, it was really a riveting sporting event. I mean, tennis has that

ability to do that. Any of the sports that just can go on and on and on forever, it seems like, like a playoff hockey overtime game that can just keep going on and all of the sudden end. I mean, it's a gradual end in tennis, but it can keep going on and on and on, and then it becomes this test of physical and psychological will, you know, among the combatants. And when it's an individual sport, I mean, it can really become thrilling to watch. I can remember some of those incredible Pete Sampras, epic match, and at the U.S. Open in the heat where he'd be throwing up into flower beds on the side of the court.

And he could barely stand returning serve. And then when he got his serve, he'd somehow summon up the energy to rifle it past his opponent. Tennis has that ability to do that. Individual sports have that, especially the sports that can go on and on and on. And Wimbledon has never had a tiebreaker in the fifth set. Now it does. Didn't know that before yesterday. So, you know, back to sort of today and the challenge of, you know,

when you're in the business of talking sports on a Monday in July, obviously it depends on what else is on the rundown for today. And there are a couple of things, very minor things. I mean, the Nationals took two of three from the Phillies. The Soto Homer on Saturday night was debatably the moment of the season so far. It's up there. And then yesterday the Phillies avoided the sweep with a walk. off home run for themselves in the bottom of the ninth inning to sort of avoid the sweep there.

Very good post-all-star start for the Nats, taking two of three in Philly. And if Scherzer hadn't missed his start this weekend due to the back strain, maybe they get all three in Philadelphia. Interestingly, they didn't gain any ground. Actually, they lost ground on the Braves this weekend because Atlanta won all three of their games in San Diego. San Diego. So the Nats are seven back of the Braves in the National League East, a game and a half in front of Philadelphia. But right now, very comfortably, in that first wildcard

spot, long way to go and a huge series this weekend, this coming weekend in Atlanta. But anyway, back to tennis. Also, you know, there was the Darius Geisneuse, and if you miss that, we will get to that in a little bit. But the match itself was great. actually outplayed Jokevich but lost three tiebreakers and in tennis and for those of you that follow the sport or even play it you know this it's a sport where the winner wins the big points not necessarily the majority of points and Jokovic was down two match points in the fifth set and came through by winning those two points the most important points of the match up until that point and got through that and then ended up winning the tiebreaker.

7.3 were the points to win that 25th game of the fifth and final set at 1312. I'm wondering, you know, how they came up with the 12-12 tiebreaker. You know, it's not a bad number. It's like when you get to 12-12, you are then, you know, pushing, you know, I can tell you this, the U.S. Open before they went to the tiebreaker in the late 70s, fifth set tiebreaker, they had some ridiculous epic matches. And remember, you know, back in the day, hard court, clay court, longer points, grass was a very quick match, quick point, you know, surface. Although really, over the years, or, you know, I would say the last 10 years, you've seen baseliners and the serving volley player is essentially out of the sport. It just doesn't

exist that much. And Grass Court used to be dominated by the Serv and Vollier. And so those were quick points. A four-hour 48-minute match, I'm sorry, it was four hours 55 minutes yesterday, is easily the longest in Wimbledon history in a final. And the U.S. Open, I believe, has had five-hour-plus finals. I think Matt V. Lander and Yvonne Lendell may have played, or maybe it was Edberg, played a five-hour-plus final. one year. But that never used to happen on grass. It does now. Now the conversation, by the way, is not really about, you know, how Jokovic won the match yesterday. Did Federer play too many loose points in big spots? The answer to that would be yes. But the conversation really in follow-up

to that tennis match yesterday is a continuation of the conversation that I had last week on the podcast, and that is that the last decade plus, and it will last, and it's more than a decade now, I mean, if you go back to Federer's first win, that was in 2003. But we have been in this 15-plus year stretch, and it may go on for another two, three, four years. It may. Who knows? But that this era is easily the greatest championship era in the history of men's tennis. Not even debatable, not even close. Novak Djokovic won his 16th major yesterday. Federer has 20. Rafael Nadal has 18. They are the top three all time. Sampros is fourth with 14. And when he got his 14th in 2002, I believe, it was thought to be unreachable.

Listen to this, Aaron. Since Federer won his first major in 2003, including that first major in 2003, there have been 67 major championships played, of the four grand slams, the Australian, the French, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic have won 54 of those 67 grand slam.

finals. Over 80% of the majors have been won by three players over a 16 and a half year period. There's no run at the top tier of a sport. I don't think that matches that. Not numbers wise. I may be missing something in motorsports. I may be missing something in Olympic sports. I don't know. in the sports that I know, there's just nothing that comes close to top-tier dominance over a period of time. For that longevity. Like Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic. Now, I thought for a moment, as I was thinking about this, that Chris Everett, Martina Navratilova may have had a stretch that's similar to this. Their best stretch is a combined, you know, dominant at the top of the sport, you know, Everett Navratilova.

they won 27 of 44 majors over an 11-year period from 1974 to 84. But that's 61% compared to over 80% that these three have won. Now, that's two of them over an 11-year stretch, 27 to 44, pretty impressive. And that's the really unique thing about this, is that there is, you know, sometimes we have a great head-to-head rivalry, and there's a third person that kind of pokes in. but this is the first time, I feel like in any sport that we've had three people who are at the very top of their game, who are at that level where we're talking about all three of them as are they, you know, where they rank on the greatest of all time. Yeah, you know, I guess, so I started thinking about some of that because that's true.

I mean, by the numbers, by the numbers, Federer Djokovic and Adol, the greatest run by the top tier in any sport ever. I don't think that anybody's going to debate that based on the numbers. I couldn't come up with a better run. Now, qualitatively, you know, from a qualitative standpoint, based on my memory, Nicholas Palmer Player, now that's an error that I don't remember, but I've read about. Ali Frazier Foreman, certainly Celtics Lakers, you know, when you look at the 60s in particular in the dominance by those two franchises. hell, in recent years, you had Golden State Cleveland for four straight years, and Bama Clemson

feels like a two-headed dynasty here over the last five, what is it, five years now or four years? I think four, but yeah. I also thought about something that probably only a few of you have thought about. And I loved boxing. Boxing and tennis were two of my favorite sports for a long period of time. Now they're not. But anyway, the middle weights, the welter weights, the middle.

weight divisions. All right. Welterweight, super welterweight, junior welterweight, middle weights. You may even want to throw in perhaps the super lightweights

so you can work in Argueo and Aaron Pryor. But Leonard Hearns-Duran Hagler was an incredible era in sports, in boxing, obviously. But you're talking about four of the greatest ever,

all in their prime at the same time. That was an incredible era of boxing. And I know that, you know, Ali Frazier Foreman in the early 70s was as well. But that was a, that was four guys who were Hall of Famers in their prime. Duran was older than all four of them. But you just had epic fights among all of them. And it was, it was a great stretch. But again, you know, that is a, that's more of a qualitative thing, not a quantitative thing. Nothing tops the run quantitatively of Nadal Federer and Djokovic. Nothing is even close.

Now the conversation is about, and we started to have this conversation last week, about how to rank these three guys. And it's really hard. I will tell you that before the last few years, it was easy for me, Federer won Nadal 2, Djokovic 3. In fact, up until maybe the last couple of years, I wouldn't have had Djokovic. Even with the number of majors that he had at that point, I still think that you could argue, you know, Sampras, that you could argue, you know, Borg, what Borg could have been had he continued his career post 25 years old. I still think McEnroe is the most gifted and talented tennis player I've ever watched.

I was also a massive McEnroe fan. You know, being a teenager in the 80s, McEnroe was anti-establishment awesome. He was great, and he was extremely talented. But, you know, in trying to compare the three of these guys, who knows where it's going to end up? You know, Djokovic is 32 years old. He's won four of the last five majors.

Nadal is 33. He just won his 12th French Open. He's likely going to win another French Open or four. I mean, he is, one thing is clear among these three players. The one thing that is not debatable is that Nadal is the greatest clay court player in the history of the game. Not even close, not debatable. No one in their right mind would take that argument on from the other side. But in comparing the three and trying to rank them,

Who knows where it will end up? But where is it now? Look, Federer could be done at 20 majors. He could be. Maybe he could be. Look, he's clearly not done getting close to winning majors. In his last nine majors, well, he had two match points in yesterday's major. It's about as close as you can get.

All right? In his last nine majors, he's won three of them. He lost in the final yesterday. He's lost twice in the semis, twice in the quarters. So he's won 33% of the last nine that he's played, and he's had a chance in four of the other six. He's 37. He doesn't look like he's 37. He doesn't.

I would say that the odds are at least 50-50, at least 50-50, that Djokovic will eventually pass Federer. He's four-back at 32 years old. Injuries have impacted all three of these players at various points. in their career. Nobody more than Nadal. And I'll get to that in a moment. On Nadal, I would say the odds are better than 50-50 that Nadal at 18 majors will pass Federer. He's got at least two French opens left in him to tie Fed. So right now, though, who's the greatest ever? Fetterer to me is, he is the most graceful athlete of my lifetime. I mean, I put George the Iceman, Gervyn, into that conversation

in terms of somebody who makes it look so easy and so effortless. But obviously, Gervin is not the champion that Federer is, but the Iceman was for me growing up among my favorite athletes and my favorite players. Federer's got the most majors as of now, but we mentioned this last week. You know, this is, and this was a surprise to some of you who don't follow the sport. He's got a losing record against both of those guys, head-to-head, Nadal and Jokovic. That's overall and in Grand Slams.

You know, Federer has lost 10 of 14 Grand Slam head-to-heads with Nadal, and he's lost 10 of 16 head-to-heads. in Grand Slams with Jokovic. So Federer has 20 majors, and up until very recently, I think most people would say Federer is the greatest of all time. But he's got a losing record overall against both of his contemporary rivals, and not just overall, but more importantly, he's been dominated actually in the Grand Slams against both of those players.

Nadal and Djokovic, they've been, played 54 times head-to-head the most played of the, you know, of the matchups among the three. Djokovic leads overall 28-26, but Nadal has him in majors at 9 to 6. So Nadal has Federer overall and in majors, and Nadal, even though he doesn't have a better overall record head-to-head against Djokovic, has him 9 to 6 in majors. By the way, Nadal, Also, when you look at Nadal's career, he's missed eight grand slams over the last 15 years. So essentially one every two years because of injuries. Fedders missed just four, and Djokovic just won.

Now, all three have played majors hurt, where they really were compromised and didn't have a legitimate chance to win at all. But Nadal, by the numbers, especially when you consider how many grand slams he's missed, By the numbers, you'd have to say it's Nadal. Nadal has owned both of them in Grand Slams. And he has, so these are the biggest matches of all time, and he's still got more to go. He's easily, again, the one debate that I don't think anyone would push me on here is that he's the greatest clay court player of all time. That's the one thing in the comparison of the three that you could say, definitively, I believe that.

That no one, I mean, he's got, I think, a six and one lifetime on clay in majors against Jokevich, and I don't think he's lost to Federer on Clay. He's the greatest Clay Court player of all time. And by the numbers, you might say that Nadal of the three is actually the best of the three. And he's got more to go. So does Jokovic, and maybe so does Federer. Here's the one safe bet, Aaron. The safe bet is the next major, which is the U.S. Open in September.

I love that time of year. You get Labor Day, you get college football kicking off, you get the U.S. Open in the middle of that two-week run, and you're getting ready for the first NFL weekend of the year. Great sports time of the year. The safe bet here is that that U.S. Open, that one of those three is going to win it. That's pretty much a safe bet.

Yeah. that one of those three will win it, and it's probably a little less safe to say, but still relatively safe to say that two of the three will face each other in the final in the U.S. Open. It was a great match yesterday. It does seem like there have been some epic tennis matches. I mean, the Nadal Federer match in 2008 was incredible. Roddick and Federer had epic matches.

And, you know, when they used to play the Davis Cup without a football. fifth set tiebreaker. There were epic Davis Cup matches involving Becker, involving V. Lander, involving McEnroe in particular, who was a dedicated Davis Cup player during his career. But anyway, netting it out, great match yesterday, and, you know, if you're just sort of realizing this, there really isn't a run at the top in the history of sports like Federer Nadal Jokovic. No top tier of any sport has ever been dominated for as long a period of time by so few.

And I'm talking about more than one. We've certainly got dynasties that we can talk about. Single franchise or single individual dynasties. But in terms of an era of the best at the top, nothing matches this. Nothing. Even though, and I've said this many times, in this country, It's at the least popular, the sport is the least popular it's ever been. It was a sport for many of you that are younger, that don't know this,

that was super popular in the U.S. in the 70s and the 80s, even at the end of the 90s. I mean, Agassi was a popular sports figure in the U.S. And when he was making his runs, you know, with Courier and Sampras and some of those rivalries, it was still relatively popular. used to do huge numbers on TV, a Wimbledon final or a U.S. Open final on a Sunday night following football or Sunday afternoon following football. It used to do incredible numbers. It doesn't anymore. I have no idea what yesterday's match did, but I guarantee you it was highest rated towards the end of it, not at the beginning when most of you probably barely recognized that it was going on. I did want to say this about Serena. That was the match that I actually, wanted to watch this weekend. And I watched it on Saturday morning and she lost to

Simone Halop in straight sets in 56 minutes. By the way, man, Serena looked tight. Like, I mean, just watching that and we've seen that before with Serena in big matches where she's gotten tight and not played her best. She had so many unforced errors. I'm a huge Serena Williams fan. I don't, just over the years, she's a badass. competitor. I think more than anything else, that's why I really like her. Not to mention how dominant she's been. So in women's tennis, if you didn't know this, Margaret Court is actually the all-time, you know, Grand Slam record holder with 24. Serena's one short of Margaret Court's record. But Margaret Court won many of those majors before what they called the open era. So Serene is

considered to be by many the all-time major holder with 23, but just to make sure that the argument is never, you know, never sort of leans towards Margaret Court. Serena needs to get to that 24 number. And after watching her on Saturday morning just fall apart against a quicker, faster player, I wonder, you know, Serena's 37 years old also. You know, she's another one. Like Federer, you know, you can say, you know, Serena hasn't won a major. in a while. Her last major came in 2017. I think Feders came in 2018. She's two and five in her last seven finals. Two and five it is. But the last one was at the Australian in 2017, I believe. And I think she's lost three or four finals since. So maybe it's over, but she keeps getting close. Like

Federer, maybe he'll never win another one, but he keeps getting close. Now, in the case of Federer this weekend, he was much closer than Serena, much closer, two championship points. I was surprised. I was surprised. I was surprised that she got run the way she got run by Halep in that final. Halip is a really good player. And by the way, Serena, who hates to lose, hates to lose. And we've had obviously some memorable post-match handlings of a loss that she would like for everybody to forget last year's US Open as an example. But she was incredibly gracious. She got her ass kicked on Saturday. And was no explaining that one away. Other than what I would say in watching that match is she just never looked comfortable and

she looked tight. She actually looked nervous. But I'm a big Serena fan. I'll be rooting for her at the U.S. Open. But anyway, 56 minutes, yes. That was the match time of the Saturday final. You know, this has nothing to do with anything, but there's always been this, the time. I'll get to that what I mean in a moment.

There's always been this argument about, you know, prize money in women's tennis, men's tennis, women's sports. Men's sports and the conversations come up recently because of the women's World Cup team, et cetera. And, you know, one of the arguments over the years in tennis has been, well, the men play best three out of five. Their matches are so much longer. It's a much more grueling sport. They're working a lot longer and a lot harder. That has nothing to do with anything. I mean, that's like saying, oh, great, well, the guy that work gets up,

shows up at work at 5 a.m. and doesn't leave until 10 o'clock, you know, at some blue-collar job deserves more money than some specialist or some hedge fund. None of that matters. The women, for the most part, would be happy to play five sets if it meant more money. I don't know why they don't. In majors. I don't, men don't play best of five in anything but majors, but in majors, I don't know why women don't play best of five. I don't, it's, are they less. There's nothing physically that you would use as an explanation. If you want to be a conspiracy theorist, you can say that they do it to have that excuse of why they pay less. I don't know. Somebody may say lung capacity and durability and whatever. I think they could play best three at five.

But the bottom line is four hours, 55 minutes versus 56 minutes has nothing to do with anything. You know why? Because I bet, I bet the Serena Mac. at its highest rated point, did better than yesterday's match. I don't know what yesterday's match did. I could be wrong about that because of how it just completely took over social media there. But if yesterday's match had been a three-set yawner, Serena would have drawn more eyeballs to her match than the men's final. That's my guess in the U.S.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the U.S., that's probably true. All right, quick word about stamps.com. Stamps.com, if you're a small business, like the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast, is a small business. And I'm a Stamps.com customer. If you're small business, you should be thinking about stamps.com. It eliminates trips to the post office and saves you money with discounts you can't even get at the post office. Here's how it works. First of all, it brings all of the amazing services of the U.S. Post Office right to your computer. Whether you're a small office sending invoices like us, all right, that's essentially what we send out our invoices, an online seller shipping out products or even a warehouse sending thousands of packages a day.

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Now, right now, my listeners get a special offer that includes a four-week trial plus free postage and a digital scale without any long-term commitment. Go to Stamps.com right now. Click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in my code, Kevin, D.C. That's K-E-V-I-N-D-C. That's Stamps.com, enter my code, Kevin, D.C for all those savings. All right, let's get to some Redskins because there was some news over the weekend. I think it broke on Saturday, but Darius Geis is dealing with a hamstring injury.

Remember, it's coming off the ACL tear from last year. And already, you know, there was some conversation about whether or not he was actually going to be ready for training camp anyway. So you throw a hamstring injury on top of that. And the thing that you're happy about is that they re-signed Adrian Peterson. Look, Darius Geis said via Twitter, he said, don't worry about the hamstring. I know what's going on. But here's a guy that we have seen carry the ball one time in a preseason game or whatever it was. was in New England before he got hurt. There was a lot of hope for Darius Geis. You know,

a lot of you felt like he was a steal late in the second. I didn't feel the same way. There were a lot of backs in the 2018 draft that I liked more than Geis. Didn't dislike Geis, but there were backs that I liked a lot more like Carri-on-Johnson. I went on and on about him, as many of you know. And the Redskins, according to Schefter, if you recall, were going to take Carri-on-Johnson, but the Lions took Johnson with the pick in the second round right before the Redskins were on the clock. And then the Redskins traded that pick, traded down, and ended up getting Geis later in the second round. And, you know, the Redskins told us how excited they were. Like, they really were self-congratulatory on that pick.

Remember how many times we heard this is a first-round guy. We had them as a first-round grade. We got them late second. We're really smart. You know, it's the thing that they've done here recently, you know, before someone's even carried the ball one. or play-to-play once or played one play. But, you know, Geis, I'm concerned. Like, we can all try to blow this off like,

it's July, and he says he's fine. Players are always more optimistic, you know, on social media about their injury. This guy's got some injury history, and he clearly has it here. So it could be that he's Jordan Reed, that he's just never going to be healthy enough consistently enough to be a great player.

Now, I'll tell you what, right now, I would take Jordan Reed's 2015 and 2016 from Geis in 2019 and 2020 and call it a day. I mean, my expectations for Geis weren't as high as most of yours, but part of that is that the Redskins, for whatever reason, haven't gotten the running back, just haven't gotten the running back position right in the draft. were in any other situation other than the Adrian Peterson ad, courtesy of Doug Williams late last summer. But I'm not changing the way I feel about this season if Geis is going to be hampered.

Adrian Peterson was re-signed in the event that Geis wasn't ready, but also because Adrian Peterson last year was their best offensive player. He was their best offensive player. They drafted Bryce Love, who's coming off his own name, knee injury because they saw a tremendous talent there and they probably believe that Bryce Love could compete for a lot of carries and a lot of playing time, even with Geis Healthy on the roster. But it is a setback of sorts to have a hamstring coming off ACL. You'd want them to get a full training camp. You'd want them to be healthy in training camp. You'd want them to get some

carries in preseason games. We'll see what happens. I wanted to get to this next thing. Somebody tweeted me the other day and said, you've talked a lot of Redskins you and Tommy both have and you and Coolly, but what I want to hear from you is your biggest areas of concern on both sides of the ball. And so I thought about that. Now, some of this is repetitive, but I guess, you know, I'll sort of rank it, if you will, in terms of, you know, concern areas. Offensively, to me, there's no bigger concern. CERN, area, then quarterback. Yes, they drafted a guy 15 overall. Yes, they went out and traded for a guy that had a great 2017. For me, in this sport, you got to have one to have any chance, and I have no idea if they have one. I have no idea. And by the way, I don't think any of you have any real idea. You may hope, and I'm hoping, that, you know, Keenham's really good, or Haskins turns out to be the right guy, but I have no idea. That's the number one concern area on this football team. If you put all of the dysfunctional organization stuff to the side and focus just on the roster,

quarterback, hello, what's a bigger concern area than quarterback? If you don't have a good quarterback, you don't have that much of a chance in this league. I mean, unless you're, you know, the team like Baltimore last year to a certain degree, and maybe Jacksonville a year before that to a certain degree. I mean, Bortles and Lamar Jackson with phenomenal defenses, but Baltimore lost their first playoff game, and Jacksonville didn't get to the AFC title game. They lost, oh, they did. I'm sorry, they did get to the AFC title game and had a chance to beat the Patriots in Foxborough. But they needed a bunch of Pittsburgh turnovers in that crazy 45-42 game in Pittsburgh at Heinz Field. God, what a great playoff game that was a few years back.

Quarterback's my number one concern on offense. I'm definitely concerned about left tackle right now. You have to be. We don't know how this Trent Williams situation will get resolved. And clearly just the supporting cast, wide receivers, running backs, tight ends. I mean, what area on offense aren't you concerned with? Quarterback's number one for me on the entire team. But on offense, what area do you feel super confident about?

Brandon Sheriff at Guard, Trent Williams, if he's there at left tackle, like the offensive line, I guess. I actually feel confident, although who knows what will happen a year later at 34 years old, but there was no better competitor or producer than Adrian Peterson last year on offense. I actually feel good about him right now. But they don't have an obvious playmaker. they don't have an obvious quarterback, and they may have a serious issue at left tackle, a very serious issue that could become a major problem.

Let's not forget, too, that one of their more productive offensive players over the last few years, James and Crowder isn't here, so we'll be counting on Trey Quinn. Now, I liked what I saw from Quinn last year, but what they really need is Richardson or McLaurin or Doxon, or Dox, or Harmon. Somebody like that's got to step up. On defense, I think my number one concern is what it is and has been every year, but it is less of a concern this year.

To me, you've got to stop the run and you've got to rush the passer on defense in the NFL. And the talent level of your secondary can be minimized in terms of the importance with a great front seven. and I think the Redskins have an encouraging young front seven. But I still, as big of a Montez sweat fan as I am, and I wanted them to draft Montez Sweat at 15. And with the caveats being, I don't know about the personal and the coachability and the heart issue and all that stuff,

but I just loved watching him play at Mississippi State. But until I see it at this level, and I'm confident that we're going to see a really good player, but my number one concern would still be do they have, are they going to have a legitimate pass rush? Because it's been a while for this team. You know, they got after the quarterback. They had sacks last year, but I'm talking about the real, you know, threatening third down and eight, third down and long. The other team knows they're going to be under siege from the jump. I hope that that sweat. I feel confident about their run defense if they're

stay healthy. I do. I feel I'm not that concerned about the secondary. Again, I like the landing, Colin signing, even though it seems like everybody in the league thinks the Redskins way overpaid and nobody's got them ranked among the top 10 to 12 safeties

on, you know, countdown lists. And didn't you tell me before the show something about his Madden ranking came out and it's super low? It's a lot lower than you would think it's the same as DJ Sweringers. I mean, I've got some issues at corner, you know, I'm hoping that Dunbar is healthy. I'm hoping that Moreau can step up. I'm hoping that Josh Norman has a really good year. I feel like Cooley has convinced me that this guy, Jimmy Morland, has the attitude and the ability to play right away. But ultimately, my biggest concern on offense is quarterback. My biggest concern for the entire team is quarterback in terms of personnel. And on defense, I would say, even though I am super optimistic about Montes,

sweat. I am not going to believe it completely until I see it when it comes to a pass rush. God, if you can stop the run and you can get after the quarterback, you can be in every game. And that's the path to competitive football in 2019 for me. It is they stop the run, their defense makes the big improvement, and they got a pass rush. And Kerrigan ends up being even better because sweat becomes a marked guy for an offensive coordinator during the week in preparation for the Redskins. Love to see that. So that would be, that would be it. But I don't know how anybody doesn't start in terms of personnel. You know, I'm not talking about owner. I'm not talking about team president. I'm not talking about anybody on the coaching staff. But in terms of the

roster, your number one concern area, when you don't have one for sure, is quarterback. And they don't have one for sure. We don't know that they have one on their roster that can do it. And we're not going to know that until they start playing real games. Nothing in the preseason is going to tell us that. I don't think it will. All right, window nation. Right now, Wind Donation has a once in a lifetime offer going, in fact, it's the first time they've ever made this offer. The intense summer heat is back and your leaky windows are producing unnecessary high energy bills. It also is allowing damaging UV rays to fade your valuables and make your windows even less effective. Listen up. While the kids are at camp, while you're taking vacation,

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years. They've done it for a year before. Never two. Trust the window. company that I trust. Visit windownation.com or call them at 86690 Nation to get one free window for every window you buy plus no down payment, no payments of any kind, and no interest for 24 months. Call soon. This sale ends July 31st. All right, I want to finish up with this, the Melvin Gordon story, which we did not get to at the end of last week. Melvin Gordon wants a new contract says that he wants to play for the Chargers. He doesn't want to leave. leave Los Angeles, almost at San Diego, doesn't want to leave the Chargers. He wants to play for the Chargers, but he wants a new deal. And, you know, he's going to hold out until he gets a new deal.

And in the conversation, first of all, to me, Melvin Gordon's a really good back, but he's not the back that, to me, makes a big enough difference to worry about moving on from. I like Melvin Gordon a lot. I think he's a really good back. I think that there are four to five backs to me that are absolute must have difference makers that have been, that are massive impact final result guys. To me, that's Elliott. I would say Sequin Barkley fits that category now. You know, a healthy David Johnson did fit that category.

I think Alvin Kamara fits that category. and that's probably the list because Gurley's hurt. You know, the girly injury at the end of last year, I would have said Gurley, but for now I probably wouldn't. And I don't know what David Johnson's going to be like with the situation they've got in Arizona. If he's healthy, you know, look, he became healthy last year, like you got healthier last year, and they just didn't have enough offensively. But remember him a couple of years ago.

He was a dynamic, dominant back. Would Levy and Bell, or you just don't know what you were to expect for him? The bell's definitely in that category, but I don't know what he's going to look like after a year off. Christian McCaffrey would be the other interesting one. McCaffrey's very interesting as well. And by the way, I think Philip Lindsay's a back that you really have to keep an eye on in terms of a guy that could have massive impact on a game, considering how many touches he got as a rookie. And who knows what Kareem Hunt will look like in Cleveland potentially. Anyway, to me, Elliot, Barkley, Kamara, David Johnson.

Johnson completely healthy. I think Melvin Gordon's in the next tier down, and I think he's in that next tier down when you're thinking about backs, and it's like, you know what, we get some backs on the roster that when he's been hurt, performed. The guy that I love on their roster, and I loved him in the 2018 draft was the Northwestern back, Justin Jackson. I think he looks like a star, and every time he had an opportunity last year, he produced. And then, you know, how Philips. Rivers will throw to backs you've never heard of, like Austin Echler and guys like that over the years. I don't know. With that offense and that quarterback and Keenan Allen and Mike Williams and the team, you know,

Hunter Henry, who hopefully is healthy this year, so Stephen A, when he mentions him, is actually, you know, on the roster playing. But I don't know that I would, you know, I might say in Melvin Gordon, hold out. We'll be okay. Gordon's a very good back. I like Melvin Gordon a lot. If it's Zeke Elliott on Dallas's team or Saquan Barkley, a New York's team, it's different. I mean, those guys are so important to that offense and I think are better players.

Alvin Kumar is so crucial right now to what New Orleans does, so much so that they were okay with letting Ingram go, you know, and moving on from Ingram. I'll tell you what, seriously, Justin Jackson's going to be a really good back for somebody. Yeah, he's the guy, I know this is for fantasy people out there. I've been buying shares of him, not Austin Echler. If this holdout is real, I think he's the guy who steps in. Austin Echler will still have a role, but yeah, I agree with you. Remember how good of a back he was at Northwestern? And you know what round?

He looked good last year. Do you know what round he went in? Correct me if I'm wrong. I think he was a seventh round pick. I was surprised at that. And that was one of the backs before that draft that I would have loved for the Redskins to have gotten. Yeah, round seven pick 251. Yeah. And when he got an opportunity last year, I'm going to look up his stats because I remember when Gordon got hurt and Jackson played, he had a couple of really good games, if my memory serves me correctly.

Yeah, he did have, yeah, he did. Yeah, he had two hundred six yards rushing and two touchdowns, but that mostly came in one game pretty much. Yeah, here it is. It came, basically it came in three games. That game, that crazy game in Kansas City, remember, on a. Thursday night in December, that great game that the Chargers won 29, 28, one of the best games of the year. 16 carries 58 yards in that game, three catches, 27 yards. He had then earlier against the Steelers and that, God, the Chargers had some great games last year. That Sunday night game against the Steelers was phenomenal. The Chiefs game was one of the games of the year. The game, remember in London, early in the morning against the Titans, where they, Didn't they go for two to win that game?

Yeah, I mean, I remember. I don't remember being a great game. I remember being a close game. Exciting game. Yeah. Well, and it was the only game on. Exactly. But Jackson had eight carry 63 yards, average eight yards of carry against the Steelers,

over eight yards of carry against the Cardinals, seven for 57. And so in those three games, yeah, he racked up basically 206 yards. He is a tough back. I bet they like him too. And I bet you he's a guy that Rivers loves because he was a work. and I remember reading a lot about him before the 2018 draft leader, great teammate, the whole thing was Justin Jackson. I don't know. I mean, I'm a Melvin Gordon fan. He's fumbled a lot, or at least he did earlier. You know, I don't know what his fumble numbers were last year. He had a really good year last year when he was healthy, certainly.

But he's a guy that's coughed it up in some big spots in the past. I like him. I mean, I do, but, you know, he's not at that position. which some have viewed over the years as sort of a commodity, you know, less important than it used to be. I think in more recent years, guys like Elliott and Gurley and now maybe Barkley and certainly, you know, game changers like David Johnson and Kamara as past catchers, as versatile backs. I think you can have a guy that can really change a game. Obviously, Adrian Peterson did that in his prime. Melvin Gordon's not that. He's not that in my view. Last year, by the way, he played, that's the other thing too. He gets hurt because he... Played 12. Last year was 12.

And he fumbled once. And then... So last year he played 12. The year before that, he played 16 and had one... Okay, it was his rookie year he had all the fumbles. Yeah. Fumbled five times, lost four fumbles, and then two fumbles in 2016. So he lost six fumbles in his first two years, none in the last two years. So he's gotten much better at that.

And obviously, he's a very good pass catcher and threat as a pass receiver out of the backfield as well. I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those things where he gets a slight raise. He's going to get a little bit of money, but he's not going to get the Gurley contract that he wants. And for a guy who has drafted, you know, just a few picks after Todd Gurley, you know, that's what he's looking at and why he does feel the way he does is that, you know, he's been a very productive back. He's drafted right with Todd Gurley and Todd Gurley got that huge contract. He didn't. But my guess is he'll get, you know, a little bit of a raise this year, but not the full contract.

How much is the Wisconsin backs over the years, you know, from Ron Dane to the guy that I like who's in Philadelphia, Corey Clement. This year, you know, Taylor, right? Who's the Heisman Trophy favorite, Tua? Yeah, Tua and then... And then the Clemson quarterback. Clubson quarterback and the Oklahoma,

the guy who just transferred to Oklahoma. Right, and the Alabama backup. Right. Here we go. But think about all those great Wisconsin running backs over the years, including, you know, Gordon and James White and all those guys. Man, it's been running back you over the last, you know, decade or two. Monte Ball, remember him, big boy.

But anyway, yeah, hit me with the Heisman odds if that's what you're looking up. Yeah, that's what I'm looking up right now. Hold up. It looks like the wrong link here. I got it. Okay. I got it. Oh, God.

It's top 20. Is the Maryland guy a top? top 20 guy? There's no way he's top 20. Here we go. We got two, and there goes the link. Here we got two at 11 to four, Trevor Lawrence, 11 to 4, Jalen Hertz 10 to 1, Justin Fields at Ohio State 10 to 1. Oh, that's right. Justin Fields is a transfer from Georgia. Yeah, Adrian Martinez at Nebraska 10 to 1. Yeah, a lot of people like him and a lot of people like Nebraska this year. Yeah. Where's Jonathan Taylor? Jonathan Taylor's next at 18 to 1. Okay. Sam Ellinger. What about the Oregon quarterback?

Sam Ellinger, Jake Fromm, and Justin Herbert, and Shay Patsy. are all 20 to 1. What about the Bama receiver? The Bama receiver. Jerry Judy. 50 to 1. Man, he's got to be a projected, he's got to be a projected top five pick in the draft picture. I haven't even looked at it. I was going to say, in a lot of drafts I've seen, he's been possibly number one.

Really? I've seen at least one of the ones right after the draft. It might have been Kuiper, had him number one. Here's the latest from Walter Football. Justin Herbert number one. That's what Albert Breer had that too. And then Chase Young 2, which I've seen that a lot. Jerry Judy 3.

Yeah, Judy's got to be a top five consensus 20, you know, 2020 NFL draft. Yeah, Albert Breer put out a mock draft and said that he's been hearing from a lot of NFL people that Justin Herbert is their favorite. Interesting. By the way, with every mock draft for 2020 that I keep pulling up, it's like everyone I keep pulling up, the Redskins have a top five pick. Well, yeah. I mean, I've seen them right now in pulling up three straight mock drafts. I've seen the Redskins with the projected second pick in the draft next year behind Miami. Miami seems to be a consensus number one.

And then this fifth pick and the fourth pick. And then here's one where they're all the way down. Whoa, where are they here? Maybe it's true. Or did I just actually pass by them? I probably accidentally passed by him. No. Oh, it's a projected trade.

Projected trade, the Redskins trading the seventh pick in the first round. There we go. That's amazing projecting trades in the 2020 draft this early. Makes no sense. All right, you said that you had the Madden rankings. Yeah. And you mentioned this earlier in the show. I think we weren't recording at that point.

But that Trent Williams is ranked what as a tackle? He is the second best tackle in the league. according to Madden. He's a 95 over all, David Bakhtiari is the only tackle rated higher than him. Really? Yep. You have Trent Williams at 95, Tyron Smith, 94, Mitchell Schwartz, 93, Andrew Whitworth, 93. So what about other Redskins rankings? So they have Trent Williams as the best Redskins. Jordan Reed as the second best Redskins. He's in 88 overall. Then you have Ryan Carrigan and Brandon Sheriff both at 87s, Lannon Collins at 83, Matthew Ionitis, 83, Duran Payne at 83, Adrian Peterson at 83.

Okay. Way down the list, all of those guys, except for Trent Williams. Trent, Trent Williams would be the only guy that they'd have in the top 25 of players, right? Yeah, I have, yeah. After that, I don't think anybody's in the top 100. I don't know about top 100. I'd have to count exactly, but Jordan Reed might be close to 100.

I'd have to count to see exactly what the top 100 are, but it's funny to see how much the players react to these things. though. They love going through their matting ratings. Tomorrow, when Tommy's in, we'll talk about Pernell Whitaker, who was killed last night, hit by a car in Virginia Beach

at 55 years old. I know Tommy will have some thoughts on that. By the way, I did read this one story that I just wanted to mention. Phil Mickelson, who's not been playing well, and you get the British Open this week from Royal Port Russia,

in Northern Ireland. First time it's been back in Ireland, I think, since in like 50 years or something like that. But Mickelson said that he dropped 15 pounds on a six-day fast that where he drank water and a special coffee blend for wellness. I'd actually like to know what that coffee blend for wellness is.

Didn't eat. Fasted for six days, lost 15 pounds. Said he needed to reset. needed to change and make things better, and that's what he decided to do. And for six days, he didn't eat. Didn't eat for six days. Lost 15 pounds. That's one way to do it, I guess.

I guess that's one way to do it. But once you start eating after you fasted for six days, it goes back on real quickly, I think. All right. Thanks to Aaron. Thanks to all of you. Tommy will be in tomorrow. Don't forget, rate us, review us on iTunes, and let anybody know that hasn't listened to it. doesn't know how to listen to podcasts that they can listen to it on the kevin sheehan show.com.