- 2 days ago
Fred Smoot joins the show to discuss the prospects Washington should look at in the first round of the NFL Draft.
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00:00For us, it's time to jump on the Rude Guest Hotline
00:02and talk to our friend, Mr. Fred Smoot.
00:05What's up, Smoot?
00:05How are you, dude?
00:07Hey, what's up, fellas?
00:08JP, I want to give you some props for that read.
00:10You know, on our shows with the team,
00:11we had this Read and Rainbow contest with commercials and reads,
00:14and that was a pretty good one by you, JP.
00:16And I win it every time I go on the show.
00:17I appreciate that.
00:18Every time I go on the show, I win it, JP.
00:21They can't believe I can read.
00:24Yeah, yeah.
00:25You know what, B-Mitch?
00:27We didn't think they did much down there in Louisiana
00:29and the teaching side.
00:31Hey, Fred, we do this every day, dog.
00:33What are you talking about?
00:34Hey, Fred, let's ask you this question
00:37before we get into our stuff.
00:38Did you have a problem with Jaden playing in the flag football game?
00:41I had no problem with him playing in the flag football game.
00:44What's wrong with him playing in the flag football game?
00:46Like, this is the thing about it.
00:47Just because somebody get hurt playing tackle football
00:49don't mean they got to be in bubble wrap for the rest of their life
00:52and other things that they do.
00:54No, no, no.
00:54He can get out there.
00:55He can have some fun.
00:56He can play.
00:57There's nothing wrong with that.
00:59When you were playing, what kind of stuff did you do in the offseason?
01:04Like, did you play hoops or, like, because my thing is I know –
01:08He played bad hoops.
01:09I know guys are playing pickup basketball all the time.
01:13Like, these are young athletes.
01:14You know what I mean?
01:16Oh, no.
01:16I did stuff – most of us do stuff that I'm sure our GM team owner
01:21wouldn't want us to do.
01:22Everything from playing basketball to riding four-wheelers to bowling
01:26to, like, just doing life's things.
01:29Like, we're still human beings.
01:30Even though we're top-notch athletes, you're still a human being.
01:34You still got stuff that you love to do.
01:36You still got stuff that you're going to continue to do after football.
01:39And I always tell people, when you step out of your home,
01:42it's danger all around you.
01:44Like, when you jump in your car, it's danger all the way around you.
01:48So, you can't dodge that.
01:50Agreed, man.
01:51Agreed.
01:51Did you watch it?
01:52Did you watch the flag football game?
01:54Yes, I did.
01:55And I want to get a Team USA, they props, they treated us football players
01:59like we ain't never played flag football a day in our life.
02:03And that's the difference.
02:04It's the difference between tackling a player and ripping a player.
02:18Athletes together.
02:19Like, one thing about athletes, they like to challenge other athletes and stuff.
02:23Like, you get pro football players around a pro golfer,
02:25they're going to try their damnness to beat their pro golfer,
02:28knowing they can't beat their pro golfer.
02:29But they're going to give it all they got.
02:31And that's what Team USA did.
02:33They felt disrespected.
02:34That's their sport.
02:36Now, if you put some of them in the NFL game,
02:38they will not finish the game, I promise you.
02:41Yeah, like Logan Paul.
02:42He wouldn't finish.
02:44No, no, he wouldn't.
02:45And plus, him being Logan Paul,
02:47it's people that are going to go after him just because of who he is.
02:50Totally.
02:53Like, the people that were surprised that the U.S. national flag football team,
03:00that's the best of our entire country at flag football,
03:05beating up on the NFL players at flag football,
03:08I just don't understand how they were surprised.
03:09Because they don't know how to separate.
03:11That is such a different game, dude, if you watch.
03:12Yeah.
03:14They don't know how to separate the two different things.
03:17That's it.
03:17Yeah, yeah.
03:18When they hear football, that's how they think.
03:20It's football.
03:21It's a parody of football.
03:23So we're supposed to be good at it all.
03:25No, we are good at tackle, American tackle football.
03:29Right.
03:29Yeah.
03:30Right.
03:31So, Fred, what do you think of all the free agency moves so far?
03:35I mean, they've been very active, added a lot,
03:39really trying to overhaul that defense.
03:42Well, you know what?
03:43When I first looked at that list of names, I was like, hey,
03:45am I going to be able to pronounce any of these guys' names?
03:48Wait, wait, wait.
03:50But when I look at it all as a group, man, I thought AP did a hell of a job.
03:55He did such a great job that we're going into the draft with no glare and weakness.
04:00So that tells you everything you know.
04:02Like, I've heard GMs and teams say we're going best player available before,
04:06but he's really put us in a position to go best player available.
04:10And he's also put us in a position that our first-round draft pick, you know,
04:14the one thing I hate, I hate being a part of a team that we need our first-round,
04:18second-round, and third-round draft pick to contribute for us to have a chance to win.
04:21I don't see that this year.
04:23I see a team that the first-round pick and the third-round pick,
04:26they become luxury picks.
04:27They become picks that I'm picking this guy because he's truly the best player available.
04:32I look at the edge.
04:33Everybody want to talk about our pass rush.
04:35I think we sold that up.
04:37Everybody want to talk about the linebackers.
04:39I feel like we made some big plays at the linebackers.
04:41I also feel like what people feel like is the weak room or the wide receiver group,
04:45I don't look at them as a weak room.
04:48I look at them as a well-rounded room with something to prove, and that's different.
04:52And no team is going to look perfect on a sheet of paper before a season,
04:56no matter after the draft, before the draft.
04:58The thing about it is how quick can the guys that we got now on this roster,
05:03how quick can they become not individuals, how quick can they become a team?
05:07And that's going to be everything.
05:09That's how they're going to be measured.
05:10Yeah, my whole thing is that we play in September.
05:13We don't play right now.
05:14You got the draft coming up, and they're still probably going to sign some other guys later on.
05:18That's those post-June cuts that are going to happen where you may see somebody that may fit
05:23better than somebody you got already.
05:25You know, so this team is going to change again before the season starts.
05:29Yeah, and I think that's what people need to be ready for.
05:31Like, this is not the team that's going to walk into the season.
05:34Like, you have to be patient.
05:36And I know the NFL does a great job of basically controlling the narrative all year long
05:42because the draft has become its own entity itself.
05:45We just had the combine that's a show in itself.
05:48So I think people take every little inch of this season, and they try to make it permanent.
05:53It's fluent.
05:54It's too fluent to be that.
05:56Totally agree.
05:57Our friend Fred Smoot joining us right now via the Rude Guest Hotline.
06:02Fred, I wanted to ask you specifically about the corner they signed, the young man from Detroit, Robertson.
06:08I'm sure you've watched some of him now.
06:10What do you think of his game?
06:12You know what?
06:13I love it.
06:14He reminds me of, you know how you ring somebody, Doe Bell, and you hear that little shawai-wai in
06:18there.
06:22That's what he is.
06:24Like, he's so pesty.
06:25Like, he's just one of those dudes.
06:27Like, I watched him go one-on-one with Justin Jefferson, and you want to talk about a fight of
06:31your life.
06:32This dude was going blow for blow with one of the best, if not the best, wide receiver in the
06:36league.
06:37And he's built in a small package.
06:39I've seen these players before.
06:40Like, I've played with Antoine Winfield.
06:42Antoine Winfield was 5'9", 190 pounds, but I promise you, you was going to feel all 190,
06:48and he was going to make sure you felt it for four quarters.
06:50And that's what we're getting.
06:51We're getting a fighter.
06:52I think what they did, AP did in his thing, he said, I want more than just football players.
06:56I want attitude.
06:57And that's what he brings to it.
06:59He brings an attitude to it, and that's what you want in a defensive back,
07:02because here's the truth about a defensive back.
07:04We're going to get burnt.
07:05The only defensive back that don't get burnt is the one that never plays in a game.
07:09So we're going to get burnt.
07:10So how fast can you snap back to reality?
07:13How fast can you get back on course?
07:15And how fast can you just keep fighting?
07:17And I think that's what he is.
07:18He's a fighter.
07:19I like him, man.
07:19Yeah, as I watch him, I think he's competitive.
07:22And I think sometimes you get guys who they say can run, they look the part,
07:27but they have one bad play, and they go on the rest of the game.
07:31I watched that same game you're talking about when he went against Justin Jefferson.
07:35He won that matchup.
07:36Straight up.
07:37He won that matchup.
07:38He got beat early, and he didn't give him anything late.
07:42And you watch him in other games, he comes up, he hits people.
07:45He's not going to shy away from things.
07:47If I have a guy who's going to give me competition every day and play, I can deal with that.
07:52Yeah, because guess what, B-Mitch?
07:53It makes everybody else compete.
07:55Because they know he ain't going to stop competing.
07:58It's just like when you was out there playing.
07:59They knew your head needed to be on the swivel because this dude is ignorant.
08:06I'll catch you.
08:07If you're slipping, I'm going to catch you.
08:08You know how it goes, bro?
08:11But you know when those players are on the field, B-Mitch, you know to keep your eyes
08:15up.
08:16Fred, I'm curious, dude.
08:18You played DB in the NFL for a long time, and you're totally right.
08:22I always joke that one of my favorite players, they don't do this anymore, but the locker
08:28room used to kind of be divided up by position group.
08:30And I loved hanging out by the DBs because they're the most irrationally confident men
08:35on the planet.
08:36You say irrational, Fred.
08:37He said that.
08:38No, no, no.
08:39It's true.
08:40Irrational confidence.
08:41Because their job is impossible.
08:42Delusional is a better word.
08:43Sure.
08:44The job on the football field that those men take on is impossible.
08:48So they have to have this outrageous confidence.
08:51You get burned, you get back out there, right?
08:55Most definitely.
08:56And it's similar, JP, to Major League Baseball and being in the battles box.
09:03Think about this.
09:04Failure in the battles box, if you go 3-for-10 or 4-for-10, you are an all-star.
09:11You're not even 50%.
09:13You go 4-for-10, you're a Hall of Famer.
09:15That's what I'm saying.
09:17It's one of the things where you got to be ready for failure to succeed.
09:21I'm going to fail before I succeed.
09:24And this is how bad we get as cornerbacks.
09:26You can go out there and Randy Moss can beat me for a 90-yard touchdown.
09:30I go right over there.
09:31If not, when I go back out here for the rest of this game, I'm going to get treated bad.
09:35So you have to have some mental instability.
09:37You have to be a little bit edgy and a little bit ignorant.
09:41But you also got to be a competitor.
09:44That's the number one thing for a cornerback.
09:46If you're willing to compete, you got to get them off you.
09:50And the only way to get them off you is to keep on playing.
09:53I love that.
09:53You have to be comfortable with failure to succeed.
09:57At that position, it couldn't be more true.
10:00So all that said, I'm curious, dude.
10:03Because on this program, last year, I predicted a Pro Bowl season for Kwon Martin.
10:09And it didn't go that way.
10:11Kwon and Mikey had seasons they'd like to forget, probably.
10:16What do you think happened last year with those young guys?
10:19And how do you get them right?
10:22I think they were just a wash of what the season was.
10:25And then people got to understand, as a defensive back, I'm at the mercy of my pass rush.
10:30The one thing we can do, we can stop the first route.
10:33But when you run the second and third route on the same play, we're going to get beat.
10:39We had a lot of extended plays last year where these guys and these wide receivers had a chance to
10:45break routes off and run another route.
10:47And now I've got to check the second route.
10:48And now I'm getting beat.
10:49And once it started to happen, it started to snowball.
10:52And then the one thing I found with Kwon was he was involved in a lot of plays down the
10:58field in the run game.
11:00So that tells you everything you need to know.
11:02If I'm safety and I'm hitting people 30 yards down the field and I'm doing this four, five, six, seven,
11:07eight times,
11:09something wrong with the defensive front.
11:10It ain't all about the defensive backs in this one.
11:13And, yes, Mikey gave up a lot of yards, but he also made a lot of plays also.
11:17Like I say, it's one of those things where if the defensive front is not intact, the rest of the
11:22defense will suffer.
11:23There's nothing we can do in the back end to cover up the front end.
11:27But guess what?
11:28If the front end is good, they can cover up the back end.
11:30I don't need the best athletes on the back end if I got a front.
11:33Yep.
11:34I'm with you there.
11:35So as we get closer to draft season, I think it's pretty interesting.
11:40To your earlier point, prior to March 15th, they had a desperate hole at Edge Rusher.
11:47I think the real financial commitment to Owe multiple years, that's a real long-term contract.
11:53You can kind of pencil him in as one of your guys.
11:56You add Chason, you add a Menehu, you should get Dorrance Armstrong back healthy, you re-sign wise.
12:03Leo Chanel.
12:04Chanel too, sure.
12:05Chanel plays all, everything.
12:07They've added a lot.
12:08I think there's no longer a desperation to take a pass rusher at seven.
12:13That said, I'm still cool if they do.
12:15I'm curious if you think free agency has impacted what they should do with the seventh overall pick.
12:22I think it has.
12:23I think it's made of the clear picture of we don't know who they're going to draft.
12:29And I think that's a great thing, man.
12:30Because you've got to realize, we are basing, I hate to say this, we're at the mercy of the New
12:34York Jets.
12:35The New York Jets are going to set the tone.
12:38We know who the number one pick is in Mendoza.
12:40But who do the Jets pick at number two?
12:43Because if I'm them and I got Arbel Reese sitting there, I love his athletic prowess.
12:48I love everything he brings to the table.
12:50But what is he?
12:52Is he a stand-up linebacker?
12:54Is he an edge?
12:54Well, I ain't seen you rush the edge enough to give you a pick over David Bailey.
12:58I can't say you're a better linebacker than Sonny Stiles.
13:02So are you drafting him on what he could be or what he is?
13:05Because when I'm drafting in the top ten, I want you to be who you are.
13:09I want you to have some trait that I know that I'm getting from the door.
13:14So I say the draft stars with the Jets, I think David Bailey, if he is there at seven, you
13:20have to pull the trigger on him.
13:22There's a couple freaks in this draft that you have to pull the trigger on.
13:25If J.M. I love is still there at seven, you've got to pull the trigger on him.
13:28Sonny Stiles, who I love, if he's there at seven, you've got to pull the trigger on him.
13:33So it's some guys in here you just cannot pass up at seven, but then it's some guys, especially if
13:38you want to go positional.
13:39Cardinal Tate, do you want to take him at seven?
13:42Do people feel like that's overdrafted?
13:44If Caleb Diles is there, do you want to pull the trigger on him and bring another safety in the
13:48room?
13:48Like I said, this is a luxury pick for us, and it's a couple of dudes that fits the spot
13:53at seven.
13:54But who are you overdrafting and who are you underdrafting is the question.
13:57It gets to the point, though, like what if you got a Sonny Stiles and a Love there?
14:05If I got Sonny Stiles and I got Jeremiah Love there, I got to ask myself which one could take
14:10my franchise to a whole nother level.
14:13And if I'm pairing up Jedi Five with Jeremiah Love, I'm telling you, you're talking about 10 years of trying
14:20to figure out how to stop these guys.
14:21So I would probably go Jeremiah Love there, but I really, really love Sonny Stiles.
14:26Like this guy was built to play football.
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