- 13 hours ago
Ben Standig from The Last man Standig Podcast and Substack joins The Kevin Sheehan Show to give his thoughts on the Commanders’ complete draft class and how the team has done this offseason overall.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Ben is with us. You should be a subscriber to his sub stack. It's easy to do. Just go to
00:06at Ben Standing and link to his sub stack column. He did a great job covering the draft pre and
00:14post and will continue to do that throughout the summer leading into the games.
00:20Before we get to any specific thoughts you may have on the draft, but it's not exclusive of thoughts on
00:27the draft. Give me right now your top three favorite moves of the offseason. For them.
00:39Oh, God. So including free agency and coaches, extensions, free agent additions, etc.
00:50Well, OK, I guess this is a broad one. And you've mentioned this before. Sometimes it's like when we're when
00:56we are watching things, do they see the world the same way the same way we do?
01:00And I think they recognize that they had to get younger, faster, and they did so in a really aggressive
01:05way. So I know that encompasses a lot of.
01:07Yeah, that's not one move, but I'll allow it younger, younger and faster on defense, which was absolutely a priority,
01:17but it's not one move.
01:18It was you just took a lot of moves and put them together, but I'm going to allow it. So
01:22what's number two?
01:27I I like the Nick Cross signing. You know, it was a pretty decent, you know, contract for a guy
01:36that's got all the things that they're looking for.
01:38He's got good speed. He's really aggressive in the run defense. You know, these are two areas that they needed
01:44help in.
01:45You know, I thought they still could maybe go for some safety help in the draft. They didn't, obviously.
01:49But, you know, I think adding a guy like that, it's a lower key move than some of the other
01:54ones.
01:54I thought that one was a pretty good one for sure. And then I don't know.
02:00I'll just go with Sonny Stiles. I mean, obviously, it's a little bit obvious, but again, in the in the
02:04idea of where they needed to go to take to take this thing up a notch or two.
02:09I mean, you can't get a you couldn't have drawn it up better than a guy who is, you know,
02:136'4", 244, runs a 4'4", 40 or faster than a lot of the big time receivers we discussed.
02:19You know, I don't know that he'll be the next great linebacker. We'll see.
02:23But in terms of where they were as a team, what was available to them?
02:26You know, I know a lot of people are like, take a receiver and all that.
02:29And, you know, I wasn't necessarily on board with that at seven.
02:32But I think taking a guy like that, it just makes so much sense for where they are.
02:36So maybe that's a little too obvious, but that's that stands out.
02:41Yeah. You know, I just I just thought of I mean, nothing was better for their offseason than Jaden playing
02:47wide receiver in a flag football game.
02:50Of course, I'm being sarcastic, but the younger and faster on defense and the emphasis on what their weakness was.
02:59You're not always convinced that the team is going to see it the same way the fans do.
03:03And we're fans, but their their belief about last year and where they needed to improve clearly aligned with anybody
03:13that watched the team.
03:14They were bad on defense and yes, they were injured on defense, but they needed an overhaul of talent that
03:22had to be, you know, certainly younger, preferably.
03:25But but but a lot more athletic, faster, better tackling, just better players.
03:31And they actually do have on paper better players.
03:34You're never, you know, for sure can you know, you can't be convinced about whether or not the scheme is
03:39the right scheme, the fit, because we don't even know a lot about that, you know, at this point with
03:43a new defensive coordinator.
03:44But, you know, that that's that's fine is your number one for me specific to moves.
03:50I think my favorite move is signing Chigakonkwo.
03:55I think that if you weren't going to bring Ertz back off that serious injury, and even if you did,
04:00I mean, the chances of of getting what you had in 24 are probably diminished.
04:05I think it's a really important position that they have somebody who can separate and be a big target at
04:13that spot for their young quarterback, even with the offensive scheme change.
04:19And I'm just a big fan of the player in watching him in the NFL going back to college.
04:24And I think he's untapped and will ascend to upper level of pass catching tight ends in the league now
04:33that he's actually playing on a team with a quarterback, which he really did not have in his years in
04:38Tennessee.
04:38I would say getting the Tunsil extension done immediately almost is a really good thing for them, you know, in
04:48part because of how last summer went and the focus of last summer with Terry's, you know, extension.
04:54We don't have any of that to deal with.
04:56We will have an IU watch to deal with.
05:00And then the number three is, even though I would have preferred personally Ruben Bain, I understand and said before
05:09the draft, I know that there's a chance he's going to drop because of the short arm analytic, you know,
05:15people.
05:16And this organization has an R&D department and an analytics department that probably said his arms are too short,
05:23but I like styles.
05:24I like the player.
05:25It's the perfect fit, it would seem, for a need that they desperately had.
05:31How often did we have conversations since the end of the season about who's going to be that guy defensively?
05:36And maybe he won't be ready week one as a rookie.
05:39That's not unusual that a rookie player isn't ready week one, but I like that particular player.
05:47There are others, but those would be my top three.
05:51Yeah, well, no, those make a lot of sense.
05:54What I was thinking about while we were discussing it, and I'm not saying that the replacement is necessarily, we'll
06:01see what happens.
06:02I think moving on from Cliff Kingsbury, I'm not saying it's one of my top three, but I appreciate the
06:07conviction that they decided, Dan Quinn decided to do this.
06:11Because obviously last year, a lot of what went wrong, we understand the injuries across the board, Jane Daniels on
06:16down.
06:16But there were a lot of, like, wait, what's going on here?
06:21Why are we getting away from the run game?
06:23You know, just certain aspects of it.
06:25It just felt like it was not, you know, and it was the question that I asked them at the
06:29end of the year.
06:29If this is such the offense, how come nobody else in the league is remotely veering towards it?
06:33And it's not to say that you should be group think and follow the herd, but it is to say,
06:37well, wait a minute.
06:38Are we sure this makes sense?
06:40And then, obviously, they've changed it up.
06:42Again, I don't know if David Blount is the right guy.
06:43We'll see.
06:44But I appreciate at least the decision to go that way because it would have been easy to say, nah,
06:49we're good.
06:50Look what we did in 2024.
06:52And they decided, nah, we're going to make a change here.
06:55Look, that's, you know, that it was a, it's a ballsy decision because of what they did in 24 and
07:03how easily you could point to last year and say,
07:07well, when your starting quarterback only plays four out of 17 games start to finish, you're doomed.
07:12And they actually, given what they had on the field, in many ways, overachieved offensively.
07:19And I think the rushing, you know, the running attack is such an interesting thing because watching the team, I
07:25felt like they should have run the ball more too.
07:27But they were the fourth leading rush offense in the NFL, and they had the nine most rushing attempts in
07:34the NFL.
07:34And some of the teams in front of them had just as many quarterback rushes as they did.
07:40So, yeah, it's, but I understand what you're saying.
07:45Like, they were convicted about this.
07:48You could easily make the case to bring Cliff back.
07:51I think you could have easily made that case based on performance and based on the results last year with
07:56what he was working with.
07:58But they were convicted and they made that move.
08:00And I like the style of offense they're moving towards with the quarterback they have.
08:07All right.
08:09So, you did before the draft, I think last week, early in the week, we talked about, you know, you
08:15doing, I forget how many mock drafts you took to create a consensus.
08:19But, you know, Warren Sharpe had the Arif Hasan or the Ben Robinson or whatever it was, and Washington was
08:25clearly the team that got the most value for their picks, you know, based on, just want to repeat it
08:32for everybody else, not you, Ben.
08:33But, you know, the consensus of all these mock drafts, the players Washington took, they got much lower than the
08:41pick that they were supposed to go at.
08:43So, how do you feel about, you know, discussing the draft right after the draft?
08:50I guess that's one way to do it the way that you were planning on doing it last week and
08:55the way I just discussed it.
08:59Look, obviously, you have, you know, I know people say you can't judge the draft for a few years.
09:04Okay, cool, but we can't just not talk about it until then.
09:07So, we'll just have to wait and see for sure.
09:10So, certainly taking the public information that's out there in terms of how various evaluators or people or sites saw
09:20the draft and whatever conclusions that they came up with, and then based on that, did Washington or did any
09:26team reach?
09:27Did they get, you know, did they get a guy that, you know, that fell for some reason?
09:31And that's how you look at it.
09:32Like you said, Warren Sharpe's analysis has Washington as got the best value, and I saw some other ones, I
09:40think, that had similar type, you know, stories of Washington rank pretty high.
09:45The reason, though, when I did my own consensus big board was because precisely why I don't really give a
09:52crap most of these big consensus boards,
09:55because I only took, like, six boards, I took, like, four of the ones of the most prominent people, your
10:01McShay's, your Daniel Jeremiah's, et cetera, as well as, like, DFF, and used those.
10:07Because when you're telling me you took over, like, 100, that's a brag.
10:11That's not, that doesn't mean anything.
10:13Who the hell are the people that you're getting these things from?
10:15You can't tell me that, like, you can't tell me that starting today, going ahead to 2027, if you could
10:25tell that, say, everybody who's going to put up a big board,
10:27you have to live in isolation for the next nine months.
10:31All you can do is watch games and watch tape.
10:34That's it.
10:35I guarantee these lists would not be close to accurate.
10:38No, herd mentality.
10:39Yeah.
10:40Yeah.
10:40The Daniel Jeremiah's and McShay, like, they start the baseline.
10:44I went back and looked last year, just for the hell of it, at the way too early mock draft.
10:49Oh, it's a joke.
10:50It's a joke.
10:52Arch Manning, Cade Clubnick, Garrett Nussmeyer.
10:56Yeah.
10:57Yeah.
10:57But not only that, like, I looked at one of the ESPN writers and I looked at PFF, and I'm
11:01assuming that neither one of them looked at the other one before they put theirs out.
11:05Of the 32 picks, I forget the fact that they missed, you know, Clubnick was worse.
11:10Oh, that can happen.
11:11But of the 32 picks, I think 21 were the same players.
11:15That's insane.
11:16You're telling me out of hundreds of players that you could possibly pick from, you landed on the same 21?
11:21And it's not like all 21 ended up being first-round picks or second-round picks or third-round picks.
11:27That is the definition of herd mentality, even if you're not looking at what the other people are doing.
11:32So, look, do I think, like, so, for example, Joshua Joseph is the big one for Washington, right?
11:37He was a guy that was being projected third-round, fourth-round, top 100 range.
11:42He's a playmaker, yeah.
11:43Yeah.
11:44At 147, he goes, okay, so that's like, wow, I guess Washington got a steal.
11:48And maybe they did.
11:49I mean, there's a lot to like about the kid.
11:52You know, he's athletic.
11:53He's fast.
11:54He's got a really good burst off the line of scrimmage.
11:58The production wasn't necessarily there in college.
12:00I think there were some maturity issues along the way that maybe led to his drop in the draft.
12:06But it sounds like he's improved in that range over time as well.
12:10But, you know, here's a consensus board I think people should consider.
12:14It's called the NFL draft.
12:16And the consensus of the league was he wasn't worthy of being picked until Washington decided, okay, we're good to
12:22go.
12:23So they may have gotten a great value.
12:25I had him as a guy that I thought made some sense.
12:28But I don't.
12:29Right.
12:30How do I know?
12:31The consensus board that you really need, which would never be available, would be the consensus of the 32 NFL
12:38team boards.
12:40Yeah.
12:41Which may look completely different.
12:43I'm with you.
12:44Look, you said, you know, it's impossible.
12:48It is impossible to grade a draft.
12:50I refuse and have for years to do grades or thumbs up, thumbs downs or winners and losers.
12:57This is, you know, like you said, the all way too early last year doesn't even resemble what we got.
13:03This year's all way too early won't resemble.
13:05Fernando Mendoza wasn't he?
13:07Or Ty Simpson weren't even mentioned in all way too early last year.
13:12I mean, Styles was not listed.
13:13Styles wasn't.
13:14Malik Willis, you would have been laughed out of a building if you were told that he was going to
13:19be the number one free agent or a top three free agent.
13:23In August or September, you would have been laughed out.
13:26These seasons are their own entities, man.
13:29And it's hard.
13:32But, you know, with that said, it's one way, I guess, that a lot of people like to look at
13:38it if they're not breaking down film themselves.
13:42Was there a player over the weekend, because we talked on Friday after night one, was there a player, and
13:49I think I know what your answer is going to be, but I'm not going to give it to you.
13:52You can give me the answer.
13:53Was there a player that was on the board when they selected in the third, fifth, sixth, seventh, that you
14:00thought they were going to take that they didn't?
14:03I presume you were going to say Ted Hurst.
14:05Yeah.
14:06When he was on the board there.
14:08Now, I liked Zachariah Branch.
14:10Hurst is a different player, obviously, because of the size.
14:13But I knew you were thinking, and I thought, we're going to see Ted Hurst there, because Ben's going to
14:18probably be right about this.
14:19And then they picked Antonio Williams.
14:22Not a lot of, you know, not a lot of discussion about Williams leading up to Washington's draft.
14:29Yeah.
14:29So when I was doing my various mock drafts, I would typically do them out to number 71 just to,
14:34you know, see what would be there for Washington.
14:37And Williams was pretty much always in my mock draft ahead of Washington.
14:42I never really considered him here, though, because as I was, you know, looking at him and studying him, it
14:48looked to me like we're talking about a slot receiver.
14:49And that's not to say that Washington is set in the slot.
14:52They definitely are not.
14:54But, you know, I thought the biggest issue last year was when McLaurin was hurt, they didn't have anybody else
15:00who could remotely scare the defense down the field from the outside.
15:04And so to get a guy like that, and then also, as we know, with Terry potentially being, going into
15:10his walk season, or not his walk season, but potentially his last season, based on his contract, that, okay, who
15:15would be the replacement for that?
15:16Could you at least have another outside receiver?
15:18That, to me, was the biggest argument for taking a Carnell Tate at seven.
15:22But, anyway, so I was looking at guys like Hurst, a 6'4", a guy who runs a 4'4",
15:29you know, that type of receiver.
15:30They obviously went in a different direction.
15:32And, you know, with Williams now, Adam Peters said that, hey, we don't see him as just a slot.
15:37He said that his ability to win on the outside is what was, for him, for Peters, a separator from
15:45other guys at that spot.
15:47And I don't have an issue necessarily taking a slot, per se, because, again, right now it's Jalen Lane and
15:52Luke McCaffrey.
15:53Otherwise, it's just more like, oh, okay, that's not what I thought they would do.
15:57And if he is more of a slot, this is the third year in a row you've taken a guy
16:01essentially for that position.
16:03That's a lot of resources for that one spot, and it hasn't been solved yet, at least not to this
16:08point.
16:09But that said, a lot of people like Williams.
16:12You know, as a rat runner, he's got good speed, good athleticism.
16:16He's not the biggest guy, which is where we'll see about him as an outside target if that really works.
16:20But there's a lot to like about the guy.
16:23It's just not what I thought they would go with.
16:27Raskors emphasized certainly with Joseph Williams to a certain degree.
16:31We know Stiles.
16:32Not as much with Katron Allen.
16:34I liked Katron Allen.
16:36I talked about him multiple times last week leading up to it.
16:39But I actually preferred him to Singleton for our team because they don't have somebody like him right now.
16:46Although Rashad White is a between-the-tackles runner.
16:51It's going to be an interesting running back room, that's for sure.
16:54But, yeah, I mean, the Raskor, we don't have to deviate from that based on their free agency and their
17:03draft.
17:03When we get to next offseason, it should be a focus for all of us in terms of trying to
17:08predict the players they'll be interested in.
17:13Yeah, you know, I thought Allen was an interesting pick.
17:16I mean, just to go back, to circle back to him, like you said, they didn't really have that guy
17:21that's sort of an obvious yardage power back.
17:23And he's not like a John Riggins, like huge guy, but at the same point, that's his general style is
17:30somebody that's hard to take down and can take on the short yardage stuff.
17:35And, you know, look, when we say that that's a position where, you know, you can kind of find people,
17:41I think, therefore, it's okay to take shots at finding people, right?
17:45I mean, Bill was really good last year.
17:47Maybe they can get somebody else who's comparable to that or maybe even better.
17:51So I don't have a real issue with that other than to say I was a little surprised they didn't
17:57take a cornerback somewhere because forget, like, when you get to day three, it really comes down to, in my
18:03opinion, is this guy making the team, right?
18:06Or, you know, are we putting ourselves in a position where somebody we already think is going to make the
18:12team now maybe is getting pushed out?
18:13At cornerback right now, I would argue they only have, like, four guys, right?
18:17And then after that, I mean, look, free agency is still a thing.
18:21Like, they can go out and sign your Antonio Hamilton of the world and guys like that, and then they'll
18:26be okay.
18:26But they only have, like, four corners right now.
18:28And, you know, the reason why Mance or Delane made some sense at seven was because they don't have –
18:34they don't necessarily have a guy who's, like, at that top tier corner, and maybe he could be that.
18:38So I thought maybe you would add some depth there as opposed to taking another running back.
18:42But, like I said, I don't have any real issue with that.
18:44All right.
18:45So two more, and I'll let you run.
18:48The first one would be this.
18:50Of the undrafteds, who got money and who didn't?
18:53Who got a real guarantee and who didn't?
18:56I actually don't know that one exactly.
18:59I was able to confirm a lot of the signings, but I didn't go to the next step on that
19:07front.
19:07And I also didn't see – like, when Sam Hartman got a big deal in 2024, like, that was something
19:13that was pretty prominent.
19:14Plus, he was a quarterback.
19:15But, yeah, I didn't see any notion of that happening with any of these guys at this point.
19:21All right.
19:22Lastly, I guess now that free agency Wave 1, Wave 2, Wave 3-ish and the drafts are over,
19:31now we're just on Brandon Iyuk watch between now and training camp or even into training camp.
19:38Correct?
19:39Yeah.
19:40A hundred percent.
19:41That's it.
19:41I mean, that's the other thing with – yeah, that's the other thing with taking Antonio Williams over, say, a
19:45Ted Hurst is that –
19:46Sure.
19:47If you take Antonio Williams and Brandon Iyuk comes in, that doesn't really change anything.
19:52In fact, if Brandon Iyuk is what a lot of people hope he is, boy,
19:56they just really upgraded their receiver room in two spots with these picks, whereas an outside receiver now, that's a
20:02little more confusing.
20:03But, yeah, it's all about Brandon Iyuk at this point.
20:05I mean, I guess the wild card would be – it's not that he's not a wild card –
20:08but the wild card would be is there a world where they've just been slow playing, you know, Jawan Jennings
20:14all this time,
20:15and maybe there's something there.
20:17It doesn't seem like that.
20:19You know, if they're going to take the big risk on Brandon Iyuk, I mean,
20:23Stephon Diggs at least played last year and was pretty good.
20:25He's sitting there.
20:26I know he's got some legal issues going on.
20:28But, you know, so that would be the one wrinkle here.
20:32But, yeah, it feels like we're just waiting for San Francisco to release the guy or, you know,
20:37come up with a trade and then we go from there.
20:39I mean, I think – I know some people have thrown this out before,
20:41but the fact that they just drafted another sort of slot receiver type,
20:45the idea of a trade with Luke McCaffrey going to the 49ers to, you know, reunite –
20:50or to play with his brother and Iyuk coming here,
20:52there's like some, you know, some funding that type of move.
20:58I'm just making that up.
20:59I have no sense.
21:00That's a thing.
21:01You can't trade for Iyuk.
21:03You can't take on that contract.
21:05No, of course not.
21:06That's why I mean – that's why this whole thing makes no sense.
21:10But, yes, I mean, I guess if there's a world where San Fran is saying,
21:12well, we'll pay for 95% of the whole thing, I don't know.
21:15But, yes, I agree.
21:17There's no trade happening here.
21:20It's just a matter of waiting it out, and we'll see.
21:24But, yeah, we've discussed this many times already.
21:27I don't get it.
21:28I mean, I get it from the perspective of Adam Peters knows him
21:31and that Dave Daniels knows him,
21:32and he was once one of the better receivers in the league.
21:35But he hasn't played since 2024.
21:37He blew up his whole San Francisco situation.
21:39It's going to cost him millions upon millions of dollars,
21:43and that's just a lot to bring on to a situation
21:47where you're coming off a five-win season
21:49and you need some stability.
21:51This feels like a massive shot in the dark,
21:56and I wish – I guess they didn't feel like they needed to take it,
22:00but it seems like they may decide to do that.
22:03All right.
22:04Thanks.
22:05Great work the last couple of weeks.
22:07We'll talk later in the week.
22:08Appreciate it.
22:09Always a pleasure, Kevin.
22:10Thanks, man.
22:11See you.
22:11At Ben Standing, everybody, on X,
22:15Ben's coverage of the team continues to be outstanding.
22:19Doc's going to jump on with us in about 15 minutes
22:22to talk about the passing of Monty Coleman over the weekend.
22:28Up next, we'll shift gears and talk about some of the other things
22:31that happened in sports over the weekend,
22:33including the biggest turnaround in a half in NBA playoff history last night.
22:39Kevin Sheehan Show, Team 980 and theteam980.com.
Comments