- 14 hours ago
The Commanders getting back to the playoffs correlates directly with their star quarterback playing well.
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00:00I don't know about this cop, but I also understand it.
00:04Let's play the audio.
00:06I believe this is Dan Graziano speaking with Tim Hasselbeck about J. Daniels.
00:11I think the fear I would have at receiver just in general
00:14is they just don't have the top-end speed that some teams have.
00:18And so the explosiveness, things like that that the offense may lack,
00:21I think there's got to be some concern with that.
00:24Look, I've said it before and I'll maintain it.
00:26I think J. Daniels is the closest thing to Lamar Jackson in the league
00:31in terms of his explosiveness and ability.
00:34And so does it have to be perfect around him?
00:38No, it doesn't.
00:39I think he's proved that at times.
00:41I also think this, though.
00:43Expectations have changed.
00:45He had an outstanding rookie season, and once that happened, expectations changed.
00:49We saw what happened with C.J. Stroud.
00:52Expectations changed after a great rookie season.
00:54And things haven't really been the same.
00:57So I think there's a challenge here in that he's incredibly gifted.
01:03I think that there is enough around him, but it's not, look,
01:08the help that Baltimore eventually got Lamar.
01:11It's not that much help.
01:12I don't believe that that's what's surrounding him in Washington.
01:17All right.
01:20There's a lot to unpack there.
01:22That is.
01:23I think he was kind of talking in circles, to be honest with you, but go ahead.
01:26I wanted to ask you and discuss the Lamar, Jaden, comp.
01:32I think they're totally different.
01:34I think Jaden will run.
01:40Lamar, I think Lamar is the more deadly runner than Jaden is.
01:44Sure.
01:45He's the best quarterback runner I've ever seen.
01:47I think Jaden has unbelievable speed and can run,
01:50but I think as a passer in the pocket, Jaden's better.
01:55But I heard him talking, but he never was definitive about anything.
02:03So what are you trying to say?
02:05Every quarterback in the league needs help around them.
02:09No quarterback steps into the league and is unbelievable by themselves.
02:13None.
02:14Okay.
02:18The expectations after going 12 and five is going to go up.
02:23And then when things happened last year,
02:25it wasn't all because of the quarterback.
02:27You know, you got to look at the whole.
02:29I've said it for years.
02:31The most dependent position in sports is a quarterback.
02:33He got to depend on his offense.
02:35Plus he's a defense to stop Aaron.
02:37You know, every time I see here, we talk a lot of football.
02:40When the defense can stop people from scoring 24 points or more, this team can win some games.
02:45When they don't score 24 points or more, it's hard for the team to win.
02:49That's hard for every team to win.
02:51So a lot of stuff of what's happening with this team is not just because of Jaden.
02:55It's because the overall team wasn't where it was supposed to be.
02:58We got fooled by the first year.
03:00You got to find a way to get people around them.
03:03And yes, once you get the people around you, you know what they got to do?
03:05They got to stay healthy.
03:06Because your seconds don't be people's first, no matter what.
03:12For sure.
03:14I think that's well said.
03:15For me, I think you pretty much nailed it.
03:17I think Lamar is the most dangerous running quarterback probably ever.
03:22I think Michael Vick has a place in that conversation.
03:27I don't think Jaden's that.
03:30I think Jaden's the better pocket passer than Lamar.
03:32I think Jaden entered the league as a better pocket passer than Lamar currently is.
03:40And I think Jaden's ceiling as a passer continues to be incredibly high.
03:46Last year with Jaden was interesting.
03:49Obviously, there were injuries.
03:51There was just a true lack of cohesion throughout the year.
03:57Yep.
03:59But even going to week two in Green Bay on a short week, Jaden didn't look to be making
04:05the same quick decisions that he was the year before.
04:09Mm-hmm.
04:09And I do wonder what, if any of that, I'm not making excuses here, but like, I do wonder
04:18what, if any of that.
04:19Now, he was under pressure that entire game.
04:21Packers front was getting to him.
04:22Totally.
04:22A lot.
04:24I mean, that was Micah's first national TV game as a Packer, I believe.
04:28Mm-hmm.
04:31I do wonder what, if any, impact the league seeing that offense all of the 24 season had
04:43on the decreased output of that offense in the 25 season.
04:50I'm sure it had something, because what happens, teams find ways to stop what you're doing.
04:57But you know what you're supposed to do?
04:59Adjust what you're doing.
05:01Okay?
05:03You have to check the pancakes, as they say.
05:10My whole thing...
05:14Bless you.
05:18That offense did not adjust much.
05:22They're inaudible much.
05:24They lined up and they ran whatever they were running, no matter what the teams were doing.
05:28So if I know you're trying to do something, I'm trying to take it away, and we don't have
05:31adjustments to it, what's going to happen?
05:34Okay?
05:36If I've been given a play and I leave it at this play or whatever, I'm going to have less
05:42success than I would ordinarily.
05:46Like now, Jaden is going to his third year.
05:49Like, you always hear people say, oh, that second year is going to drop off.
05:52Well, your third year is coming along, and if teams already know what you're going to do,
05:55you should drop off your third year too, right?
05:57But normally, the guys begin to play a lot better, because the game plan makes a difference.
06:04The adjustment makes a difference.
06:07Injuries make a difference.
06:08And I know when you do it, people always say, uh, excuses.
06:16But, as you always say, two things can be right, right?
06:18Yep.
06:19So, if we're injured, and our backups or our twos or threes are going against your ones,
06:26we're less apt to be as good as we were before.
06:29If you figured us out and we're not making adjustments to that, we're less apt to be as
06:34successful as we were before.
06:36But, now, it's for everybody, the players and the coaches, to make the adjustments and move forward.
06:44Because if a team say, oh, we got an adjustment, they don't make, and you make an adjustment to it,
06:48you can make them look rather stupid.
06:52So, I'm expecting that type of thing.
06:58I think Jaden could have a big year.
07:00I don't know that we need to get too involved in a comp with Lamar.
07:06I honestly think they're pretty different players.
07:09I don't know that I have a comp for Jaden.
07:14Sometimes, the person can't be compared to somebody else.
07:18But, it's amazing that when the brother come in, they all are going to compare him to another brother automatically.
07:25You know what's funny that I just thought of, and I'm curious what you think?
07:29Understanding how different the world was then, and understanding that he's a lefty.
07:37What do you think about a Steve Young comp?
07:39Jaden, hold on, hold on, bro.
07:41We've been around each other too long.
07:43I was just thinking this.
07:44That's why I said, well, you always compare the black quarterback to the black quarterback.
07:49More like a Steve Young.
07:50And then Steve Young, after a while, became much better just sitting in the pocket and picking you apart.
07:55But, when he first came from BYU, he was a straight.
07:59I think he was USFL, then Tampa.
08:00He was an athlete.
08:01Right.
08:02Okay?
08:03He became a better passer.
08:05That is exactly the comp that I was thinking.
08:09It's amazing you just said that, because that's exactly what I was thinking.
08:12Because I'm like, he's more like a Steve Young, but we always compare the black quarterback to the black quarterback.
08:20That is true.
08:22We never feel like we can go a little farther and compare him to another running athletic quarterback.
08:28Doesn't have to be your brother that looked like you.
08:30You know?
08:31Because Steve Young, what he grew to wasn't what he was in the beginning.
08:35Totally.
08:35Yeah.
08:37Do you want to see Jaden?
08:39So, one big difference, I would say, in any sort of Jaden and Lamar comp, which, you're right, could be
08:44like, there's some element of race there, if you're comparing this dude to that dude.
08:51If there's one thing I'd like to see Jaden learn from Lamar, Lamar rarely gets hit.
08:59Some of that is his natural quickness, but he doesn't take a lot of big shots.
09:04And I think Jaden, like Steve Young did, dude, I watched that whole Niners documentary.
09:10Like, he took too many shots, and over time, evolved from that.
09:15I'd like to see, in year three, some of that evolution with Jaden.
09:20I can see.
09:21I think all quarterbacks kind of learn that over time.
09:24What happens is, eventually, you have to become the guy where, when you're running the ball, you forget that you
09:33are that Superman, that athlete.
09:35Right.
09:35And realize that I am more important to the team than just the average person.
09:42I can remember my coach telling me in college, was like, look, bro, I know what you're going to do,
09:47and you're going to do anything you can take to score, but we need you the rest of the game,
09:51not just this play.
09:53You know, diving from anywhere on the field.
09:56Need you the rest of the season.
09:57It's, look, it's, I'm trying to get a third and four, first quarter.
10:02I leave the ground.
10:05Come back to the sideline, he's like, hey, man, not necessary right now.
10:08But I never understood that.
10:10I'm like, coach, what are you?
10:11I mean, y'all practice us to tell us to go for what you know.
10:16Do anything you can.
10:17Then in the game, when we come back, but you know what?
10:19As time went on, I realized what he was talking about.
10:21And I think Jay will get to that point where it's not that you're quitting.
10:27It's that you're preserving yourself to be able to do this more often.
10:31How hard is?
10:32It's hard as hell.
10:33Yeah.
10:34Because when you, let's say you go look at the week before you did something like that
10:39or you went and took a risk and you went 60.
10:43It's kind of hard not to try to go 60 again.
10:46Sure.
10:46You know, and when you've proven to yourself you can do something, I think anybody in the
10:50world, once you accomplish something, you think you can do it again.
10:54If you never accomplish it, you don't try it, right?
10:57But why do most people never accomplish anything?
10:59Because they never, ever put themselves in harm's way or in a bad position or predicament.
11:04So once you do it and you come out the other side, now you have to realize you got to
11:08stop
11:09chasing that high, okay, in drug dealer terms.
11:12When you get one little high, you're always trying to get a higher one.
11:15Sure.
11:15And a higher one.
11:16That's why I got so many guys that strung out.
11:18There's a strong person who say, you know what?
11:20This is high enough.
11:21That's all I'm going to do.
11:22I ain't going that much farther.
11:23To quote the great Axl Rose, I used to do a little till a little was a little and a
11:28little got something more.
11:29There you go.
11:31I think, what is your concern level that the commanders have one receiver on the roster
11:42that has a thousand yard season?
11:45I'm not concerned about that.
11:46And the reason I'm not concerned about that is because one receiver has a thousand yard
11:51season because he's been like the main guy.
11:53He has multiple thousand yards.
11:54He's been the main guy his whole career, per se.
11:58The other guys have never been that.
12:01And what if this year Terry go out and get 1,200 yards and everybody else get 900, 800,
12:10700, and you get a running back over 1,000, and you get a tight end and end up getting
12:14about 900 to 1,000.
12:17You had a successful season, right?
12:19But people look at that, the 1,000 yards, 1,000 yards.
12:22No, I look at how they utilize themselves.
12:24We got some guys, you can only throw the ball to them 30, 40 times in a game.
12:28I mean, in a year.
12:29Some guys may get only 50, 15 to 20.
12:32But if they are getting the most of what they can get out of that, that's what I care about.
12:37You know, yes, Terry is the guy that you're going to be out there, you're going to go to.
12:42That's your for sure guy.
12:44They're going to try to take him out the game.
12:46Other guys are going to get opportunities now.
12:50So, knowing that Blau is going to try to emulate some concepts from Ben Johnson, right?
12:56I went, looked at Ben Johnson's last year in Detroit.
13:02Amon Ra went for 1,263.
13:05Jamison Williams got to 1,000, but barely.
13:07He had 1,001 yards.
13:09Tight end Sam Laporta at 726.
13:11Jameer Gibbs, their fourth leading receiver with 517 receiving yards.
13:17And then, I mean, let's take a look at the Bears this past year.
13:21Luther Burden certainly came on late.
13:24They had DJ Moore.
13:26I don't know.
13:27Who do you think was the Bears' leading receiver?
13:30They had the young kid they drafted out of Washington.
13:34When you watch Burden, though, he's very much of how they've explained Cheek.
13:41Burden was a guy who got that 5-yard, 6-yard, and then all of a sudden 15 yards down
13:45the field.
13:46You know, he was a guy who could catch balls in traffic and extend it.
13:52He's a smaller receiver.
13:54Now you got a tight end that can do that type of thing.
13:56You know what I mean?
13:57So it's multiple ways of doing this thing, but it's not often you have three receivers
14:04that go over 1,000 yards on the team, which the Washington Redskins did back when you had
14:11Gary, Ricky, and Art.
14:13Interesting here, the Bears last year had their best season in, I don't know, 20 years,
14:19maybe since Urlacher was playing or whatever.
14:21Jay Cutler slinging it around.
14:24They didn't have a 1,000-yard receiver.
14:26They didn't even have an 800-yard receiver.
14:28They were in the playoffs, though, right?
14:30Colston Loveland, the rookie tight end out of Michigan, I believe, led that team with
14:3658 catches for 713 yards.
14:39DJ Moore, who played in all 17 games, had 50 catches for 682 yards.
14:45Roma Dunze, who was the rookie out of Washington that there was so much excitement about, 44
14:50catches for 661 yards.
14:52Maybe he was on pace.
14:53He only played 12 games.
14:55Luther Burden, the rookie out of Mizzou, 47 catches for 652 yards.
15:00I'd love to see those splits on the second half of the season.
15:02That's what I'm saying.
15:03So if you were to go into this season this year, and we look at Washington, and Terry
15:11does what Terry does, and then you have three, four, five guys that have anywhere from 400
15:17on up, what do you think the record would be?
15:25Go back to 24 in Washington when they spread it around to a bunch of folks.
15:28Terry led them, and Terry had a bunch of touchdowns, but even his yardage total didn't pop.
15:33I think he went over 1,000, but I don't think it was by a significant...
15:37It wasn't like a 1,400-yard season.
15:39Yeah.
15:42It does feel like this IU thing could, still, will happen, whatever.
15:49I just don't know that I share the extreme angst about adding to that receiver room as others.
15:56Last year, they added Debo, and everybody was focused on that.
15:59I had real concern about the floor of that receiver room, and then the injuries happened,
16:04and that floor was on display, and it wasn't good enough.
16:07True.
16:08I came to really like Robbie Chosen.
16:09He was an interesting person, but when Chris Moore and Robbie Chosen are getting significant
16:14work, that's a problem, and I think they addressed the floor, bringing Deami back, signing
16:21Van Jefferson.
16:22I don't know that Van Jefferson makes the final 53.
16:25My guess would be he makes the final 70.
16:27Injuries will have a state in everything, too, but yeah, dude, in 24, when this team
16:34was really good, Terry had 1,096 yards.
16:38It wasn't this monster yardage season, and I believe their second-leading receiver was
16:42Ertz.
16:43I mean, yeah.
16:44Pulling it now.
16:46But that's the thing, Jay.
16:49Ertz was their second-leading receiver with 654 yards.
16:52We have a perception of what we think good offensive football is.
16:59But in 2024, we all knew that that offense was good, very good.
17:07But we had a perception of, we think, you got to have all these people with 1,000 yards.
17:11No, bro.
17:13It's about whoever is out there producing.
17:16You're getting the absolute most that they can give you, and they may not be able to give
17:20you 1,000.
17:21They may be a 599-yard catch guy with two or three touchdowns.
17:28The other guy may get 15 like Terry got in 1,096 yards.
17:31You know what I mean?
17:32That's what you got to be looking at.
17:35Getting the best, being the most efficient out there, and you'll see how good things can
17:40happen for you.
17:41Good luck.
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