00:00Back to the football team. Anthony came up with this question in our pre-show meeting very early
00:06this morning. He said, what about the pressure on returning players? Who's got the most? Who's
00:14got the most to prove in 2026 of the returning players? We've spent a lot of time talking about
00:23the drafted players and the free agent players over the last few months. What about the returning
00:29players, the players who were on the roster last year? Who's got the most to prove? I've got a short
00:38list here. I want your number one at 301-230-0980. Of the returning players, the players that were on
00:48this team last year, who has the most to prove in 2026? I wrote down, and of course, I'm going
00:56to get
00:56accused of being a hater. I'm going to get accused of, here he goes again on this particular player.
01:03But I wrote down, the first player I thought of was Terry McLaurin. Terry got hurt last year after a
01:12long protracted contract negotiation, which I actually think he is, at the very least, he and
01:20his agent are equally culpable for the length of time that it took. A big part of why Washington
01:27didn't want to pay him elite wide receiver money is that their analytics department says
01:34paying receivers elite wide receiver money after the age of 30 or into the early 30s is very risky
01:43because the odds increase of injuries and, by the way, of diminishing productivity. Well, what
01:53happened to Terry in his age 30 season last year? He turned 30 on September 15th. So, for 16 of
02:02the
02:0217 games played, even though he only played in 10 of them because of injury last year, he was 30
02:08years
02:08old. Well, he got injured and he wasn't as productive. Now, the production part when he was
02:14there isn't his fault because actually he had some good games when he was there. He and Jaden played,
02:21you know, two games together the entire season. So, that's a big difference from 2024 when he had,
02:30by far and away, the best year of his career, not receptions-wise, not even yards-wise, but touchdown-wise.
02:38He had 13 touchdowns. He had never had more than seven and those came in his rookie year. Remember,
02:44Terry's overall numbers are not prolific. You know, he's not been a prolific receiver. He's been a
02:51consistently really good receiver, you know, with, you know, that stretch of seasons of five straight
02:59thousand-yard seasons. But we're not talking about 105 catch seasons for 1,500 yards. The most
03:07receptions he's ever had in a season was year two in 2020 when he had 87 catches for 1,118
03:15yards. The
03:16most yards was 1,191 in 2022 in five touchdowns. You know, he's not, in terms of the productivity,
03:24he's not at an elite level. He's at a very good level. And so, for me, given what I know
03:32they wanted
03:33contractually last year and what he thought he was worth and the status that he and his agent put him
03:41at during those contract negotiations, after a year in which, A, he got hurt and only played in 10 games,
03:48B, he ended up having 38 receptions this, uh, last year. By the way, his average yards per reception
03:56was the best in three years for him and was the third best of his career at 15.3. Uh,
04:03he had some
04:03good games last year. You know, he had that, um, was it the, uh, was it the Denver game with
04:10Marcus
04:10Mariota where he had a big game going through his game log here? Yeah. I mean, now he was targeted
04:1914
04:20times in that game, the most targets by far for him. He had seven catches for 96 yards and a
04:25touchdown
04:25in that game. That was the game in which Burks had that insane one-handed grab. Um, but you know,
04:32his last five games, you're talking about, you know, basically, you know, not being targeted a lot,
04:40not a lot of catches, but some production, some production. Uh, Terry was fine last year when he
04:47played, but I think he's got a lot to prove because the team thought there was risk in giving him
04:54a
04:54massive deal, which they decided not to give him because of his age. And he said, remember,
05:00I'm a young 30 years old because I didn't play a lot before getting to the NFL. I don't have
05:07as much
05:08wear and tear. I think Terry's got a lot to prove in 2026. By the way, let me just take
05:16it a step
05:16further. If Jayden plays 17 games, Terry's going to prove something next year. He's going to prove
05:23that he is still a viable receiver because here's the thing about him. You know, after a season like
05:29last year, this guy's going to be in the best shape of his career. Uh, hopefully he'll be happier,
05:35you know, a year removed from some of the, you know, confrontational, you know, tone, um, that,
05:42that, uh, negotiation took on over a long period of time over the summer. I think he'll have a big
05:48year, you know, contingent on the quarterback being healthy for 17, but I think he's got a lot
05:54to prove. Now, the other names that I wrote down are Deron Payne and Mikey Sanders still.
06:02I didn't write Jayden down because I don't know what you'd want him to prove. Like, unless it's,
06:10he's got to prove he can be healthy for 17 games, if that's, it's not necessarily what we're asking,
06:17but it's okay to, to turn it in that direction. You know, if you think Jayden's got to prove
06:22that last year was an aberration in terms of his health. Okay. That's fair. It was an aberration
06:29so far. If it happens again, it's a trend, but last year was an aberration. He had never had a
06:37season
06:37in college or in the one year he had played in the NFL prior to last season where he missed
06:43that
06:43many games. He missed two college games and he didn't miss one pro game in his rookie year. And
06:49they played 20 of them in his rookie year because they had three playoff games after a 17 game regular
06:55season. So for me, Terry's got a lot to prove among the returning players. And I would say Deron Payne
07:03and Mikey Sanders still have a lot to prove. I'll tell you what, man, Deron Payne better ball out
07:09this year, you know, because if not, there's not going to be a big market for him at the end
07:17of this
07:17year. You know, this is it for him contractually. Uh, he's playing out this year. They brought him
07:23back to play out this year. They needed him to a certain degree. And they also probably couldn't
07:29get much for him, uh, if anything. And there's a chance if he really plays well, they could get a
07:36really solid compensatory pick in the 2027 draft. You know, if he ends up signing a big deal in 2027
07:43as a free agent at 29 years old, that's the thing about Deron, right? Deron's not old as a player.
07:51He's technically in the back half of what should be his prime years. 301-230-0980. 301-230-0980.
08:04Who's the returning player that has the most to prove? Anthony, who's your answer?
08:12I'm going with Mikey Sainer still. And that's not a bad one. Yeah. Part of the reason I'm going with
08:18Mikey is he had a promising rookie season. And then last season, he just looked like a complete
08:25shell of himself. And then also when you start to think about what Adam Peters did in the draft,
08:30that 2024 draft class has not lived up to, you know, any expectations we've, you know,
08:36set out for them outside of Jaden. Johnny, he hasn't done much. Ben Sennett hasn't done much.
08:41And then our later round picks either. So I think Mikey coming off a promising rookie season
08:47and then having a down year last year, I think he's the one that we can at least salvage from
08:54that draft class. If there is going to be someone that we can say, all right, we, we got to
08:59hit on
08:59this guy. And we also got to keep in mind, we traded back and allow, you know, the Eagles to
09:05go out
09:06there and get Cooper to gene and all these other players draft ahead of him. So I think if he
09:12can go
09:12out there and just have another good season, I think that's what will make me most happy.
09:19Yeah, I'm not ready to, to, you know, bury the 2024 draft quite yet. And the bottom line is the
09:252024 draft produced a quarterback. So we'll never, we'll always have that. But I, I think Sandra still
09:32has a chance to be a good player still. I think Brandon Coleman still has a chance to be a
09:36good player
09:36and we'll see about Newton and we'll see about guys like McCaffrey and McGee. Um, and even Ben
09:42Sinnott, I mean, Ben Sinnott may be moving into a role that's actually more suited for him because
09:48remember what Adam Peters said about Ben Sinnott when he drafted him, he, he compared him to Kyle
09:53Juszczyk, a fullback. So now you'll have an offense that might have an H back might have a fullback
10:00in it. Maybe Sinnott, Sinnott is more, uh, built for that kind of a role. So we'll see. Um, but
10:07Sandra still is a good one because it was a tough year for him. And it's not just because the
10:12defense
10:13was in disarray. Part of it is they were in disarray injury wise. And otherwise seemed to be
10:19very disorganized, but he got picked on, you know, there's no doubt they went after him. Other teams did,
10:25uh, last year. It was the opposite of his rookie season. So I don't, I think that's a decent one.
10:33I do.
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