- 11 hours ago
Ben Standig joins Kevin Sheehan to break down the Commanders' schedule, and discuss the idea that the NFL has oversaturated itself.
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00:00at ben standing on x he has a sub stack called last man standing you should subscribe
00:06costs hardly anything and you get ben's everyday reporting and covering of the team he's got a
00:12podcast also by the same name last man standing you can get that anywhere you get your podcasts
00:20so the day after the schedule uh reveal um first of all real quickly like this has now gotten to
00:29the point where it's so anticlimactic when we get to you know 8 p.m on the night that they've
00:35said
00:35they're going to reveal the schedule because pretty much anybody and any and everybody have
00:40seen it and leaked it and you know most teams entire schedule by about 6 p.m eastern has been
00:48leaked
00:48do you think the league will do anything about this how does that happen you know how does it just
00:55i guess too many they're letting the teams know too too far in advance
01:01yeah it is i'm always confused by this this is one part of the nfl world where i just don't
01:07dive into
01:08uh you know in terms of like trying to chase down the games and you know it's funny i hadn't
01:12really
01:12thought about it but like you just said like we were we ruined the christmas morning aspect of
01:18opening up the president saying oh what's going on here it's it's all over you know it's one thing
01:22to announce the international game okay but like in general yeah this is all too much i i this the
01:28people who report these things are not like i don't even know who they are 364 days of the year
01:35right you know what i mean yeah they just show up for this and i'm like who who are these
01:40people i i
01:41don't i don't know i don't get it and i don't like it i mean i don't know what the
01:45league can do
01:46you know without knowing the exact source i mean you know like jordan schultz was pumping out like
01:52half the games it felt like um yesterday and then there's all the random people so i don't know
01:57if there's anything that they can do they probably i don't even know if they care but um because as
02:02long as you're talking about the league you know they're happy exactly yes that's probably i prefer
02:07yeah i prefer the the surprise but you know this is the world we're in
02:14um i'll come back to kind of the over you know arching when will enough be enough with the nfl
02:23uh at the end of this conversation but um go ahead give me your thoughts after seeing you know the
02:30overall unveiling of the games that we already knew about but now we can put dates and times too
02:38well i guess let me start with a couple positive things um i'm sure you've seen but you know
02:43various metrics have shown that from a a rest perspective so the days that the day was through
02:48it all washington has yeah rest versus their opponents that they are very favorable espn had
02:54a list of like i think since 2002 the top 25 teams benefiting from net rest and this commander's
03:01team is like right in the middle of that list so you know for whatever but obviously you have to
03:05be
03:06good enough for any of that to matter but you know that that's definitely um a benefit something
03:11they didn't have as much last year or they didn't have it all last year um no they had the
03:16third worst
03:17they had the third worst last year uh in in net rest days um the the top five net rest
03:26advantage
03:26teams went 54 and 31 last year the the five worst net rest disadvantage teams went 31 and 54
03:34so warren sharp's been doing this for years now there is something to it and washington had a terrible
03:41situation last year they're plus nine in net rest days this year which should put them
03:48somewhere near the top five i haven't seen the full study that warren usually does but
03:53it would have been top five last year so it is favorable yes yeah so so there's that you know
04:00they've got two home games against you know arguably the two best teams in the nfc and the
04:05rams and the seahawks both games are at one o'clock though which you know typically or often means
04:11that um you know the team's traveling from the west to the east that's often not a good sign for
04:17them
04:17body clock and whatnot so you know considering the opponents that that's not a bad deal and you know
04:23the second half of the season are really kind of like after like week 10 11 somewhere in there
04:27you know it the schedule on paper softens up so if they can you know have a decent first half
04:34even
04:35just you know sort of 500 or better then they could have a or you know they could really take
04:39advantage of what's to come now i'm sure you've already discussed that obviously the the front of
04:44the of the uh schedule is just is loaded i mean you know if you tell me they start oh
04:51and three
04:51going to london i mean it would be hardly a surprise with two division road games and then
04:57hosting seattle uh you know the first six weeks just the whole the nature of the schedule you know
05:05going london back home for an nfc east game then flying cross country to san francisco i mean that's
05:12a lot then even coming out of the week seven by to have eagles and rams uh you know and
05:19then but but
05:20then you have uh yeah no eagles rams i mean it's they can get through that that stretch
05:27like i said somewhere around 500 i think that would be a pretty huge deal for them um but yeah
05:34that we
05:35knew the schedule like you said we knew the opponents it's just the order they just the back
05:40they just backloaded the teams were like okay maybe you can check off a win there without thinking too
05:45hard and they're all towards the back and that is you know like i said if they if they can
05:49survive
05:49that first eight nine weeks then you know they should be in pretty good shape but we'll see
05:55yeah as it appears right now like you said on paper um but it's the nfl schedule has a way
06:02of
06:02kind of duping you from what you thought when you first saw it uh year in and year out i
06:08i do
06:08i do take a lot of you know substance out of net rest which they're in a good position this
06:16year
06:16and i like you mentioned you know right off the bat that the benefit of two west coast teams playing
06:23early one o'clock games on the east coast um that is you know usually i can tell you from
06:29an ats and
06:30against the spread uh number uh it's very favorable in terms of outright you know wins by the east coast
06:37teams it's still favorable just not as favorable as the ats number but to have really at least on
06:44paper the two best teams on your schedule uh that you're playing at home get to come all the way
06:51across the country and play early 10 a.m their time starts you know usually works uh in the advantage
06:58of
06:58the east coast team um so uh what else is there on the schedule i wanted to get to this
07:05because
07:06it's fun to play this game um you know with the schedule and look at it and it's fun just
07:11to
07:11to see where you know the games will be played and like i i pointed out you know i actually
07:17thought this
07:17was a possibility because of jayden that they would be featured in standalone you know nationally
07:24televised spots and they got five of those with potentially you know two more with the flex uh on the
07:31saturday uh possibilities in week 16 and week 17 they're only one of two teams uh tampa being the
07:37other that have a chance to be in those spots um but i do you think and this is a
07:45big nfl question
07:46you know and after a day like yesterday and to see and we knew it was coming but to see
07:51you know
07:52five standalone games before you even get to the weekend on thanksgiving um with a thanksgiving eve game
07:59and a triple header and a black friday game and now a triple header on christmas day and a game
08:03on
08:03christmas eve um and going you know they did not care this year they had an option but they didn't
08:09care they decided we're gonna play on the college football first round you know uh triple header
08:16saturday we're going head to head with at least two of their games they don't care do you think there's
08:21a tipping point with the nfl is there a point in which saturation is a is a thing and people
08:29start
08:29to turn away uh because we are going to get 18 of these over probably 20 weeks you know not
08:36that far
08:36out in the future do you think there's a point where they could sort of tip it in the other
08:43direction
08:45well i think we may be there now in at least in the sense of like discussing discussing it because
08:51you and i are talking about it but i've now seen this topic raised in several other places over
08:56the last 24 hours and i do think it's a it's a concern look i know there are people who
09:02would be
09:03very happy if you just you know pump the nfl you know into an iv into their veins just had
09:08it 24 7 at
09:10all times and you know god bless if that's you but i would like a break at some point to
09:15get away
09:16from this and look we we can all just not watch it i mean of course but you know we're
09:21addicted
09:22whether it's because of gambling or fantasy football or just to be part of the conversation
09:28or you just like watching football um you know it's hard to miss these things plus you're totally
09:32the one game a week if i don't see you know the orioles play or the yankees play like there'll
09:38be
09:38another one tomorrow and same thing kind of with the nba and the nhl football is obviously very
09:44different so yeah to me it's getting nuts i mean the fact that there are five games around
09:49thanksgiving over three days right i mean that's come on like not to mention like you know people
09:56with like families around that around the holidays you know it's one thing if your team is playing i
10:01think people probably get that but when it's these other games and you're like well i didn't watch these
10:05two like no you don't like like i just it does seem like it is too much and also like
10:11i see a lot
10:12of people taking pleasure in the nfl now taking over christmas from the nba and you know whatever
10:17from a business perspective i get it so be it i like the other sports too we we really can't
10:24just
10:24have let the nba have christmas like i i get it again i get it from the business perspective
10:30but just let it happen i don't even watch necessarily all the nba games by any stretch but at the
10:35same time
10:36come on just just go just let them have that day you have all the other ones but so yeah
10:41i do think
10:42we're getting a tipping point now again i don't know what that means it may just be part of the
10:46conversation we all have going forward and maybe it takes several years before there's actual real
10:52pushback on it but yeah i i think we're at least now having the conversation like okay what are we
10:58doing here ben thinks that we should just let the nba have christmas and on the other hand netflix is
11:06offering us 150 million dollars for two games on christmas day and it's wednesday because that's
11:14what it was the first year they did it uh we're gonna take the 150 million ben ben go back
11:20to your
11:20office uh we'll be fine without you in this meeting um yeah i i don't i think there's the nfl
11:29just i think
11:29we've had this conversation now for 10 15 years running you know when thursday night became a
11:36consistent all-year thing um you know the you know that that was uh going to be oh that's too
11:44much
11:44you know a college football plays on thursday night you know we we like those games or whatever it was
11:50i don't think that they can give us too much of this i don't and i think part of the
11:55them is the scheduled nature and i know we're enhancing the schedule but the time of the year
12:02the people who you know people are in a rhythm this is comfort food and people never get sick
12:09of comfort food i know people ben who don't even love the nfl but love it on tv as background
12:17on a
12:18sunday afternoon or sunday evening it's just part of everybody's rhythm now in the fall into the
12:27winter we're gonna have a super bowl on valentine's day this coming year the first playoff games won't
12:32be until january 16th i think it is and when we go to 20 over 18 that'll be the real
12:39test like you
12:41know did it last too long usually by mid-february we are rid of the nfl and we're okay with
12:47it at that
12:47point um i don't know i i i don't think they can give me too much i i really don't
12:54my biggest hang
12:55up i don't like that they are um going head to head with college football on a big college football
13:02playoff day i i don't i don't think that's necessary to you know present that to everybody
13:09you know the college games rated pretty well against the nfl games last year so there may be a
13:14case where the nfl it doesn't make sense to go head to head with three college football games but
13:20the nfl did outrate it i think they won that that ratings battle but yeah it's it's interesting
13:26i mean i think i'm in that camp of you can't give me too much
13:32yeah well you know look i mean it is you know we all sort of talk about it but like
13:37the super bowl is basically a national holiday at this point i mean like i have like i know people
13:43who
13:44couldn't care less about one second of football right but they'll watch the super bowl and
13:49obviously there's the ancillary stuff the commercials and whatever else but they'll they'll
13:53they'll sit through that because they understand that this is a thing well what you know what other
13:58sport what you know nothing else is like that not not even like the academy awards anymore or any
14:03like it's just this so we are addicted to football uh without question and they are taking full
14:10advantage of it and um you know again like you said i totally get the business side of it um
14:16but uh
14:17yeah you know we'll uh we'll see i guess i think the real issue is it's hard to stay away
14:24i mean even if
14:26you say you want to and i guess the thing is also with you know with phones these days even
14:31if you're on
14:31the move even if you're not sitting directly in front of the television you still can know exactly
14:36what's going on you can watch it on your phone so you know there's all kinds of ways to consume
14:41it
14:41and that's obviously you know another component to all this betting fantasy the rhythm of the fall
14:49for most people back to school back to work um the scheduled nature of it uh the there's it just
14:57all
14:57works it just works for them i mean uh you know they even got the break of covid happening in
15:04the
15:05spring so that they could actually play their season on time you know in 2020 and it was a blessing
15:10for everybody um there's very little competition i mean the world series doesn't even really present
15:18that much competition uh to it anymore the the biggest competition they have is other football
15:24college football um it's it's an amazing an amazing product in our country like it is you know after
15:34the biggies coke mcdonald's etc it's right there uh it has it's the thing that's keeping over the air
15:42television alive and still i bet you in 10 years there's very little over you know uh you know over
15:50the air broadcast available um because they'll be getting paid too much by the streaming or whatever
15:55else is uh has come our way with ai and anything else um there was the uh it was a
16:01tagline years
16:02ago when we were growing up like you know baseball apple pie and chevrolet yeah that would not be
16:08baseball now that would be and it was it was basically to describe america what what you know
16:13what is america about football would be would be that and i will just say from the schedule perspective
16:19like with the job that i have i honestly can never know what the hell the day of the week
16:24it is
16:24anymore i have to constantly look it up pretty real time but during the season obviously you know
16:30they don't always play on sunday but you know when it's an nfl sunday and that does help regulate my
16:35week so honestly the off season i am like completely unmoored from like what that what the hell the
16:41calendar like i don't know what the hell's going on most of the time uh but the nfl season yeah
16:45it
16:46there's a there's a there's a rhythm to it like you said well look they do i mean they play
16:50two
16:50monday night games and they play a thursday night game but everybody every other game is sunday
16:55although they could finish the season with three straight saturday games that's in play uh as we
17:01speak um real quickly uh the preseason they've announced their preseason games correct correct
17:08and what are they it's uh uh they're hosting miami unfortunately it's that direction not the other
17:15way uh hosting miami then at detroit and then at baltimore uh the baltimore week will include
17:22a joint practice i'm sorry that the miami week will include a joint practice and my guess is
17:29baltimore will eventually you know obviously they tried last year and then it didn't happen but so
17:35yeah miami is happening and baltimore i'm assuming will happen or i would presume would happen uh as well
17:42um why am i blanking on the miami quarterback i'm looking it up right now who's their quarterback
17:47malik willis oh malik willis right the number one free agent quarterback just as everybody predicted
17:53this time last year uh the number one quarterback in free agency um all right uh what else oh i'm
18:02gonna ask you something we asked callers i think earlier this week and that is now that we are you
18:09know pretty much complete with everything of course there's still one thing remaining and that is the
18:13addition potentially of a brandon iuk stefan diggs etc but as you look back on what they you know
18:19focused in on and what they accomplished or didn't accomplish what do you think is the biggest you know
18:27the the most likely regret they will have about their offseason
18:34oh most likely regret well you know look i'm totally fine with the getting younger faster on
18:42defense and they had to spend a lot of money and resources to do that first round pick a ton
18:47of
18:47money for away and etc cool we all understand that but this is three years into the jayden daniels era
18:54and he still doesn't have a lot of weapons around him i mean like again you know the 2024 season
19:00was so bizarre in a lot of ways and part of it was looking at that looking at the playmakers
19:05around
19:05him you're just like uh there's not much here how is this possibly going to be work let alone be
19:10one
19:10of the most efficient offenses we've seen in some time but it's not much different now obviously
19:16terry mclaurin still the constant you know we can just say maybe the chigga conflow will give them
19:20more more options than zackers but he's not is he going to be the red zone target that zackers is
19:26i
19:26don't know about that the offensive line is certainly better on paper but you know still
19:31questions a left guard and center so that's it's not like it's completely clean across the line and
19:37you know again i i believe that you you know when you have a great quarterback that guy the reason
19:43one of the main reasons they're great is they list up everybody around him but he's still going to go
19:49in his third year like he's not he's not a nine-year or ten-year vet still let him help
19:54have that kind of
19:55help the way mahomes did the way uh you see new england helping out drake may with pieces the way
20:02the bears went hard to add uh playmakers around uh caleb williams so you know look again the iuk
20:09thing who knows what that's going to be and if he's anything close to what he was you know pre
20:14-injury
20:14and everything well then they got exactly that guy but putting that aside because that's just a
20:20a total wild card i think that to me it maybe you know maybe it's not a regret for them
20:25but to me
20:26it's a problem also go back to last year too like going into the year was like wait a minute
20:31you have
20:31no depth behind noah brown who's unfortunately always hurt and terry mcclorn who missed all of camp
20:37so they either don't think that you need to do a lot at receiver or you know whatever the reason
20:45it
20:45just hasn't happened so i think to me that would probably be the biggest thing i mean i i think
20:49that
20:49they you know in their efforts for pearson dobbs obviously they they recognize that that that was
20:55something they wanted to accomplish they weren't able to do it we'll see if they do it with iuk or
21:00with digs um i in thinking about this over the last you know few weeks i hope this doesn't happen
21:09because i think you and i have both learned that they actually have confidence in allegretti the other
21:14offensive linemen have confidence in allegretti he's apparently a better communicator
21:19um maybe than beottish but tyler linderbaum is such a good player you know forget that he's a center
21:27he's just a high level interior offensive lineman and at the end of the day like they had the money
21:36to overpay for a great player and a great player that would fill an actual need i hope that they
21:45don't
21:45regret it um but i wonder if there was an opportunity to exceed the raiders offer and bring him
21:54here maybe he didn't want to live in this area anymore baltimore you know the the east coast i don't
21:59know but um there was you know a price that probably would have brought him here and it would have
22:06been
22:06based on the projections a big time overpay but for elite players that's where you go and overpay
22:14you know uh and he's an elite player and it happens to to be at a position that they need
22:19so we'll see
22:20um how it works out but in thinking about that that's the one where it's like why not just
22:25give him the money and and get in a great player
22:31yeah i mean i i hear what you're saying i mean to me i'm not sensing centers or dime a
22:36dozen but
22:37that is like the one spot the guard to a degree but more center like where you can kind of
22:41get away
22:42with you're right less but among the among the offensive lineman people will say that in the game
22:47that that's actually the position we think of it as a high iq position you know intellectually you've got
22:54to be all over it but yeah they in the people you talk to that are in football will say
23:01yeah not so
23:01much much more important to have a great left tackle of course we know that yeah yeah no i mean
23:08look i i understand why the raiders did what they did they're bringing in the number one pick that
23:12their offensive line was horrendous across the board so and they you know they're they're not winning
23:17this year right they're still rebuilding whereas here you know by next offseason jayden daniels might be
23:23signing uh an uh an extension i would say a max contract but that's the that's the other sport
23:28uh but yeah whatever the whatever the version of a quarterback max contract is he may be getting
23:32that and then of course you know you know where all their money is going becomes a bigger deal but
23:38i
23:38will say to your general point that look they do have confidence in allegretti and that's cool but
23:44you know it is to go from a guy in beata who's been a solid starter in the league i
23:49think
23:49some people might have been overstating it but you know he's been totally solid totally fine
23:53and nobody was like clamoring for him to to get to go away that they didn't do didn't get at
24:00least
24:00more help there i know they drafted matt gulbin in the sixth round sure we'll see and allegretti you
24:07know he he's played the position a little bit you know he's been around the league he was a starting
24:11offensive lineman here for a couple years played with the chiefs you know all those things
24:16but that's a question at least to a degree so you know i think your general point about the
24:21center position is is i'm with you on that like that could be a place where they look back and
24:25go
24:25oh snap what do we do here yeah um especially when you just look at you know philadelphia's
24:32defensive front week one with big fan geo dallas's revamped defensive front seattle's defensive front
24:38like allegretti at least on paper as it looks now is going to get tested uh early um
24:44quinnon williams uh you know uh the the philly i mean it's not just carter obviously it's
24:53carter and davis both um and then seattle's monsters uh on defense as well so that's going
24:59to be an interesting start to the season and we'll learn a lot about the o-line um all right
25:03thanks appreciate it have a good weekend who do you like tonight by the way in the two games
25:08do you think we see game sevens or not
25:13i'm gonna believe in the timberwolves i just think they do have that that fight in them
25:18the other series man i don't care about that other series largely because i don't believe
25:23either team has a prayer of doing anything in the final so i don't care but i'll i'll say cleveland
25:30wins detroit they just they have one guy that can score and the fact that jaylen duran their other
25:35all-star it's been terrible bench because he can't score and then you have a with thompson
25:40out there it's another non-scorer they they are just missing offense that they have got it this
25:45offseason go get more but in any of it in this case i just don't think they have enough uh
25:49scoring
25:50options even though look they should have just won this last game they were up nine with you know
25:53three minutes and change to go and blew it yeah so yeah there's something i'm actually into that
25:59series because i just don't want to see cleveland win i'm just i just do not want to see james
26:04harden advance and i really do like kate cunningham but you're right that is it i mean he's gonna have
26:09to go for 45 tonight i mean he went for 39 the other night and they lost in overtime he
26:15he actually
26:15got tired and they started to double him i don't know why they don't double him the entire game and
26:20force the others to beat him but uh looking forward to minnesota tonight hopefully they can force a
26:25seventh game but man that wimby uh ben i we've i've never seen anything like him ever it i was
26:32thinking
26:33about this the other day if you said you can look at all the sports you know nba nhl mlb
26:38nfl and said
26:39you get to back one player's career from here for the next decade any player i'm picking him over
26:46every quarterback over every everybody what he what he is be him or otani or him those those would be
26:53the top two i'm sure but even that like you know the picture only goes every five days you only
26:59bat
26:59you know what you know four times they all that give me wimby i'm with you on that yeah it's
27:04it's
27:06it's it's remarkable like the thunder better win it this year or the knicks or whoever because after
27:11this i don't know that anybody else is going to be touching the spurs from it although i do i
27:15think
27:15they still have to add a little bit more around him like they got to upgrade the aaron fox but
27:19that aside he is he is a real deal actually has played i mean he he is at times when
27:26he is at his
27:27best and he's interested he's impossible to stay in front of impossible to stay in front of i i actually
27:36don't what is it about him that leads to the inconsistency is it is he just not always into it
27:47i mean i haven't watched the spurs all year but i love watching him in these playoff games he's
27:54very difficult to check he's so quick so fast both of those things um yeah i just uh his general
28:05style is not so much for me but yeah obviously he's an all-star level player and and all that
28:10i just
28:10think that you know for what when banyama is i think you need a uh more of a classic if
28:16not if
28:17if not second banana like a one a one b to his one a and i just don't think that
28:23that's fox ultimately
28:24so i just think they have to upgrade that but hey it might be um dylan harper is he dylan
28:30harper
28:31looks pretty awesome already i mean yeah yeah right yeah so that's the thing they can move
28:37fox still have two guards that look to be pretty have a chance to be elite and then get you
28:43know
28:43whatever another another big or somebody to help and they probably also could use a charles oakley
28:47type to uh to be there as his bodyguard yeah for sure when he's going to get beat up for
28:53sure and
28:53to have that enforcer there all right talk to you later see you awesome man see you ben standing
28:59everybody at ben standing on x to get linked to his sub stack um which i highly recommend so the
29:08conversation that we were having and today's the day to do it off of a schedule in which basically
29:14they have now dotted every holiday or holiday eve or post holiday with football uh is there a tipping
29:24point is there a saturation point do you think with the nfl at some point down the road or is
29:33it unlimited in terms of how much you can be given because we're you know only one day this this
29:39particular schedule a tuesday away from having football on every day of the week is there a time
29:46in which you think enough would be enough 301-230-0980 phone lines open kevin sheehan show the
29:55team 980 and the team 980.com
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