00:00We're talking OTAs, though.
00:01The commanders were on the field yesterday.
00:03We've spent a lot of time talking about the offense.
00:05I wanted to get into the defensive side of the ball.
00:08I won't go full Javon Kinlaw on you and say they got a lot of mother bleepers
00:14or any of the other curse words he said.
00:17But this is a deeper defense than they've had in some time.
00:20And while I'm not content yet with the secondary talent,
00:24I don't think it's going to matter as much if they get the pressure
00:26that they're planning on getting.
00:27The reason you go out and you get it off AOA and Caleb on chase on
00:31and you bring in Charles Amenehu and add to Dorrance Armstrong
00:35and the players that they've got that can get after the quarterback
00:37on the interior like Deron Payne and hopefully Johnny Newton is
00:41that you're going to force the ball out of the hand of the quarterback quickly.
00:46This is what Minnesota's entire philosophy and paradigm was
00:49when they were sending linebackers from the second level.
00:51So that's where Sonny Stiles and Leo Chennault and Frankie Louvoo
00:55and Jordan McGee could come in.
00:56You're basically taking what is a 4.5 or a 5 out of 10 talent level
01:01in the secondary and you're hoping to make it play as a 7 or 7.5
01:05because instead of, I'm just going to make up numbers,
01:08but like 2.8 seconds to throw, it's 2.1 seconds.
01:11And that effectiveness, that spike in productivity is massive
01:14with that lesser time to read things, pick things apart, get guys open.
01:18So we talk about this, it was our buddy Neil Greenberg who kind of first introduced me
01:22to the slidification of this concept of a tripod when it comes to quarterbacking.
01:27But the same is true for the defense.
01:28In other words, it's all push and pull.
01:30It's all, you know, occasionally you get a 2,000 Ravens or a Legion of Boom,
01:33a defense that can take away everything.
01:35But for the most part, you're either giving up some yards and turning you over,
01:39not turning you over and, you know, maybe kind of playing solid and sound in front of you.
01:43Like, you have to be willing to do something, usually give something up, right?
01:47So you may give up some first downs, you may give up the occasional hit over the top
01:50in an aggressive defense, but you're going to put the fear of God on somebody
01:54by pressuring, getting turnovers, game-changing field position plays,
01:59the sack fumble, the interception, the aggressive mistakes, so to speak.
02:04Whereas Washington last year, the defense was so bad,
02:06there was nothing that you could go, well, they're doing this.
02:09They may be giving up points, they may be giving up yards,
02:11but at least they're not turning you over.
02:13And it was the worst-case scenario.
02:15By the way, second to last in turnovers generated defensively last year.
02:20Takeaways, only the Jets.
02:21The Jets, the most futile effort ever.
02:23First team in the history of the league to not intercept a pass all year.
02:27Think about that.
02:2817 games, no picks.
02:29They had four fumbles they took away.
02:31Washington, somehow, someway, the worst team in the league at recovering fumbles,
02:35just terrible fumble luck with only two recovered last year.
02:38But they were second to last, 31 out of 32 in takeaways.
02:41In addition to all their other problems, communication stuff, big plays in chunk yards,
02:47giving up.
02:47Which brings me back to what I wanted to get to, which was,
02:51I think Nick Cross, the safety from the Indianapolis Colts that came in here,
02:56is completely under-talked about and going to have a way bigger impact than people think.
03:02He's very, very fast.
03:03Their biggest need defensively was speed.
03:05And we've sung the praises of Sonny Stiles and Leo Chennault and some other guys that can move closer to
03:10the line of scrimmage.
03:11Think about the speed of, like, even a dafeo, not that you're going to need that at that position,
03:14but coming out, super athletic guy, right?
03:18Cross, a sub 4-4-40 guy, ran about a 4-3, University of Maryland, well-known around these parts,
03:2424-year-old, who the last two years has made 266 tackles.
03:29You don't do that at safety if you cannot run.
03:31It also means you're around the line of scrimmage a lot, which I think they'll have him do here,
03:35especially when they use their three-safety looks.
03:38One of the big takeaways people had yesterday, Danny, was when they went to any kind of defense
03:42where you needed a nickel defender, the interior defender was often a third safety, not a corner.
03:47There's been a lot of talk about a Meek Robertson being the guy from the Lions,
03:50or, you know, what do you do with Mikey Sanders still inside, outside?
03:54A lot of times when they needed a nickel defender, it was Quan Martin,
03:58who came out as one of the premier nickels in his draft class,
04:00or it was Tyler Owens, who was a former college free agent,
04:06who's longer than the line at the DMV, and who always gets off to fast starts,
04:09it seems like, each offseason.
04:11But this kid Cross from Indianapolis, the way he runs,
04:14I was told yesterday he was barking at people, communicating things out on the back end,
04:18like getting people lined up correctly, showing some leadership stuff.
04:22I think he could be an absolute gem that we have not really discussed yet
04:28on the secondary side of things.
04:30I certainly hope so.
04:31I mean, they could use whatever that is they needed.
04:33I'm tired of getting by at some of those positions.
04:37You know what I mean?
04:37Like, I'm still old enough to remember the days where, you know,
04:41Greg Williams would bring in some dude off the street that was readily available
04:45and just said, just stand there, I'll take care of it.
04:47And guys would be lined up correctly and it would be fine.
04:49And then, you know, enter the days of Josh Norman and a million other guys
04:54where everybody's got to point at somebody and point to an area
04:57and, like, scratch their head after another long touchdown catch
05:00with a blown coverage.
05:01I never want to hear the phrase communication, communication issues,
05:04or better communication ever again, frankly, from a Washington football team.
05:08Because I've heard it across multiple regimes and they've all been bad.
05:11And that's kind of been the story.
05:13So I'm hoping that that finally gets solved and it sounds like off to a good start
05:16in that regard.
05:16But I don't want to get away with a fill-in-the-blank player back there anymore.
05:20I'd like something plus.
05:21And it sounds like he might be.
05:22Grant and Danny with you on the fan.
05:25Greg's in Winchester wants to hop in before we pivot at the top of the hour
05:29and talk about the offensive OTAs.
05:31We'll hear from Logan Paulson.
05:32What's up, Greg?
05:33How are you?
05:34Hey, I'm well, guys.
05:35How are we doing?
05:36Good, buddy.
05:36Very good.
05:37So you guys were talking about snakes earlier,
05:40and I have a fact about baby snakes.
05:43Of course, someone I worked with got bit by a baby cottonmouth years ago.
05:48And when a poisonous snake bites you,
05:51it kind of shoots like a calculated amount of venom and kind of like runs away.
05:56But a baby snake isn't mature enough to kind of control how much venom it shoots out.
06:04Oh, isn't that fun?
06:04Isn't that cute?
06:05If you get bit by one event, they just unload everything.
06:09Yeah.
06:10Yeah.
06:10Your leg will pretty much just turn – his leg turned into like a –
06:14I don't know, it looked like a purple ogre or something for like two weeks.
06:19Like a leg of a table.
06:20It just becomes a hardened wood.
06:22Correct.
06:23It's the James Harden table.
06:24So in a way, the baby snakes, if you find a poisonous one,
06:28they are actually tremendously more dangerous.
06:31Thank you, guys.
06:33Isn't that great?
06:33Have a good night.
06:34Sleep well, Danny.
06:35But funny bit.
06:36He just calls in.
06:37We've been talking football for an extended period of time.
06:39He's like, hey, I wanted to talk to you guys about snakes and just scare you a little bit.
06:42So just so you know, I've always heard that baby copperheads are worse than copperheads.
06:50I think for that reason, yeah.
06:52And I'm assuming it's what he's talking about.
06:54Now, he did not say copperheads.
06:55He said cottonmouth, which is one of those scary-looking snakes.
06:59Do you know what they look like?
07:01I would say it looks like a snake, and they're all pretty menacing and terrifying.
07:04So it's like the design of the light brown, dark brown.
07:06Yeah.
07:07You know what I'm saying?
07:07Sure do, yeah.
07:08If you see one of those, that's a runaway situation.
07:11I don't know if we have those.
07:13I'm guessing we do.
07:14So you know what I'm always amazed by are the people that go, oh, that's just a, are
07:17you sure?
07:18How do you know?
07:19Like, if you work in the biology department at the local high school, I trust you.
07:24But everybody seems to be an expert.
07:25Oh, that's got brown spots.
07:27That's a milk-faced rat catcher.
07:31You don't know anything.
07:33That slithering monster wants your soul.
07:36So when we saw the snake the other day, out back, throwing balls to the kid, he's hitting
07:42them, whacking them all over the place, right?
07:44The ball goes into the bush.
07:45I go over to grab it, and you think I'm exaggerating?
07:48I just promise this is dead true.
07:49No, I know.
07:49There's a snake kind of wrapped around the bottom of the ball.
07:52Yeah.
07:52Clearly, the ball, like, landed.
07:53The snake got a little, like, what is this?
07:55And kind of turned around and, like, started slithering around the ball.
07:57Sure.
07:58So I'm like, oh, my God, it's a snake.
07:59And my son comes running over.
08:00He loves snakes.
08:01He loves everything.
08:02And he's like, dude, we got to get this snake, Dad.
08:04We got to get him.
08:05I'm like, we're not going to get him.
08:06Nope.
08:06We're not going to touch him.
08:07But I was petrified.
08:09And I didn't try to be Dad, hero, anything.
08:11I just said, no, we're going to get away.
08:12I don't want to touch him.
08:13And I was, like, doing high-pitched squeals and stuff, like, when my hand got close to
08:16it.
08:16He's like, you got to get the ball dead, like, the scene out of the sandlot.
08:19And instead of the beast, it's a snake.
08:21You know, he's like, we got to play.
08:22We can't not play.
08:23I'm like, we'll go buy another one.
08:24You know, we can go to stores.
08:25Let's go to the sporting goods right now.
08:27I'll buy you a bucket.
08:28There's baseballs everywhere.
08:29But anyway, he said, it's just your common black rat snake.
08:33It's the confidence.
08:34And my son, who's five, and he's like, how do you know that?
08:37What are you talking about?
08:38Then I could tell this is what a black rat snake looks like.
08:41He's like, trust me, Dad.
08:42This guy won't bite you.
08:43They're very friendly.
08:44You want to.
08:44Friendly.
08:45I was like, we need.
08:46I'm not a fan of killing animals at all.
08:48So, like, I didn't offer that up.
08:50But I was like, we need to get him in someone else's yard.
08:52We need to get him in a bucket.
08:53Go take him somewhere.
08:54Pour him out, like, miles and miles away.
08:56He's like, no, you need this guy.
08:58He takes care of the bad snakes.
09:00He's like, trying to give me all the.
09:01I think they, like, eat copperheads or something.
09:04That's what he told me.
09:04I don't know if that's true.
09:05I don't.
09:05He's only five.
09:07This is not.
09:07I'm not talking.
09:08But again, but again, but the, but the expertise go, oh, that's just a, it drives me insane.
09:13Just get it, Dad.
09:13It's a black rat snake.
09:15Just get it.
09:15So he's like, I'll do it.
09:16I would not let him.
09:17You will not.
09:18I didn't let him.
09:18But he was completely comfortable just trying to grab the ball and grab the snake.
09:22He wanted to, like, hold the snake.
09:23And I'm like, absolutely not.
09:25We're not doing that.
09:26But he swore it was a black rat snake.
09:28And that's what made me think of when he's like, it's just a, that was his thing.
09:31I'm like, I don't know how people do that.
09:34Because again, it's like, okay, there's a model of one that looks like that from some
09:38Wikipedia picture.
09:39That's fine.
09:40It never looks just like that picture is my point.
09:43It's like a cheeseburger at McDonald's.
09:45Yeah.
09:45It's never going to look like the, the picture on the menu.
09:48The unbridled confidence to go.
09:49That's just a, are you sure?
09:52That's just a.
09:53Grant and Danny on the fan.
09:55And you'll hear from our guy, Logan Paulson on just how difference Washington's offense
09:58looked at OTAs.
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