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Grant & Danny try to rank the D.C. sports coaches. Who comes in first?
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00:00That's the manager of the Nationals, Blake Butera.
00:03He was on the show with us yesterday.
00:05If you missed that interview, grab it wherever you get your audio.
00:08He was marvelous.
00:12Got us to thinking about the head coaches in town.
00:15He, of course, is the skipper of a upstart Nats team that's over 500.
00:20Spencer Carberry with the Capitals has drawn rave reviews over the last few years.
00:25Dan Quinn got the Commanders to an NFC championship game.
00:28So he has actually, in his two years, accomplished more in the way of postseason success than anybody else.
00:34And then you've got Brian Keefe of the Washington Wizards,
00:36who has overseen one of the great tanking successes in recent NBA history
00:43and has executed the plan to proficiency.
00:46The homework he was at, the assignment he was asked to do, he turned it in for A-plus work.
00:50So if we're trying to figure out who's the best, who's the worst, how do you rank the head coaches
00:54in town?
00:55With respect, I'm going to go ahead and just start the bidding by putting Keefe fourth.
01:01You're allowed to do that.
01:02I think that's the easiest thing, right?
01:03I mean, that's a no-brainer.
01:05I don't have him fourth.
01:07How is that possible?
01:08I've got Dan Quinn fourth.
01:09All they do is lose.
01:11Yes.
01:11There's no metric that you can use to tell me that Keefe is good.
01:16He might be, but we wouldn't know the difference.
01:19How could you possibly have him above a guy who coached in the NFC Championship game in one of his
01:24two seasons?
01:25He was there, and now he's got two new coordinators and a whole new paradigm and a bunch of other
01:29things to show for it.
01:30The soft training camps, the lackadaisical preseasons, everything under the sun, a group not ready to play.
01:36He doesn't do challenges right, doesn't get timeouts right.
01:38The mechanics and stuff he can control, he doesn't do a very good job, but he's great at the podium.
01:42So for Keefe, my answer real quick is I don't know.
01:47It's a variable.
01:48I don't know about his X's and O's.
01:50I know that he was asked to do something and crushed it.
01:54Well, yeah, the easiest thing in the world to do.
01:56Not just lose.
01:57Well, yeah, but you're also not telling Alex Sarr to lay down on the court or something like that.
02:03His task was player development.
02:05Players developed.
02:06They have good pieces.
02:07They have exciting young pieces.
02:08That's what he's good at.
02:09So I know that part.
02:11The X's and O's part of it, if he was tasked with design something out of timeout to make sure
02:16that you get a bucket in the fourth quarter in the game, we've got to win.
02:18I have no idea if he can do that or not.
02:20But what he's proven is with a bunch of 10-day guys, some two-way guys, yeah, he understands the
02:25assignment, and he's out there to put guys in tough situations.
02:28But I don't think it's fair to give him anything other than an A grade for what he's done.
02:33So I was not a huge fan of the Dan Quinn hiring, and I was questioning DQ before it was
02:38cool.
02:39I still think this is a tough sell that you got right here.
02:43Because, again, he's been here for two seasons, and they did get to the NFC Championship game in his first
02:49year when he had more wins than any coaches had here, this side of Joe Gibbs 1.0, when they
02:55got further than they've gotten in any year since 1991, when they were 60 minutes away from a Super Bowl.
03:00Now, do I think that he was, to some extent, the beneficiary of an unbelievably quarterbacked season and the passenger
03:09along the joyride?
03:11Yeah, probably.
03:12But you've got to give him some credit for the culture that he established and all that Ron Rivera stuff
03:17of throwing the rock against the wall and anybody, anytime, anywhere, and let's curse a bunch and act like that's
03:23cool, and then turn my hat around backwards and do the Sargent slogan thing.
03:26It all worked in that first year.
03:29If they had had two seasons where they were, like, 5-12, I could see putting him behind Keith.
03:35Like, the boys over there are all kind of smirking, and there's a little bit of a bit happening here,
03:40right?
03:40Oh, no.
03:41This is hipster.
03:42This is one of those rankings you see on some website, and you're like, okay, they did that to get
03:47some clicks.
03:48They did that to get a little bit of run for their rankings.
03:51Yeah, I think people are going to start to wake up to it, that this is a yes-man, this
03:55is a placeholder, this is a guy that's going to do the bidding of the front office.
03:58This is whatever you want, Skip, just sort of a loyal Labrador, which is, to me, that's what Dan Quinn
04:05is.
04:06All of those things can be true, and he was still here for two seasons, and one of them was
04:10the NFC Championship game.
04:11Sure.
04:12We're just basing it on what they've done so far.
04:14If you do that, then he's number one, because no one else has been to a conference championship game, but
04:18I don't.
04:19I'm looking at the whole thing.
04:20The totality of it is, if you were nailing the mechanics, timeouts, challenges, any kind of a clue in that
04:28regard, I'd go, he's on it.
04:28He's on top of it.
04:29This guy is special.
04:31He's savvy.
04:32Just a group that lost by 100 points over four weeks.
04:35That's not what a good coach does.
04:36They thought they were going to be good.
04:38He's going, yeah, we missed it.
04:39I don't want to hear about how you missed it.
04:40I want you to get it right.
04:41That's your job.
04:42Get it right.
04:43Don't tell me how you missed it on Tell the Truth Slogan Monday, or the Taco Tuesday, or We Should
04:49Be Better Wednesday, or Thirsty Thursday, or Bleep You Friday.
04:52No.
04:53This is just a guy that's here.
04:55I think everyone else has more acumen.
04:58So, we live in a weird multiverse where now I'm playing devil's advocate to defend Dan Quinn.
05:02The Dan Quinn guy.
05:03How could that have possibly been where we've gotten?
05:06I stick by my line.
05:08I'll always believe it.
05:09Him and Ron Rivera aren't the exact same guy, but they're right next to each other on the grocery aisle.
05:14Okay?
05:15You got to go down aisle seven, which is like retread defensive coordinator-ville, harmless, yes, sir, whatever you'd like
05:22me to do, sir, in that aisle, and you'll find them both.
05:25Now, Quinn, as it turns out, having now seen both operate, is a way better football coach than Ron Rivera.
05:31I really do.
05:32He at least talks to his team at halftime.
05:33Something Rivera couldn't be bothered to do.
05:35But I think he's a better defensive coach.
05:36Like, when he took over the defensive side of the ball last year, it kicked ass.
05:40He was actually legitimately good.
05:41That was not a great defensive talent group, so they weren't going to be awesome, but they got way better
05:47immediately.
05:47I think he's an excellent defensive coach.
05:50I'm not particularly high on him as a head coach.
05:54I think he's middling.
05:55He's fine.
05:56But, man, to put him behind Keith is hilarious.
05:59So, all right, so I've got Spencer Carberry one, and I think I'm going to put Blake Butera two.
06:09Now, what's interesting about Butera two, I'll come back to carbs in a second.
06:13It's 500.
06:15That's all it is.
06:16You know what I mean?
06:16We're acting like they're, like, in first place or on their way to the World Series or something.
06:21He has his team at 500 through two months of baseball, and I'm putting him number two in town.
06:25But I just think that he has great feel, relationships, the way he interacts with players.
06:32I love how he handles that.
06:34And he has done more with less than anybody.
06:38You want to talk player development?
06:39Yeah.
06:40He's got that in spades.
06:41He's got the Keith thing in spades, and they're winning, and they're playing a lot better than the Wizards were.
06:46You know, the Wizards lost a ton.
06:49The Nationals are accidentally winning while they're doing it because Blake Butera is sharp with his matchups
06:54and because Ani Kolombi and him are putting together great lineups, they've got the number one offense.
06:59Greater as a sum than the parts, I think largely because of Butera.
07:03No question.
07:03Which means Quinn is three for me.
07:06The NFC Championship game means he can't be in the basement.
07:09Probably should be higher because of that.
07:12But I thought last year was pretty exposing, revealing.
07:14He's already blown out both of his assistants.
07:16I was screamed at for the entire offseason.
07:19Look at the staff he built!
07:21Everyone loves him.
07:22True, he's the nicest guy in the world.
07:23He's a great dude.
07:24But I was yelled at about how he just built the greatest staff in the league,
07:27and he's already fired all those coordinators and brought in largely a new staff.
07:31This is why you hire him because of the staff.
07:33Gone.
07:34Staff is gone.
07:35Yeah, it's gone.
07:36He's got a first-year OC.
07:37A lot of people could have done that.
07:39And a defensive coordinator who's never been a coordinator before.
07:41Who's been a DC and the CFL and the UFL and the TFL and the RFL.
07:46Now, I happen to like both hirings.
07:48I think Durante Jones will be good.
07:49I'm steamed up for David Blau going under center, running play action, pop passes on dig routes.
07:54Sign me up for that all day long.
07:56But it's been three years.
07:58Both coordinators are gone.
07:59This was the hillbill, the greatest staff, and the league guy.
08:01That was the whole selling point on Dan Quinn.
08:03So I'll have him third.
08:05And then I've got like a 9,000-put Canyon.
08:08And then Brian Keefe, who's like 3-962 with the Wizards.
08:13One is Carberry, but the arrow's trending down on that for me.
08:16Still belongs at the top of this list because best track record so far of success.
08:20This year, way too many blowout losses, non-competitive losses to terrible teams.
08:25I understand you losing to Colorado.
08:27Everybody did.
08:27But way too much we can't beat Vancouver.
08:31Way too much the Rangers throttled you.
08:33Way too much in games that were pretty important, listless performances.
08:37I understand you were, I don't think you was handling a particularly great roster.
08:40And it was too Ovechkin-centered and kind of had to do that out of obligation.
08:43But even still, some of the performances, guys like Dylan Strom, you know, took a little
08:48bit of a step back for me.
08:50Where's my Conor McMichael contribution for, you know, for five of the six months?
08:53So, but again, still number one for me.
08:55He's another one, though, I would say.
08:56If you're talking, like you're selling Keefe on this player development, he built, you
09:00know, Sar into a monster or whatever you were getting at.
09:04Carberry has developed the hell out of the Capitals.
09:06He generally has, yes.
09:06You look at the juxtaposition between Laviolette before him, who, wait, you're 34?
09:11Okay, you get to play.
09:12You're 22?
09:13You go away.
09:14Go to Hershey.
09:14Leave!
09:15Like, it was, they have threaded the needle beautifully with rebuild while winning, and
09:20Carberry has been at the very center of that.
09:22No question about it.
09:23So he's still number one for me, but it's, I think the gap is lower.
09:26The, Blake Gutierrez too, for me, it's just not a big enough sample yet.
09:30The arrow is trending up.
09:31I mean, I was impressed right away when we met him, impressed in spring training, impressed
09:35throughout the season, if there's a larger sample, like, he's sitting there with rocket
09:40skates going uphill towards the top ranking.
09:44Carberry is unbelievably impressive as an order, too.
09:47Yes.
09:47Like, just talking, interview.
09:49Butera's the same way.
09:50EQ off the charts.
09:52Quinn is a great EQ people guy.
09:55100%.
09:56He's gonna, you know, go on with the junkies and be like, are you, I don't remember what
10:00he said when he was like the mystery guest last week.
10:02He was kind enough to call into their show.
10:03I'm here to bring it.
10:04Like, they were like, are you a coach?
10:06He's like, hell yeah.
10:07He's like, are you in your fifties?
10:09He's like, hell yeah, brother.
10:10You know, like, whatever that is.
10:12He's shot out of a cannon.
10:14And with him, what I've experienced in person, I think there's zero act to it.
10:20Like, he is, the reason he's so loved, it is 100% genuine.
10:23It's earnestly genuine.
10:24And I legitimately think he's like one of the nicest guys in football.
10:26There have been guys around that I've experienced in the league who are like known as the best
10:32guys ever, and they knew how to play the game.
10:36Like, they, you know, you could give them the Academy Award or whatever.
10:40Dan Quinn's a good dude.
10:41I really believe that.
10:42I think so, too.
10:43So, I go Butera to keep three because, again, all he did was hit the assignment out of the
10:47park.
10:48Had he not, I'd probably have a different evaluation of that.
10:50And Quinn, to me, is a very known commodity.
10:53A nice passenger on a ship that crashed, that was uncompetitive, historically so.
10:59One of the worst stretches in the history of football, certainly this millennium, the
11:03modern era.
11:04And all the coordinators and all the staff is pretty much gone and turned over here.
11:08And he doesn't get the mechanics right.
11:09So, I've got him for it.
11:10All right, we had Butera on the show yesterday.
11:12We wanted to rank the coaches.
11:14Carberry, Butera, we are in lockstep there.
11:16Then Danny's got Quinn third, excuse me, Keefe third and Quinn fourth.
11:21I've got Dan Quinn ahead of Brian Keefe.
11:24What say you guys?
11:25800-636-1067.
11:27Who's your favorite?
11:28Who's the best coach in DC sports right now and why?
11:31That's the question.
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