- 23 hours ago
Washington Commanders Reporter Ben Standig from The Last Man Standig Podcast and Substack joins The Kevin Sheehan Show to discuss which Commanders rookie has the best chance to win ROTY along with other predictions, then shifts to the Wizards reportedly not trading Anthony Davis and if an extension could be coming soon.
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00:00Ben's with us a day early because I think he's going to be traveling tomorrow.
00:06He's written about Sonny Stiles, Antonio Williams, Washington's rookies.
00:11I'll ask you what typically is kind of an early training camp question today.
00:17If I told you that Washington ended up with a rookie of the year,
00:23and obviously the two choices more likely than not would be Sonny Stiles
00:27and Antonio Williams, which of the two would you pick right now?
00:32I think you can make a case for both, actually.
00:37Yeah, I mean, I think obviously with Jaden Daniels,
00:41if he has the year that he had in 24 and sort of Antonio Williams,
00:45it gets like all the Noah Brown, Olamide Zaccheaus,
00:50Yami Brown of that year, James and Crater,
00:52I bet he would have a huge year.
00:56But yeah, but I mean, I guess I would still say Stiles.
01:00I mean, obviously, you know, for the defensive rookie of the year,
01:02he was the number seven pick.
01:03He's going to get a lot of attention in the way he is, you know, built.
01:07You know, his highlight reel could be pretty spectacular.
01:10So, and plus, you know,
01:12he's the one who is more than likely going to be in the lineup most every play.
01:16So I would say him, but sure,
01:18if Antonio Williams is able to, you know,
01:20cobble together all those random parts and turn it into his own stats,
01:24then yeah, that would be pretty good.
01:26You know, ESPN's Ben Solak, like two weeks ago,
01:30had 10 predictions for the 2026 NFL season.
01:35And his number 10 prediction was that Antonio Williams from Washington
01:41would win offensive rookie of the year.
01:43I mean, that came out of nowhere.
01:44He would be the lowest picked player offensively to ever win offensive rookie of the year.
01:52Anquan Bolden in 2003 was the 54th pick in the draft and won rookie of the year offensively.
01:59Williams is the 71st pick.
02:01But he basically makes the case that it's a year that doesn't have, you know,
02:06an obvious quarterback.
02:07Mendoza may not even start for the Raiders for the first few games
02:11or maybe the first half of the season.
02:13Ty Simpson's not going to play unless Matt Stafford gets hurt.
02:16And even if he does get hurt, whoever the backup is,
02:19who is the backup in L.A.?
02:22Is it Simpson?
02:23I don't even know.
02:24But his point was, you don't have quarterbacks to choose from this year.
02:28And the opportunity right now in the Washington wide receiver room
02:32with a healthy Jaden Daniels, to your point,
02:35creates kind of this unique opportunity for somebody like him.
02:40Yeah, yeah.
02:41No, I mean, like I said, the logic is sound, especially, I mean, you know,
02:44you can also throw in, like, Jeremiah Love might be, like, an obvious name,
02:49but the fit doesn't really suggest that he's going to get such a workload
02:53that he's going to be very high up in the rookie of the year,
02:57or, you know, at least not a runaway leader.
02:59So, yeah, I mean, the logic makes sense for sure.
03:02I just need to see, you know,
03:03we've got to see how much he's even going to play that alone enough.
03:06But, yeah, the opportunity is absolutely there.
03:09So, yeah, from that perspective, I totally get where he's coming from.
03:12Stetson Bennett is the other quarterback currently.
03:15Jimmy Garoppolo is not on that roster.
03:19So where is Jimmy Garoppolo?
03:21Am I blanking on where Jimmy Garoppolo is?
03:23No, he's still a free agent.
03:25He was still a free agent.
03:25He might retire.
03:27Right.
03:27So right now, behind Stafford is Stetson Bennett,
03:31who's got to be, like, 38 years old now because he came out two years ago
03:34as about a 32-year-old rookie or whatever he was,
03:37and then Ty Simpson are the two in L.A. as backups.
03:42All right.
03:45So did you have any sort of reaction to where Terry McLaurin came in
03:51on the ESPN rankings of wide receivers, essentially coming in at 20th overall?
03:59I guess people ESPN talk to don't like 30-year-old receivers either.
04:05Well, Devontae Adams at 33 was number 10 on the list.
04:08So there was that.
04:09Yeah.
04:09I mean, I don't know.
04:11Steam's a little low, but I didn't see the whole list.
04:15But, you know, I mean, you know how it is.
04:17I mean, you take numbers, I don't know, 10 through 20, throw them in a hat,
04:21plot in order, and call it a day.
04:23So if that's where they had it, so be it.
04:25Obviously, as we know, so much of these things are recency bias.
04:28And last year, you know, the first time he had the injuries,
04:31the team was horrendous.
04:33His final numbers, we're just looking at those,
04:35obviously don't stand out compared to most years where he's getting 1,000 yards.
04:38So, you know, it doesn't surprise me, I guess, that he's down there.
04:42You know, again, I'd have to see who else was there to say,
04:46yeah, well, this is ridiculous.
04:47But, you know, again, if you give it another day,
04:50somebody else puts up another list, you know, probably you'll be somewhere else.
04:54So let me just answer the question for you.
04:56I don't really care because I didn't have to host a show during All-Star break
05:01on radio.
05:03That's fine.
05:03By the way, the defensive rookie of the year odds,
05:07the consensus right now, Reuben Bain's actually the favorite with David Bailey,
05:11followed by Arbel Reese and then Sonny Stiles at plus 850 on average
05:17to win defensive rookie of the year.
05:22All right.
05:23There was one other question I was going to ask.
05:25Oh, the other sort of training camp questions,
05:28and we'll probably circle back to these in a few weeks.
05:31But I was having this conversation yesterday with Mitch Tischler on my podcast,
05:36and we're just talking about the defensive players and all of the new players
05:41and who's going to emerge as, you know, the guy that they definitely got right
05:46or the guys that they definitely got right.
05:48And I basically just said, all right, I'll cut to the chase here
05:51and ask the question that you usually ask in early August.
05:54Who's going to lead the team in sacks this year?
06:01I mean, you know, I would guess Odafe Owe would be my best guess.
06:07You know, it's still going to be interesting to see how the workload plays out.
06:12Obviously, the contract they gave him, he should be out there plenty,
06:14but Chase on is going to get his,
06:17and we'll see when Dorrance Armstrong is able to get back.
06:19So, you know, those three, is it going to be sort of an equal split?
06:23Is Owe definitely getting more?
06:25But, you know, I would say him.
06:26I don't know if there's, you know, I'm not going to pick any of the tackles.
06:30I mean, if Ron Payne has this contract here, resurgence again, so be it.
06:34But I can't do that.
06:35So, I would say Owe for me would be the call.
06:39Chase on would be obviously number two.
06:41Yeah, I think you got the three that would be the favorites in some order,
06:46Owe, Chase on, and Dorrance Armstrong.
06:48I think, you know, there are some people who have forgotten
06:51that he was their best defensive player when he got hurt in week seven
06:55against the Cowboys and missed the rest of the season.
06:57We'll see how he comes back.
07:01All right.
07:02I know that you wanted in your text to me yesterday,
07:06you wanted to talk a little bit about the Wizards on our spot today.
07:12You wrote a story about Trey Young and, you know,
07:16the fact that they've already extended him.
07:19Let me just ask you real quickly where you are today
07:22on whether or not Anthony Davis will get extended.
07:26There is a report out there.
07:29Somebody sent this to me during the show,
07:32a report that the Wizards are not going to trade Anthony Davis.
07:35I mean, they haven't.
07:36They pretty much said that all along.
07:38But do you think that they'll extend him
07:40and make the case against or for?
07:44Yeah, that report was from some guy named Fred Katz
07:47at the Athletic.
07:48What a loser.
07:49Yeah, that's my guy.
07:50I'm kidding.
07:51Yeah, no, that's kind of what the guess has been
07:53that they're saying they're not going to.
07:56So, you know, everybody can lament about the Trey Young thing.
08:00At a minimum, he's 27, still in his prime.
08:03We can debate, you know, the overpay and the other.
08:06But, like, he's a guy that, like, you feel pretty good about
08:08by the end of the four-year contract
08:10that you're still going to be getting at least reasonable value
08:13of what it is.
08:14And for a 33-year-old who's constantly breaking down with injuries,
08:18that's a whole different proposition.
08:21Furthermore, you know, Anthony Davis is going to make, like,
08:24$115 million combined the next two years,
08:26which is insane.
08:29So, you know, I don't even know what the contract would look like.
08:32You know, I understand a max contract,
08:35but, like, I don't think that's coming for him from anybody.
08:37If you look at where the league is right now after what we just witnessed here
08:40with the Jalen Brown trade market.
08:41Look, in a trade, they barely had to give up anything for him,
08:46relatively speaking.
08:47Right, right.
08:48For that, I mean, Trey Young.
08:50But, like, in terms of, like, the money,
08:51we saw this was a year where teams seemed to be balking at the idea
08:54of taking on that kind of money,
08:57even for a guy like Jalen Brown, you know,
08:58who's obviously, in theory, one of the better players on all that.
09:01So, I don't think anything to the max out there for Anthony Davis.
09:04I've been wrong before with these contracts.
09:06So, that's why I don't know what the Wizards do here exactly.
09:10You know, Davis is doing all the right things.
09:12He has said, admitted, hey, I wasn't very happy about coming here.
09:16I wasn't really sure what to think because the Wizards have a terrible reputation.
09:19But, since I got here, you know, they've kind of changed my tune.
09:21He shows up for DeBonta's summer league game.
09:27He was there for Trey Young's press conference.
09:29I was in the room for both of those things.
09:32And, he's doing all the right things.
09:34And, there's been, despite everybody saying,
09:36he wants out, he wants out, he wants out.
09:38I've not heard that.
09:39So, the question is, is that because he thinks he's getting a deal or not?
09:44I don't think he's going to get a max deal.
09:46If there's a way to sort of, you know,
09:48give him another year or something and all that,
09:50and they think it's worth it and it's not going to screw up their cap space,
09:53okay, maybe.
09:54But, I don't think he's going to get a bigger deal from these guys.
09:57I think they'll just wait and see where they are and then go from there.
10:01I mean, I think, just thinking about this thing logically,
10:04or at least with my logic,
10:06the market for paying Anthony Davis doesn't exist today
10:10because of the fear that everybody has,
10:13including a recency bias because he didn't play last year,
10:17and that he needs to prove something.
10:22He needs to prove that he can still be Anthony Davis in the NBA.
10:27And so, I would think that you could certainly make the case to him,
10:30look, we're not going to do this in August.
10:32It's too risky for us, but we believe in you.
10:35And if you go out and perform the way we think you can go out and perform,
10:40obviously, there's a player option for him next year,
10:43but we can talk about this during the season
10:45when you're averaging 24 and 13 and two and a half block shots per game
10:52and we're eight games over 500.
10:54I think the fear is, from my standpoint,
10:59is this guy's shown so little enthusiasm at times
11:04for playing beyond minimal injuries,
11:07but this may be the first time where he really has something to prove.
11:12He should be incentivized to go out and prove
11:16that he can still be the same player.
11:20No, 100%.
11:21I mean, look, I know that Trey Young just opted out of his
11:24$49 million player option
11:26because I guess he knew he was getting what he was getting.
11:29Right.
11:29Again, I don't think Anthony Davis is going to get that deal from anybody
11:32and his deal is $60-something million next year.
11:35Like, I don't see him opting out of that.
11:36So, for the Wizards, like you said, let's play this out.
11:40I mean, there's a world where he plays well
11:42and the Wizards, before the trade deadline, are like,
11:44hey, you know, we are still a good step or two away.
11:48His timeline doesn't really mesh with where we're at.
11:50He's helped our kids already,
11:52so let's move him for some picks or whatever.
11:54Sure, that's certainly possible.
11:56But, like you said, I think it just doesn't make any sense to me
11:59why you would do this.
12:00And that's the thing, like, you know, again,
12:02I think there's justification for the Trey Young deal,
12:04but it kind of blows up if you give Anthony Davis a deal
12:08that then starts eating into the cap space you're going to need
12:11for the younger guys when they start, you know,
12:15coming up for extension.
12:16So, I would be surprised, but, you know,
12:20when it comes to the NBA funny money, you know,
12:22I'm never shocked about anything.
12:24At Ben Standing on X, subscribe to his sub-stack
12:29covering our team, our teams, both the commanders
12:33and the Wizards.
12:35He's got a podcast called Last Man Standing,
12:37and he joins us twice a week.
12:40I'll ask you the question that we did with callers
12:44earlier in the show, sort of off the English loss to Argentina
12:49in the World Cup semifinals where, you know,
12:52they essentially had, you know, in soccer,
12:55almost the game in hand to a certain degree,
12:57up 1-0 very late, and they gave up two goals
12:59over a seven-minute period.
13:01Is there a game for you in your sports-rooting lifetime
13:06that stands out as the most gut-wrenching,
13:09kind of snagging defeat from the jaws of victory loss
13:13for a team that you rooted for?
13:16Oh, boy.
13:19Well, I'm kind of thinking in those terms.
13:22I mean, this is maybe not the exact same,
13:24but I was at the Final Four when Maryland was playing Duke,
13:28and they had, what, the 20-something point lead?
13:3022-point lead.
13:31Yeah.
13:31In the first half.
13:32And, you know, obviously it's a long way to go,
13:34and Duke's Duke and all that,
13:36but the fact that they didn't even,
13:38that they didn't, it's not that they just didn't win,
13:40they got, you know, kind of rolled up.
13:42They lost by 10.
13:43Yeah, there was a 32-point swing from late, you know,
13:47later first half to the end of the game.
13:49Yeah, I was in Minneapolis for that
13:51with a bunch of different people.
13:53My cousin was there with some people,
13:55and, like, when the game ended
13:56and we were all in such a daze,
13:58my cousin was, like, laughing without thinking about it
14:00because he was so, like, distraught,
14:02like, what the hell just happened here?
14:03So there's that.
14:04I mean, this isn't the exact same thing,
14:05but, you know, when Georgetown, you know,
14:10Michael Jordan hits the shot
14:12and Fred Brown throws it away,
14:14and at that age, I was not ready to,
14:16I had not had calluses built up yet
14:19as a sports fan,
14:20so that was, like, a complete, like,
14:21whoa, what's that, what's that happened here?
14:23And obviously that Fred Brown play
14:25still gets played today.
14:27So, yeah, so those are the couple that come to mind.
14:30Have a safe trip back.
14:32I'll talk to you soon.
14:33Yeah, man, see you.
14:34Ben Standing, everybody.
14:37There's news related to our football team
14:40and the uniforms that they're going to wear
14:43against the teams that they play next year.
14:46I will break it down for you when we come back.
14:48I do want to mention that we do have
14:51our Waldorf Honda Twitter poll of the day up as we speak.
14:57Max just put it up,
14:58and he asked the question that I asked Ben,
15:02our Waldorf Honda Twitter poll of the day,
15:04which Commander's draftee has a better shot
15:08at winning Rookie of the Year,
15:10Sonny Stiles or Antonio Williams?
15:13It's actually, I think, going to be heavy
15:16on Antonio Williams.
15:18However, with that said,
15:20the opportunities,
15:22heavy on Sonny Stiles, excuse me,
15:24I think the opportunities for Antonio Williams,
15:27especially if they don't add another receiver,
15:29with Jaden Daniels upright and healthy,
15:32could be meaningful.
15:34We'll see.
15:34There were a couple of receivers picked before him
15:37in the draft, including somebody
15:38maybe they would have picked at number seven
15:41had he still been there,
15:42Carnell Taylor.
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