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Washington Commanders' Reporter Ben Standig from The Last Man Standig Podcast and Substack joins The Kevin Sheehan Show to give his biggest takeaways from Adam Peters and Dan Quinn’s opening presser, injury updates and standouts from day one of Commanders’ training camp.
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00:00I Ben's with us right now from Ashburn first day of training camp and is our shows team insider as
00:08everybody knows that Ben standing on X sub stack last man standing to follow everything that Ben will be writing
00:15about the team on a day by day basis.
00:19Ben did not provide any play by play from training camp so I'm proud of you as far as that's
00:25concerned.
00:25But I did get this I got this where is it I just had it in front of me and
00:32I can't find it oh in playing the answer to JP's question to AP to Adam Peters last night I
00:43thought you know the whole bloodstream culture thing like if you couldn't read between those lines that there's no chance
00:50that this guy's a fit for their bloodstream their culture their way of doing things.
00:54But Ted wrote me I heard the opposite from AP I heard that he didn't rule IUC out so these
01:02things are subjective what did you think?
01:06Yeah I mean I would feel pretty confident that they're not going to bring him in I think you know
01:10I've been saying to you for a while yeah they can't on the record say anything because that would be
01:15tampering.
01:16But why not you know throw a reporter a note hey we're not interested you know you guys can stop
01:24saying it or whatever report it or whatever.
01:26But hey you know the world changes right I mean you know one day Michael Vick was the biggest pariah
01:31in the country and then all of a sudden he fixes things in a couple years and you know he's
01:35a different view.
01:36So who knows maybe IUC one day you know things change and evolve and you know they don't want to
01:42close any doors that's completely fine and reasonable.
01:44But no I took not just what Adam said but also just other conversations I've had you know for the
01:51last few days and just reading these over the last few weeks that I don't see this happening.
01:56You know even in terms of Jaden's response to what I was asking like you know I don't think he
02:02was annoyed but I also don't think he was interested in engaging and why wouldn't he have some fun of
02:10it if in fact you know that something was still brewing?
02:13I would think so I mean to say we're talking about it privately suggests that there's something to talk about
02:19in private.
02:20That's not you know I mean that that's not coming here and playing so yeah I don't think that's I
02:26don't think that's happening.
02:27I do think that they're still open to getting a receiver if it makes sense to do so but yeah
02:34I don't think it's going to be him.
02:35Okay let's let's just go sort of chronologically going back to last night and then we can get to this
02:42morning and the first practice.
02:44What stood out to you if anything from last night's a you know Adam Peters Dan Quinn Presser?
02:53Um well I mean you know I asked Peters you know this is your third offseason and you know I
02:59gave him the you know the caveat look you inherited a garbage roster.
03:02We all understood that but it's now three years like you know this is basically your team and how do
03:07you feel about it?
03:09You know of course they're always going to say the positive things but I you know I generally bought what
03:13he was saying that there's a lot of excitement.
03:15There's a lot of energy and you know if he's not excited about the roster that's going to be tough
03:20for anybody else because he's the one that's put it together and I think you know again I don't know
03:25what this means in terms of are they going to make the playoffs or go beyond or whatever but you
03:29know it's pretty obvious to look at the roster especially on defense and see how it's upgraded just even from
03:35last year.
03:36And I got three draft classes and et cetera so you know I think to me to a certain degree
03:41it felt like okay this is officially their team and again I know it's been their team since 2024 but
03:46we're still cleaning up the messes that you had to deal with before and now I don't think we can't
03:51keep saying that and so that was just one thing that stood out and there's a couple other notes here
03:56and there but I think that's just one that stood out.
03:57Yeah I thought and I played your question about Trey Amos because he did speak to soft tissue but and
04:06whenever you hear soft tissue there's a little bit of a reddish flag that can be waved in front of
04:12that but they sounded fairly confident that he'd be back soon that they were just approaching it with great caution.
04:20Have you learned anything beyond that as it relates to Amos?
04:25No just just Adam and I think you know for you know again not a doctor here but you know
04:32a broken leg we've all known people that have had a broken leg and obviously we don't know people who
04:35play football like this but okay he did the injury was in week 10 of last year this is roughly
04:41eight months later a standard recovery from a broken leg even if we're talking about a football player it's like
04:47three months maybe if it's more significant five months well this is like eight months so it's like wait why
04:51isn't he out there?
04:52I get why Doran Armstrong is not back yet but you know ACL can take a minute teacher wise it
04:58was pretty significant quad tear I can take a minute but you know why isn't he why isn't Trey Amos
05:04back so soft tissue you know like you said maybe a little red flag hopefully it's not a big deal
05:11so you know I'm going to take their word for it again they don't have to tell us anything about
05:16injuries until week one more or less so you know we can press all we want but they don't have
05:21to say anything but
05:22you know that's kind of where I'm at and I do think you know I'm not comparing it to last
05:28year with the Terry McLaurin holdout situation but when McLaurin was out you realize how thin they were at that
05:34receiver spot to some degree it's a little bit of the same thing here I mean they just have not
05:40a ton of obvious options they don't have a ton of size on the outside so you know it's you
05:46hope he's back sooner than later for himself for the team and you know for that position room
05:52we're talking to Ben Stanley he's moving around the facility for sure I actually thought that the most convicted both
06:02were last night was answering the final question about Nick Allegretti like they made the case hey don't worry this
06:12dude's a badass competitor he's smart and everybody in the building absolutely has the highest level of confidence in Nick
06:20Allegretti
06:20Allegretti to be the starting center and then I'm wondering if you have any information on something that I read
06:26earlier in the show from the guy from Channel 9 John Doran he reported that Nick Allegretti left today's practice
06:34during O-line drills and didn't return walked off with a member of the training staff any news on Allegretti
06:41and also just your thoughts on the way they answered the question about him to end the press conference last
06:47night
06:48to be super duper honest I did not realize that Allegretti was that that had happened I mean there's you
06:53know constant movement around here and there and I was watching the 11s and 7s and I didn't notice now
07:00that you say that I was seeing a lot of Matt Goulbin
07:03so that may explain it so no I don't know we you know we get Dan Quinn in the mornings
07:07so before practice so something to potentially ask later but in terms of like their responses
07:14yeah I'm with you I mean the it obviously was a move you know moving on from Beatish was a
07:19move that was confusing to a lot of people the best responses I was getting in terms of why had
07:24to do with communication
07:26that they just felt like it wasn't good enough
07:31Allegretti you know he is a smart guy I'm not saying Beatish is a dumb guy but Allegretti is an
07:37intelligent guy is if you look at his resume his bio
07:40he was like on the all academic team constantly in college and you know there he's a good communicator even
07:46with us
07:47you know he's a guy that like if we need an offensive line question he's a pretty good guy to
07:51go to
07:51so you know I guess there's a lot to that there and I think center is one of those positions
07:56where you know we always look at it for all sports
07:59like get the all pro at every position at these spots and you know he's obviously not that but you
08:04know
08:04they don't need that guy to be the most dominant player in the world they need him to like you
08:09know call
08:09the protections obviously do a good job blocking whatever and he's a strong guy so yeah they were
08:15pretty adamant about that now let's not forget they tried to get Tyler Lindenbaum who is the highest paid
08:20center uh in the league and you know the Raiders blew that uh contract out of the water you know
08:26really
08:26made it so nobody else was going to get him but my point is like they did try to look
08:31at that at the high
08:31end of it but ultimately you know they had to have felt comfortable enough with Allegretti
08:36to move on from Beattis because you never know what's going to happen and like you said they
08:39were pretty adamant explaining as to why um but that said if if he were to miss any time which
08:45you
08:45will see now but based on what you just told me what what then it like they keep talking about
08:50competition I don't I don't know what I'm seeing here I mean we haven't seen enough of the line play
08:56to say that Matt Goulbin is or isn't anything but he's a six-round rookie I'm not
09:01I'm not ready to say he's a competition Julian Good-Jones is 29 years old he's played one NFL
09:06game so uh if he were to miss time whether it's in camp or during the season that to me
09:11is almost
09:12not the bigger question but it is like wait how you know they seem pretty thin and Allegretti's
09:17ceiling doesn't seem that high relative to uh expectations so yeah I think there's definitely
09:22a position to watch and hopefully he's uh he's okay uh you and I both like to see uh or
09:29listen to
09:29Dan Quinn closely because sometimes you know immediately he'll throw out players names that
09:34he's been impressed by even if the question isn't specific to any players there wasn't a lot of that
09:39last night a little bit with respect to the green dot you know whether it's Lou Vu or Stiles and
09:44I
09:44think he indicated that it would probably be a linebacker not a safety um that would uh be the
09:50green dot communication guy on the field with Durante Jones talked a little bit about some of the
09:55players Reeves and Lou Vu and I'm forgetting who else that might fill it Jaden who might fill the
10:01void for Bobby Wagner I know Quinn spoke this morning as well has he mentioned you know has
10:07was there anything today that you you know that was light bulbish for you in terms of of any of
10:14his
10:14answers to anything not really um you know day one with a lot of sort of generic questions and
10:22you know I I will say this I I did ask him about Corey Krosky merit and what how important
10:30it
10:30basically is it for him to evolve into a three down back because you know one thing they lacked last
10:36year in the backfield along with explosive plays was a player who whose presence behind the quarterback
10:42or in that case next to the quarterback wouldn't tip off the defense to what was happening it was
10:46pretty obvious it was going to be a run or a pass depending who was in there uh and that's
10:50the
10:50question with Bill has he done enough as a receiver and a blocker to to do that and I didn't
10:55going back
10:56to OTAs and minicamp the way Quinn would mention him I don't know it didn't feel I wasn't getting
11:00the warm fuzzies talking talking about the guy who was a leading rusher for your team last year and
11:05even today kind of the same he's mentioned every answer about Bill about trying to also see what he
11:12can do on special teams and I was watching today and Bill was out there on special teams but I
11:16don't
11:16mean like he was returning the kick I mean he was just like part of the special teams group so
11:20which seems unusual right if you're talking about a potential starting running back that said I
11:26thought Bill looked pretty good uh running today you know again there's no no pads no tackling but
11:31like he he really was quick hitting some holes that you know the one the the one step in and
11:36moving
11:37you know he looked the part as a runner but I I'm still a little one wondering uh if they're
11:43not
11:43viewing it as obvious as the way I think a lot of us would have been like that Bill should
11:47be the guy
11:48and Rashad White's like the passing down help and you know it as it is today it feels like it's
11:54you
11:54know more of a split than anything and so that was one answer there you know he didn't he didn't
11:59change
12:00his response from what he was saying before and I was wondering if he was going to do that no
12:03I'm
12:04reading the transcript right now and he he got pretty quickly to his excitement level over Rashad White
12:11and about Rashad White and all of the things that Rashad White brings uh to that backfield especially
12:17as a pass catcher so that is interesting because the question that you posed was about you know Bill
12:23Krosky Merritt becoming a three down back and he quickly gets to Rashad White which you say is a
12:30continuation of sort of the same theme from uh the spring and I think that that's one of those things
12:35that you know there's a bit of deductive you know reasoning here as as a fan they really like
12:43Rashad White and Rashad White's going to be a big part of what they do out of the backfield
12:48whether it's split or leaned heavily in his direction especially to begin uh with at least
12:54it feels that way to me does that is that your conclusion to this yeah I mean if you said
13:02to me
13:02if they're playing tomorrow who's going to get the most work in the backfield I think I would say
13:06Rashad White right because I I just think there's probably more of a comfort zone there I mean Dan
13:11Quinn was talking about how soft Rashad White's hands are and like he's like yeah you know you always
13:17hear about guys have soft hands but when you really see it and the ball you know fitting in there
13:21you
13:21know he's like kind of gushing about the guy which is you know great obviously you want to make you
13:25want to have a guy you brought in stand out but again uh you know Rashad White wasn't being brought
13:31in here
13:31from what we were all thinking that he was going to be the main guy and again not saying he
13:36is but
13:37it does feel like it's more of a how how does he and Bill kind of work together rather than
13:42you know
13:43how does Bill lead the way and um and and and go from there so yeah and look obviously uh
13:49you know
13:49Jerome Ford was out there today if I say anybody was with the ones or the twos don't take it
13:54meaning
13:54anything with all kinds of jumbled lineups but at one point I had to double check on my uh on
14:00my
14:00list of players to see who's number 34 because he was out there with the with the ones I was
14:05like
14:05oh Jerome Ford's out there a guy who's been like Rashad White not not as productive but a guy who's
14:09had his moments in the league so you know they have they have they have some options nobody is all
14:14that
14:14but um you know they have some options and I would also just note that from a purely investment
14:20perspective Bill was a seventh round pick it's not like this was the number the first round pick and
14:25you've got to figure out a way to get this guy going right um so I'm not again let's just
14:30be
14:30clear Bill's fine Bill's on the team I would expect good things from Bill but like in terms of how
14:36high
14:36the role can go I think is the question and uh you know Haytron Howell was drafted around earlier than
14:43him even if it was a weaker draft so you never know how these things play out and you know
14:47it's going to
14:47be an interesting position battle to see well look it it doesn't mean anything now because they're in the
14:53NFL and they're on rosters now but I pointed this out when people were excited last spring and over
14:59the summer in the last 10 years going into last year there was only one seventh round running back
15:06that had made a major contribution to a team in the last 10 drafts and that was Isaiah Pacheco in
15:12Kansas City but Bill made a big contribution uh in his rookie year so now you you take it from
15:19that
15:19and the seventh round nature becomes almost uh irrelevant tell tell everybody real quickly um
15:26uh what Quinn sort of said today about Wise and Armstrong because you got him to talk about Amos
15:33yesterday uh and the other two players that are on that you know active physically unable to perform
15:39list the pup list are Armstrong and Wise so how close are they yeah so uh again you know whereas
15:48Trey Amos from the layman perspective it feels like this is longer than it should be the other
15:54two guys and obviously we don't know the exact nature of the the the ACL tear or the quad tear
16:00things like that but you know they're still in line with you know when they're returning from these kinds
16:05of injuries uh especially Armstrong uh I put out there yesterday that I had heard it could be
16:11maybe a couple weeks before we see these guys uh Quinn said today that Armstrong is it certainly made it
16:17sound like Armstrong is a lot closer than than Wise is but you know we may not see them in
16:22practice
16:22for again maybe 10 days two weeks we'll see uh the the Wise part to me is you know very
16:30interesting
16:30because I if you just look let's just say he was playing now I don't even know that he's like
16:33a roster
16:34lock or anything when you consider the options they have now Armstrong it's definitely a different deal
16:39it's like okay where does he fit in the in the group now with away and and uh chase on
16:44and and
16:45that's going to be so fascinating to see all those guys out there together but yeah I mean we
16:49you know we're probably still looking at another you know 10 days two weeks whatever before we see um
16:55either one of them would be my guess and then there was an NBA player and an NBA coach that
17:02he
17:03Quinn had speak to the team who was the player who was the coach and why yeah I you know
17:12when you're
17:13listening to the press conference and as you're trying to tweet and you're thinking about stuff
17:16you kind of miss some stuff so I mean I honestly missed the initial part but the follow-up he
17:20was
17:20asked I think by David Aldridge of course Mr. NBA who uh because Quinn referenced that uh it was Utah
17:27head coach Will Hardy and one of Utah's better young players Keontae George right and basically the
17:34gist was that Keontae George you know NBA players incredible athletes you know all that
17:40none of those guys are you know have an ounce of fat on them or anything but Keontae George shows
17:45up at the league and he played well he had a really good year last year uh really good and
17:49he was like
17:50he realized pretty quickly oh I may be in really good shape but then there's another level you got
17:55to get to to compete against the best of the best and that was like a message that Quinn wanted
18:00to pass
18:00along to the team uh that hey you know you may think that you're in a good spot but we
18:06got to go to the
18:07next we got to go the next step and and I was just talking about this on my own podcast
18:11that like
18:11you know at the end of the day this is much more the sport is much more about a war
18:16of attrition than
18:17it is just x's and o's you know the injuries are obvious but also it's just like what's your body
18:22like over the course of a year and if you're if you're the team that is left standing I mean
18:29that
18:30literally almost and you know you've got more energy at the end you know you're probably going to win and
18:34you know that's something you can control to a degree and I think that was the point that Quinn
18:39was making like hey if you put in the work today your tomorrow and our tomorrow is going to be
18:43a
18:43lot better and you know it isn't just enough to say oh I'm thin I'm cut whatever no no there
18:48is
18:49still another level to go to to become you know the the best of the best or compete with the
18:54best of
18:54the best I think that was sort of the point that he was trying to emphasize well you know the
18:58great
18:58Ken Beatrice once said in addition to more games are lost than one the NFL is a league of attrition
19:07uh the healthiest teams end up being the teams that do the best um but I'm just curious what the
19:15relationship uh it sounds like you don't know between Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy and Keontae
19:22George their point guard who did play very well last year with Quinn like how did that happen
19:28it sounds like Quinn was at something and those guys talked but I okay I don't I don't get the
19:33sense that it's like they're like buddies or anything I just think that yeah I don't get that
19:38sense I just got the sense that Quinn was somewhere and they were talking and you know he just heard
19:42that thought it was a good a good message and something that resonated with him I'm sure coming
19:46off the last year and of all the injuries he's trying to figure out how to how to how to
19:50motivate
19:51everybody and I think it was more in that vein then uh yeah those guys are uh you know diehard
19:58uh
19:58fans or anything like that all right last one um the first day of camp did you what was there
20:05a big
20:05takeaway was there anything you felt like okay uh wasn't expecting that necessarily um you know you're
20:12not tweeting out play by play which I I very much appreciate and I'm glad you're not but you're there
20:17and
20:18you've got eyes on stuff was there a takeaway or two yeah so Dan Quinn you may have already talked
20:25about this but Dan Quinn told us at the beginning of the press conference that he's breaking up training
20:30camp this year differently he's in breaking up in like six different segments and they're going to
20:35have like a certain concentration with each one which actually makes a little more sense to me because
20:40repetition is always a way to to help learn things anyway they started with the red zone and he said
20:46he
20:46did that in part because he wanted to he wanted to bring out the competitive juices right off the bat
20:51and obviously in the red zone it's pretty simple there's the end zone ball gets over the line or
20:55doesn't get over the line and you know it's always said the defenses start faster than the offenses
21:00I think that was pretty clear today that was the case obviously the red zone's a tight area
21:03uh a lot of times whatever the quarter whoever the quarterback was they were not finding guys open
21:09when they did throw the ball a bunch of passes were were knocked down uh Mikey Sanders still should
21:14have had an interception on one Jaden Daniels getting forced out like running and threw it
21:20kind of into traffic and Sanders still dropped it and had to do push-ups but the defense was that
21:24was
21:24ahead of the offense and you know I this is not about oh wow the defense looks great we've been
21:30burned by
21:30that too many times over the years we'll see that when we get to sundays but in terms of what
21:35we're
21:35expecting to see out of them but from the Durante Jones system I think that we started to see for
21:40sure that you would see you know guys stunting that they're going to blitz and then drop back
21:44uh you know linemen uh we're not you know would drop back you know guys would come off the edge
21:50to rush etc so I think from that perspective I think that stood out just seeing the defense
21:55in a very early part here starting to show a little bit more of what we're expecting from them
22:01uh and that was a good sign like I said the offense was largely not so great they did uh
22:06Jaden and uh
22:07Mariotta late were able to hit some guys in some sort of like corner passes uh Deone Brown had one
22:13catch it was sort of reminded me of like uh that Santoni Santoni Holmes touchdown in the Super Bowl
22:19where it's like I don't know how the ball even got to him and he jumps over a defender uh
22:23Traylon Burks
22:24was effective in that space as well because you know he's got good size but in general I think the
22:29defensive hype that we've been discussing in terms of what they're going to do I think that showed the
22:33most today last one uh what does Adafi Owe look like in person uh is he is tall and long
22:41you know
22:41as he appears on tv watching him play football in person yeah you know because there's so many of
22:49these guys uh you know out there and they're just huge uh men you sort of forget sometimes that he's
22:55individually like if you just saw them on the street you'd be like oh what what's going on here uh
23:00but
23:00yeah he's absolutely uh one of those guys and you know we've talked about the younger faster uh
23:06approach to the roster building here this offseason and he's you know as epitomizes that as much as
23:12anybody uh and you know he just it's almost sometimes hard to look at some of these guys
23:17and realize that we're both the same species well yeah it doesn't make any sense how they look like
23:24that and you know if the rest of us look like the way we do uh but yeah he's a
23:27huge guy and look
23:29i think that obviously there's a lot of expectations on him and i i'm very curious to see
23:35how it goes in that he is definitively like they have a lot of other options but like you know
23:40if
23:40you're the other team you're definitely checking him and there he got paid to be the guy to lead the
23:46way so um you know it's a bit different than some of the roles he's had in the past so
23:50we'll see how it
23:50goes and uh yeah but i mean as a just pure athlete there's obviously you understand what what the appeal
23:56is
23:57uh a friend of mine reminded me that it was this time last year that you came on and you
24:02said
24:03and you wrote this but you also you know said it on this show that i just have a feeling
24:08that brian
24:09robinson jr is not going to be on the roster when we get to the opener do you have any
24:14bold predictions
24:15like that one here on the first day of camp
24:20no um i'm not there yet i mean a part of that is also like it's you know we got
24:25new coordinators
24:26right you got to like figure out what they're all about uh i mean look i do think this is
24:30a much more
24:31competitive roster i think that by the end there will be some players maybe starters maybe not but
24:37some guys that we're familiar with that you're probably right now thinking you're going to make
24:39the team that won't because they're just they have a lot more bodies out there a defensive line
24:45that's really true receiver i know we're lamenting that they maybe don't have an obvious number two
24:50but they do have a lot of other guys who can fill in uh you know sort of you know
24:54three through six
24:55or however many they go some of those guys won't make it so no i don't have a lean right
25:00now or at
25:00least not one that i'm willing to throw out there publicly yet until i think about it some more but
25:05uh
25:06yeah i think there's there's some potential candidates uh depending on how things play out
25:10all right thanks appreciate it we'll talk to you uh throughout camp ben standing sub stack is
25:16totally worth subscribing to it's called last man standing you can link to it and sign up for it
25:22by going to his x account at ben standing talk to you later thanks yeah man
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