- 1 day ago
Nick Allegretti and Treylon Burks are both not at practice today. What is the concern level for Washington this early in training camp?
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00:00I think for a lot of fans, there was already angst about the center position, right?
00:06About cutting Biotis in the offseason, going with Allegretti.
00:09I did not share that angst.
00:11I really like Allegretti.
00:13I've known him for some time, really thoughtful.
00:16We'll have to see if he can get it done at the center position,
00:19but I was not overly concerned by that decision-making process.
00:24And bang, day one, Allegretti has to leave.
00:28And Dan Quinn, I'm going to get the exact language here, so I'm not paraphrasing.
00:32What day is today?
00:34No.
00:36This is yesterday.
00:38I would like to get today's transcript.
00:39Instead, I'll paraphrase.
00:41But basically, Allegretti not at practice today with something along the lines of a calf strain, okay?
00:51Calf strain for presumably your starting center on day one of camp, not ideal.
00:57I recognize that.
00:59DQ also says, we don't think this is a big deal.
01:03I'm going to give him benefit of the doubt.
01:04It's July 30th.
01:06The first game is September 13th.
01:09So, like, we do have to temper this, right?
01:11But what happens when your starting center goes down,
01:14and the other centers on the roster are Julian Good-Jones,
01:19who has primarily been a practice squad player.
01:22Julian Good-Jones was getting the work with the first team today.
01:27I will say, in most of the drills we saw, the defense was kind of winning.
01:32And Derron Payne, the interior of the commander's defensive line, was kind of winning.
01:37And I wonder how much of that was directly related to Allegretti not being out there.
01:43For, to understand Julian Good-Jones, like, he's been a practice squad guy.
01:47He's played in one game in the NFL.
01:50I don't even know if he played, but he was on the active roster for one game in 2023.
01:55He's 29 years old, undrafted guy out of Iowa State.
01:58So, that dip from Allegretti to Good-Jones on paper is significant.
02:04Matt Golbin, the draft pick, was running with the twos.
02:08And then I think it was a guy, Tim McKay, running with the threes.
02:11So, you wonder.
02:16That brings questions, right?
02:17You impacted your center depth, for sure, with the move to get rid of Biotish, all right?
02:27The other one, and I'll say that I'm more concerned by this, is Trey Burks is out today.
02:35DQ described it as foot soreness.
02:39My excitement level and concern level for Trey Burks has existed throughout this offseason.
02:46This is a young man that I don't believe has really ever had a healthy offseason.
02:49And coming through OTAs in the minicamp, I talked to him, and he felt energized.
02:54He felt refreshed.
02:55Felt like he had a new opportunity.
02:58And for him to now mispractice on the second day of camp,
03:02now, granted, they say it's foot soreness.
03:05It's not a big deal.
03:06Cool.
03:06But, like, look at Burks' resume.
03:09You've got a guy that played eight games last year, five games in 24, 11 games in 23, 11 games
03:15in 22.
03:16Tennessee released him outright last year as he was dealing with the aftereffects.
03:20I believe last year was a broken collarbone.
03:22This is a dude that has never stayed healthy.
03:25And last year, one of the things we hammered them for,
03:28now, granted, they had added Deami Brown, but, like, they went into camp.
03:32I'm sorry, they added Debo Samuel.
03:35But Debo's kind of a unique player, right?
03:37And they went into camp with Noah Brown as their number two.
03:39And it was like, all right, but Brown has a long injury history.
03:42And then, sure enough, that popped up right away.
03:46You couple that with McLaurin missing a lot of time, and then you had big trouble in the receiver room.
03:50But this year, it sure seemed like Burks was your number two, and he's missing time on day two of
03:58camp.
03:59And I think I said this on air yesterday.
04:01Like, if I could grant one wish for a football player this camp, which I can't.
04:06I don't have that power.
04:07I have very little power, frankly.
04:08You should see my house.
04:09I'm powerless.
04:10But the one thing I wanted was for Burks to get all the way through camp completely healthy.
04:15And I would just say, on day two to miss time, sucks.
04:20It just sucks.
04:21So I do want to open the phone lines up early.
04:24800-636-1067.
04:26800-636-1067.
04:29And let people weigh in.
04:30Like, if you've got center angst, you can call.
04:32If you've got wide receiver angst, you can call.
04:35And I just wonder, with Burks, he might just miss today.
04:41He might be going on Saturday.
04:42Allegretti might be going on Saturday.
04:44They could be extra cautious because this is a ramp-up period, and they have an off day tomorrow.
04:49So, like, I want to be completely cognizant of the entire situation and not try to sound an alarm when
04:56an alarm's unnecessary.
04:58That said, where are you at?
05:01It's the second day of camp.
05:02Now, you're seeing this all over the place.
05:03I mean, nobody's been more snake-bitten than Carolina so far.
05:06The Panthers have had significant injuries to significant players.
05:09But it's just not great, man.
05:14And I don't think – who was the guy you said you loved?
05:19The Brown Center that got released that I believe signed with the Ravens.
05:22Yep, that's the guy I really liked.
05:24There was some conversation about should that have been somebody they go after when he hit the market maybe like
05:32two weeks ago?
05:34Ethan Pochick.
05:35Pochick?
05:35I don't know if I'm saying it right.
05:37He's been in the NFL a long time.
05:39I believe – yeah, he signed with the Ravens.
05:41So, like, that possibility doesn't exist.
05:44Obviously, they went after Linderbaum in the offseason, who Vegas just wasn't going to lose.
05:48Vegas was determined to pay that man his money, to quote Teddy KJB.
05:54There's not going to be a lot of great answers.
05:59Like, for people who are like, oh, go sign a veteran.
06:01I am sure there are veterans out there.
06:03Let's take a quick look at the free agents available at the center position via over the cap.
06:12But, I don't even know if they're going to list a bunch of people.
06:14I know James Daniels.
06:16Glasgow, I thought he retired, dude.
06:18I think Glasgow retired outright.
06:21Ryan Kelly, I think, hasn't signed yet.
06:25I don't know what they're going to do here.
06:27I think they're going to take their time because it is July 30th and we're so far away from, you
06:33know, actual football.
06:34And, maybe these things are incredibly minor.
06:38If your concern was, why'd you release Biotish, I don't share that.
06:42If your concern is, yo, the depth is really hurt, I think that's fair.
06:46And, I think you see it now on day two of camp.
06:50And, maybe Derron Payne was just having an excellent day.
06:52He looked pretty damn good early on.
06:55But, maybe he was going up against a career practice squad center that probably,
07:00Good Jones probably has mostly played guard in his career, I would say.
07:06I mean, he was a guard at Iowa State.
07:08The one game he played in 23, the one game he was active, they listed him as a guard.
07:12I did, we'll hear the questions, like, could Brandon Coleman play center?
07:16I don't know that answer.
07:18Apparently, he has a handful of snaps in his career when he was in college at TCU.
07:25And, again, we don't want to sound too many alarms too fast.
07:27But, arguably, the two positions people had the greatest level of concern about were center and wide receiver.
07:35And, for the first day of camp, you got two presumed starters out on the second day of camp.
07:42So, it is easy to say, oh, man, it's too early to be worried.
07:48And, that may be correct.
07:50I bet if B. Mitch was here, he'd be like, man, it's one day.
07:52Let's see what it's like in a week, whatever, right?
07:54But, it does add ammunition to those that had these concerns.
08:01800-636-1067.
08:02800-636-1067 is the phone number.
08:06Let us know.
08:07Is this nothing?
08:08Is this something?
08:09Are you concerned?
08:10Stallion, you can start.
08:10What's your concern level?
08:12I mean, I'm not, like, wildly concerned at this point.
08:15I would say I'm at, like, a 3 out of 10.
08:16And, honestly, I think I'm a little bit more worried, similar to you, about Traylon Burks just because of his
08:22injury history.
08:23But, also, on the flip side of it, I think that this gives opportunities for guys like Luke McCaffrey.
08:29I think De'Ami Brown is going to be getting back in play here.
08:32So, I feel as if that while these injuries aren't great early on, I do think it opens up for
08:38guys like even like a Matt Goulbin,
08:40who was a sixth-round pick this past year in the draft, what was he, fifth-round pick, I believe.
08:44But, anyway, I think that this is a good thing overall to see the depth that the Commanders have.
08:50And, who knows, maybe you get some better reps here.
08:53So, I guess we'll just have to see.
08:55Yeah, it's interesting.
08:56And I thought De'Ami early on caught a touchdown.
08:59I think it was from Mariota.
09:03They publicly are going to tell you there is zero concern, right?
09:07My question, I guess, for the phone lines would be, do you think we've heard Schefter say it?
09:12And I feel like when Schefter says stuff, it gets a little more interesting.
09:16Do you feel like this increases the possibility of a Steph Diggs signing?
09:21And, like, if we saw that news, would that be a surprise?
09:26Because I, maybe that's, like, too narrow-minded.
09:30Like, one thing does not immediately correlate to the next.
09:33But, if there's some buzz that it could happen, I feel like this could increase that buzz.
09:40And I wouldn't even think that's necessarily something that shouldn't happen.
09:44Like, we've talked about, could they use a veteran wide receiver, somebody they know can get open?
09:52Like, yeah, probably.
09:53And maybe you want to see what the guys you have get done.
09:58Now, you've got even more of a question mark.
10:02And it might be absolutely nothing.
10:04Both guys might be out there on Saturday, and we should not be overly concerned, right?
10:09But, that said, all of a sudden, the guy that's been out there looking like you're number two to Terry
10:15throughout the spring workouts is, I don't even know that I saw Burks, frankly.
10:22I think he was inside.
10:25Also saw John Bates go inside today.
10:27Again, could be nothing.
10:29Could be a vet's day.
10:30Who knows?
10:31But, let's hit up my guy Nick in Maryland.
10:36Nick, what do you think of injuries already?
10:40And you said it, man.
10:41The two things we were worried about in the first day of camp, the whole thing with the Raiders and
10:49the center,
10:49I think we made a deal behind the scenes, and it got blown up.
10:55But the deal is, can we, are we allowed to go to the NFL, not NFL, the new league that
11:02was playing, you know, three weeks ago?
11:04Can we extract players from that league?
11:07I've asked a question before about Canada.
11:09I don't know what the answer was.
11:11What league was playing three weeks ago?
11:13UFL?
11:14Yeah, UFL.
11:16Like the Defenders League?
11:17Can we go there and get a center?
11:19Can we get anybody?
11:20Are we allowed to get anything from that league and use it?
11:24Well, that league is over.
11:26They had their Super Bowl.
11:28We're good.
11:29The United Bowl or whatever it's called, the UFL Bowl, was, I think, like a month ago.
11:33So those guys can absolutely sign.
11:35A number of those guys have signed.
11:36So, yes, they could go to that league.
11:39Well, that's good.
11:40They're not at work right now.
11:41They're off.
11:42The other thing that's important to point out is I would add this, that thank you for the call, Nick.
11:51Appreciate you, bud.
11:54NFL rosters right now are at 90 men.
11:58When we get to the end of August, a bunch of veterans will get released, and teams might try to
12:05sign them back to their practice squad.
12:06But anybody that gets cut, Washington can claim as long as they're going to put them to their active.
12:13So it's entirely possible that Peters and Quinn are just looking around the league at some spots they think a
12:21guy they like will get released and that they're going to make a move at the end of rosters.
12:25Because you basically are carrying, help me with the math here, Stallion, you got 90's got to get to 53,
12:35so that's 37, right?
12:37Like, 37 players will get released across 32 teams.
12:42That's got to be close to 1,000, right?
12:44It's over 900.
12:45Oh, yeah.
12:46And it's entirely possible that Adam Peters and the scouting staff have looked at somebody else on the Saints or
12:54the Niners or the Chargers, and there's, like, somebody out there they like that they think eventually gets released, and
12:59they just kind of have to get through camp with the group they have.
13:02And then that is your depth for Allegretti.
13:05Like, you got to keep that in mind.
13:08If this was in season and rosters are way slimmer, one, you could pick somebody off somebody else's practice squad,
13:14so that would be 17 times 31 because they're not picking somebody off their own practice squad.
13:19But, like, there is a lack of depth right now because NFL rosters are much larger in training camp.
13:28And in the old days, when you used to have cuts almost every day, and then you had a series
13:32of big cuts, like, over the course of training camp, then you saw way more roster churn.
13:37Right now, you kind of only see it at the bottom of rosters as moves happen, as injuries happen.
13:44I think it'll be fairly telling if they don't add somebody that they're really not concerned.
13:51The old Rich Tandler corollary, don't listen to what they say, watch what they do.
13:55Now, when DQ provided the updates this morning, of course he's dismissive of it.
14:01Yeah, it's all minor stuff, no big deal.
14:03It's all good.
14:05We'll see as it continues.
14:06I think, you know, with Goulbin being a draft pick, he was running with the twos.
14:13Maybe he gets more look.
14:14I think, for me, I'm more concerned about the Burks stuff, just because he has dealt with injuries.
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