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Nick Allegretti is already injured two days into training camp. Tobi and Grant are somewhat concerned with the outlook of the center position for the Commanders.
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00:00So the center position, now center of attention.
00:03This has been a storyline since the moment the commanders made the surprising decision to cut Tyler Biotish.
00:11At the time of doing so, I was actually really taken aback because I didn't think Biotish had a bad
00:16season.
00:17I thought he was fine. I didn't think he was great, but he's plenty good enough.
00:21Not an issue in any way.
00:22Then you do a little digging, asking around, trying to figure out what's going on.
00:26And it's pretty clear, they thought Nick Allegretti, where maybe he's not physically a better football player,
00:32is mentally going to get them in and out of situations better.
00:37And especially with a new offense, needs to be picked up on the fly.
00:40Maybe a better fit for some of the David Blau asks of helping Jaden Daniels in this offense.
00:45So I think that's a big part of why Allegretti's the guy. Fine.
00:49I thought that they would add some competition, though, or at least go out and get some depth.
00:54With someone behind him that has a chance, as a long-time NFL player and maybe off-and-on starter,
01:00to really push him a little bit.
01:02They said at the time, remember, when they cut Biotish, that that was what they were going to do.
01:06And then they really didn't.
01:07So behind Nick Allegretti at camp, you've got Julian Good-Jones, who's a bit of a journeyman.
01:12Well-liked in the building. Really hard worker.
01:14One of those guys whose car's always here at like 5.30 in the morning all offseason.
01:18I think he's very, very respected in the room.
01:21But not a guy with a long resume of playing a ton.
01:23And then they drafted Matt Goulbin in the very late rounds, who's a free agent,
01:27who they think at some point could be a starting center in this league.
01:31But I don't think some point's supposed to be in September.
01:33So, okay, fine. You've layered it with Allegretti.
01:36You're counting on him. Eggs in his basket.
01:38Good-Jones is your backup, etc.
01:40And then on the first day of training camp, Allegretti gets hurt.
01:44And this is a guy who's played through some pain, who's been banged up.
01:46He's very, very physical.
01:48Mauling-type interior alignment.
01:49So he's going to be banged up at times.
01:51He's probably going to miss a game or two along the way.
01:54Are you comfortable with not having another guy with some legitimate pelts on the wall?
01:59That's the big question.
02:01And here we are, Tobes.
02:03It's July 30th.
02:04We aren't even three days into camp.
02:07Today, the presser Dan Quinn had to say that we got an injury to Allegretti that we're dealing with behind
02:12the scenes
02:13was before the second practice.
02:15And we're here.
02:16Yeah, it's concerning.
02:18When you talk about this position, they created a bit of a hole behind Allegretti that I don't feel was
02:24entirely necessary.
02:25You opened up some cap space.
02:27But part of the reason that I wasn't so keen on them moving on from Tyler Biotish is everyone's like,
02:33well, he wasn't playing up to the standard.
02:34Well, that's fine.
02:35I don't necessarily disagree.
02:36I'm not sitting here as a Tyler Biotish apologist or anything.
02:39It's not like he was a world-beating center.
02:42But you saved a little bit of money, emphasis on a little, because there were other guys that had larger
02:46cap hits
02:47that you could have saved more money on that I would say weren't meeting the standard.
02:50But they decided to move on from Biotish to save a little bit of dough.
02:53And it's not like they went out.
02:55And they did spend a lot of money this offseason, but it's not as if they were strapped for cash.
02:59Like, they've still got cap room, and they could have easily kept him on the roster.
03:02And probably we're not having this discussion on day two at training camp.
03:06If Biotish had to miss time, well, Alec Reddy would step in, right?
03:09Like, that's kind of where they're at.
03:10Versus now, Alec Reddy has to miss time.
03:12As you've mentioned, he's dealt with injuries throughout his career,
03:14and a lot of times been able to power through it.
03:16Even remember when he was on the Kansas City Chiefs and playing for them,
03:19he was powering through injuries going into the Super Bowl.
03:22And so it's not like I don't think...
03:23But to be clear, he played the Super Bowl with a broken arm.
03:26Yeah.
03:27That's powering through injuries to, like, the third power.
03:29Yeah.
03:30So, you know, he deserves credit for that.
03:32But also, you don't feel good about any options behind him.
03:35And maybe they thought they were going to be able to get some guys in the draft.
03:39Goulbin, we'll see what he can develop into, but that's still a late-round draft pick.
03:43I actually think their fifth-round pick, they had a couple of centers taken right before their pick.
03:47And I'd be curious if Brailsford, Alabama, hecked out of Kansas State.
03:52Again, that's a fifth-round pick.
03:53It's not like you expect them to start right away,
03:54but maybe you feel a little bit better if you have one of those guys,
03:57especially a guy like Brailsford with a little more pedigree coming from Bama.
04:00But regardless, you don't feel great if Allegretti has to miss some time.
04:05So you'd like to see either Allegretti quickly be back out on the practice field
04:09or them to address this backup center position.
04:11Yeah.
04:12So what I refuse to do, and this is just, like, too many years of sitting down here in Ashburn,
04:17is to overreact to a guy getting banged up on the first day or two.
04:21I've got to wait for more information on Allegretti and or Burks, you know,
04:26both of those guys before I'm really nervous or have many anxieties.
04:30Because there's guys that will miss practices with bumps and bruises all summer long.
04:34You'll drive yourself crazy if you start thinking he's going to be out for a month.
04:38Now, what is the track record of a guy?
04:39Someone like Burks, it does seem like any time even something very minor happens with him,
04:43it lingers for weeks.
04:44That happened even with the finger in season last year.
04:47So maybe there's a little bit more of an anxiousness with an injury to a guy like that.
04:51But just keeping it with Allegretti in the center position for a second.
04:55I want to play first a clip from yesterday.
04:57So this was when DQ was talking about Allegretti in the center spot
05:01and what they like about him.
05:03I think you've got to listen to the endorsement here to understand the indictment of the past.
05:10We talked about this with Peters on the new scheme being so quarterback friendly,
05:14and Jaden's not going to have to make a play and be a hero on every single snap.
05:17That was him, without saying it, telling you the offense with Kingsbury last year
05:21was problematic in that way.
05:23And similarly, this is why Nick Allegretti's their guy.
05:25This is why they cut Biotish, obviously as a $10 million player.
05:29They think he will do a better job helping point things out for Jaden Daniels.
05:33Listen to what Quinn had to say about him.
05:35One, like high-level competitor.
05:38And so we've played well with Nick in the lineup, that'd be it at guard.
05:42But interior, that's his space.
05:44He's played center.
05:45He's played guard, even though you may not have seen him in some of the games.
05:49Like every week he was repping inside to go.
05:51So that was a big piece of it.
05:54We've got a lot of faith and confidence in him.
05:55It's another one of the positions that we do have competition that we're going for.
05:59But if Nick was playing on defense, he'd be a green dot.
06:05This is one of the smartest guys on our team now.
06:08Like when you talk about putting it under control, that's part of playing center.
06:12And he has that targeting.
06:14Who's this?
06:15Where's the protection going?
06:18So we've got a lot of confidence in him.
06:20He is one hell of a competitor.
06:22And so he's one of those guys, man, you don't bet against that.
06:25You know, might be a new, but you don't do that with everybody.
06:29But somebody for him, you no doubt you do it.
06:32So I'm trying to think about how I want to phrase this.
06:35But I think the center position is ultra important.
06:41In fact, I think it's probably on offense the most overlooked important position that no one kind of gives the
06:47correct credence to.
06:49And especially now in this offseason with this fan base, I feel like it's just kind of being dismissed a
06:55little bit.
06:55Like, well, look, if they're moving on from Biotish and promoting Alec Greti and they feel okay about good Jones
07:01and Goldman, whatever, it's just center.
07:03They clearly don't care that much.
07:05I think they care.
07:07I think and I hope they care.
07:09And maybe it's just that they're that high on these players.
07:11But I need other people.
07:13I need you guys to care.
07:15Like, center matters.
07:16And if you don't have a center who can get you out of bad looks or can help your young
07:22quarterback.
07:22And I know Daniels is going into year three, but he's very young in this scheme.
07:26He's going to be playing in a pro-style offense like Blouse pretty much for the first time.
07:31Because LSU is very college-y.
07:33Kingsbury is as college-y as anything you see on a Saturday.
07:37This is a huge deal that they have Alec Greti out there.
07:40Or if it's not him, that Julian Good-Jones is out there.
07:42You'll hear from Sam Cosme on the show later today.
07:44He talked about Good-Jones' acumen and if he could be that guy filling in in that role.
07:48But I guess that's what I want to highlight and underscore here.
07:51Center's important.
07:53This is not just a, yeah, tackles are the guys that are dealing with the edges.
07:57And guards have become more important because the de-tackles need to be blocked.
08:01Whatever happens at center is fine.
08:02I would say, like, quarterback.
08:05Obviously, you need your weapons, right?
08:07But in a new offense with a scheme, yeah, it's quarterback-friendly.
08:12But the amount of things that are different at the line of scrimmage pre-snap with the shifts and the
08:16motions and the reading things out and trying to get a feel for who's coming and who's not.
08:21The center is vital here.
08:22They have to get this right.
08:24This is a really big deal.
08:25Today is not a great start, but I'm not going to get nervous yet on July 30th.
08:29Yeah, I don't think it's something where you're trying to overreact to it in the second day of training camp.
08:34It just shows you that if anything happens to Nick Allegretti, you're kind of in dire straits right away.
08:40And maybe there are other guys that end up factoring in as camp goes on.
08:44We'd heard throughout the offseason that maybe Brandon Coleman would get a chance at center.
08:48So maybe that's something that does pop up a little bit later on into camp as maybe if there's another
08:54injury or something of that nature.
08:55And maybe, you know, as time goes on, that's something that happens.
08:58But maybe you're just going to say we're going to stick with what we've got right now expecting that you're
09:02going to get Allegretti back in a couple of days.
09:04But either way, it just shows you that it's Nick Allegretti and then the option behind him you don't feel
09:09great about.
09:10And I think that's something that they kind of opened up that hole without it being necessary.
09:15And if Allegretti's healthy and they get back out there, I think you can hear how positive they feel about
09:19that.
09:19And regardless of what you think of that plan, you know, that to me is a little bit irrelevant in
09:23this.
09:23It's just showing you that the depth behind him is questionable at best.
09:27I actually think this is a really good point from KB on Twitter.
09:30I'm at Grant Paulson.
09:31You can hit up Toby on X as well.
09:33Toby is at Toby underscore Altizer.
09:36KB said, they actually told us by going after Tyler Lindebaum in the offseason that Allegretti wasn't even their first
09:41choice.
09:42Now, that to me doesn't mean a whole lot because I've got to be honest with you, Tyler Lindebaum is
09:47everybody's first choice.
09:48Yeah, exactly.
09:48Like you could be the third best center in the league and guess what?
09:52There's 30 teams that would, you know, want that guy essentially.
09:58But I think he's on to something in that there was an attempt to go get a center.
10:05It tells me they understand the value of the position.
10:07Now, they ended up not wanting to pay, I think it was $28 million a year that he made, something
10:12asinine like that.
10:13And even me, as I'm sitting here screaming about how important center is, let me be a hypocrite for a
10:18second.
10:18I think that's a joke.
10:19That's insane.
10:20I would never do that just because that's not what the market is.
10:23There's one of those guys.
10:24But I'm not buying a house for $2 million in a neighborhood where every other house is at $1 to
10:29$1.2.
10:30But having said that, by being in on that sweepstakes, it's an acknowledgment that they are aware that this is
10:36an important thing.
10:37It's not like they just went, like, remember the pass regime with Rivera?
10:41They just didn't care about linebacker that much, it felt like.
10:43They're just like, ah, we're fine, we'll do this.
10:45No, no, no, no.
10:45This is not that they're just saying they're set at center because they're going with a JAG core.
10:51I really believe they like Allegretti that much mentally.
10:54Yeah, I think they do.
10:55And I will say, I agree with your point that center is really, really important.
10:58You would also hope that in year three that Jaden Daniels can maybe handle some of the responsibilities.
11:03So maybe it's not as important.
11:05And why Linderbaum go in there, presumably to play with Fernando Mendoza pretty soon.
11:09That's helping out a rookie versus helping out a year three guy.
11:13So you hope Jaden can handle it, but it's still not underselling.
11:15He's going to be largely important.
11:17Like, Allegretti is going to be helping him up front, making sure they get into the right looks and different
11:21things.
11:21So you can't undervalue the center position.
11:25I don't think they are.
11:26I just think you're in a spot where if anything happens to Allegretti, I don't feel good about Julian Good
11:31-Jones.
11:31I don't feel good about Goulbin stepping in as a rookie right away.
11:34This goes back to the same conversation we have about personnel on offense and the skill positions.
11:39But I'm sure Jaden Daniels can elevate those guys and be Superman as often as you want him to.
11:45You don't always have to ask him to.
11:47They don't want that to be the case.
11:49Could he be the guy to get everything right at the line of scrimmage all the time?
11:52Maybe.
11:53Why make him be?
11:54Why not have a center who is the guy that's telling him on the sideline what he's seeing, what he
11:59needs to check out of, how he should go about it?
12:01And they obviously thought that that was enough of an issue at some point last year that they wanted to
12:05make this change.
12:06Like, there was something that Biotish was not doing at a high enough level to help Jaden Daniels and the
12:12quarterbacks.
12:13Some of it is just not a quarterback's job in terms of passing off protections or whatever.
12:17There's going to be communicating within the lineman while he's doing some other stuff.
12:20But this isn't that Jaden Daniels can't do something as much as it is.
12:25There's not a quarterback in the league.
12:27Peyton Manning had Jeff Saturday, who was like a coach on the field.
12:30Yeah, and they'd be arguing on the sidelines over things.
12:32Yeah, it's a great benefit.
12:33They're always communicating.
12:35I'll ask you this real quick, though, Grant, is do you think that there's someone else that ends up being
12:39the backup center?
12:40That maybe, you know, we think Good Jones and those guys are on the depth chart.
12:42They're kind of competing right now.
12:44Those are the obvious backup centers.
12:45But do you think one of these other backup interior linemen is going to be the ultimate backup center when
12:50we get to the season?
12:51On this roster now?
12:52Yeah.
12:53Maybe.
12:54I mean, can Coleman play center?
12:55Yeah, I mean, they've talked about potentially doing that.
12:58I'd like to see that.
12:58I think Brandon Coleman's the best lineman on their team that doesn't have a starting spot.
13:02Agreed.
13:03So I would like to see what that looks like.
13:05I also know that they really like Julian Good Jones.
13:08I just can't sit here and pretend like I do because I haven't seen it.
13:11Correct.
13:12I'd recognize him if he sat on my lap, but that's the extent of my relationship and knowledge of Julian
13:17Good Jones.
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