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  • 14 hours ago
The Washington Commanders have just signed Stefon Diggs to the roster which will be a huge help for Jayden Daniels and first time Offensive Coordinator David Blough. Kevin Sheehan gives his prediction on how the football will be distributed among the Commanders' top receiving options in the 2026 NFL season.
Transcript
00:00So Diggs is in the fold.
00:02He just spoke a little bit earlier after practice today.
00:07So you know he's going to be on the field a lot.
00:10You know Terry McLaurin's going to be on the field a lot.
00:12You know that Chigakonkwo is going to be on the field a lot.
00:15I think the running back room is going to be interesting.
00:18I think that Rashad White's going to get a lot of the snaps.
00:21I think in sort of a best case for Bill early in the season,
00:26they'll be shared, but that is subject to change.
00:30The question is, how do you see the ball being spread around?
00:35Who's going to lead the team in targets?
00:37Who's going to be second in targets?
00:40Who's going to be third in targets?
00:42I'm going to give you my top four in order.
00:45I think that, you know, Terry and Diggs and Chig
00:51are all going to be targeted around the same number.
00:55Like I could easily see all three of them getting somewhere
00:58in the neighborhood of 100 targets for the season.
01:02You know, 300 between the three of them out of say 500 or so for the year.
01:07That's normal, especially for a team that I think is going to try to run the football
01:11and hopefully will run the football successfully.
01:16I think those three are going to have a similar number at the end of the season.
01:22Obviously, this assumes health.
01:24And it's going to be, you know, plus or minus 10 from 100.
01:29But I'll say Terry's still the number one targeted receiver, pass catcher.
01:35I'll say that Diggs is two and a Conquo is three.
01:47It's going to be something like 103, 95, and 90.
01:52Something like that in terms of targets.
01:55And then the running back will be fourth because they're going to throw to the running back
01:59just like Detroit did, Ben Johnson did with Jameer Gibbs, who got paid yesterday.
02:04Big time.
02:06Highest paid running back in the history of the game.
02:08Man, all of a sudden, last year, one running back in the history of the game,
02:12Saquon Barkley at 20-plus million per year, and in the last week, Jonathan Taylor,
02:18B. John Robinson, and Jameer Gibbs, all well over 20 million.
02:23It's actually a deal when you consider how many passes guys like B. John and Jameer Gibbs catch
02:31because they're still way under the market in terms of receivers.
02:35But I think you're going to see a Rashad White catch a bunch of balls.
02:39And I think Krosky Merritt, if he's improved in that area, will catch a bunch of balls.
02:43I'll just say that the running back, White or Krosky Merritt, ends up being the fourth most targeted
02:49in the 60-70 range for the season.
02:52Something like that.
02:55But I think it's going to be really close between Terry, Diggs, and Chig.
02:59But I'll go in order. Terry, Diggs, Chigakonquo, Rashad White.
03:06That's how the ball will be spread out, in order of targets.
03:10And, you know, you may not end up with a guy that catches 100 balls this year.
03:14I mean, you may not end up with a guy that catches 90 balls this year, clearly,
03:19if the targets are right in terms of what I'm talking about.
03:22But to have three guys in the 70-plus, you know, maybe you get a 70, 75, and an 80
03:29among your top three, that would be exciting.
03:34That'd be really exciting if you ended up with something like that.
03:38And then a back that catches 50 balls?
03:42Yeah.
03:43Again, I'm counting on them running the football.
03:48Max, what's your spread it out, you know, rankings look like?
03:55I'm really, I'm not sure how it's going to work out right now.
03:59I am kind of of the opinion that I think Terry and Diggs are going to split
04:04probably around 50-50 on their target share.
04:07So I'm not sure what we'll call that.
04:10Yeah, I don't need numbers from you guys.
04:12I just want the ranking.
04:14Who's going to get targeted the most?
04:16Who's going to get targeted the second most?
04:18Who's going to get targeted the third most?
04:20I'm going Terry, Diggs, and Chig in that order.
04:24I mean, I think it could be any one of those three at one, two, or three.
04:28Because I think they're going to be targeted very similarly among all three.
04:33But so you think Terry and Stefan Diggs are one, two in some order?
04:39Yeah, one, two in some order.
04:40I think that we're going to be slinging the pill quite a bit.
04:43And then with how...
04:46Tight end centric, I've heard that this offense is.
04:48I can't not put Chig up in the top three.
04:50So my top three is the exact same as yours.
04:53So we'll see kind of how it works out.
04:55But yeah, Terry, Stefan, Chig.
04:57Yeah, I mean, if you want an idea like the Lions, right?
05:01Now look, Amon Ross St. Brown gets targeted.
05:04You know, he got targeted 172 times a few years ago.
05:08But if you go back to the 2024 Lions, Ben Johnson and that offense humming all year long.
05:14And if you, you know, think that Ben, you know, that David Blau is going to do something similar.
05:21In terms of targets that year, Amon Ross had 141.
05:26Jamison Williams had 91.
05:28Sam Laporta had 83.
05:29And Gibbs had 63.
05:31That was their top four in terms of targets.
05:36Amon Ross that year had 115 catches.
05:4012 touchdowns.
05:42You know, I don't think Washington has an Amon Ross St. Brown out there.
05:47I don't think Terry and Diggs are so far away from that.
05:52But yeah, and maybe Chig ends up being every bit the pass-catching tight end that Laporta is.
05:59I think he's got a chance to be better than Laporta.
06:02But there's not a Jameer Gibbs in the backfield.
06:05That's for sure.
06:07All right, let's go with D.C., who's calling from Iowa.
06:12D.C., go ahead.
06:14Great day, Kevin.
06:15How are you?
06:16How are you, D.C.?
06:17Man, I'm excellent, brother.
06:20We know Terry.
06:21I mean, we know Jaden spreads the ball around.
06:24And Terry is our number one.
06:26So I'm going Terry, Diggs, and I'm going to look at Rashard White.
06:30I know that the offense is set up for a conquist.
06:33But Rashard White is very right on third downs and plays as well.
06:38So I'm going to go with him over-check.
06:40And Stephon's aggressiveness with Terry, they're going to demand the ball because they're going to be open and they're going
06:47to be game changers.
06:49Yeah.
06:49Yeah, no, I like your thinking.
06:51And the way Jaden spread it around in the full season that he's played in the NFL in 2024, Terry
06:57got the most targets.
06:59Ertz got the second most.
07:01Terry was targeted 117 times, Ertz 91 times.
07:06By the way, Ertz's third down red zone ability, you know, hopefully will be replaced by a con quo.
07:13Not the same size target and not the veteran experience necessarily.
07:18Chig is going to provide much more explosiveness and yards after catch than Ertz did.
07:25But if you go back to 2024, now part of this was because the next two in line didn't play
07:31that much because they were injured during the course of the year.
07:34But Olamide Zaccheaus was the third most targeted receiver, but he played 17 games.
07:40Noah Brown was close.
07:41He only played in 11 games.
07:43And Austin Eckler probably would have been the third most targeted receiver had he played 17 games.
07:50Because he was targeted 41 times in 12 games.
07:55Maybe Noah Brown would have been there, but gives you an idea of what Jaden was looking at that first
08:00year.
08:00Thank you, D.C.
08:01Let's go to Kevin in Virginia.
08:03Kevin, go ahead.
08:06Thanks for attending my call.
08:08Sure.
08:08I don't disagree with their list.
08:10I'd probably put Rashad White's third just because he's an outlier.
08:16Who are the most consequential targets?
08:19And I would make the argument that De'Ami is a dark horse because he's our only really deep threat.
08:27I don't think Diggs is at a point where he's a deep threat.
08:29But will Diggs' presence open the field for De'Ami so that he can do some over-the-top long
08:36balls that make a difference in a game?
08:39If he has 40 or 50 catches that are 20-plus yards, that could change games.
08:47And I also would argue that Chig is a consequential target because Ernst used to get that first down for
08:55us.
08:55We are third and five, third and six.
08:57If he had a way of getting that first down, Jaden would go to him.
09:02Well, Chig developed into that target for Jaden as well.
09:06I think those two players are very important in making a difference in the game and winning those games.
09:14Yeah, I think that's another way to look at it.
09:16But I like the way you looked at it.
09:18And that is, where are the consequential catches and yards going to come from?
09:23I still think that the three players that I'm talking about and even number four, even if they're not average
09:31yards per reception, it's somewhere north of 13, 14 yards per, it's still going to be consequential.
09:38But in terms of De'Ami, yes.
09:40And remember, De'Ami did not have a great regular season.
09:44He kind of came on at the end of that regular season and then into the postseason.
09:49But I would just say that Terry still has deep threat capability.
09:56Until I see otherwise, he's still going to be a guy that you have to, you know, you have to
10:01respect in terms of his ability to take the top off of a defense.
10:05I'm not saying it would be at the same level, you know, if they had gone out and gotten Rashid
10:10Shahid as an example.
10:12But he's still a deep threat and probably every bit the deep threat that De'Ami is.
10:18But thanks for the call, Kevin.
10:19Let's go to G.
10:20G, go ahead.
10:22Yeah, that last call of Kevin, man, was right on point.
10:27Because when you think of third and five, everybody think of Terry or Stephon Diggs getting the football and we
10:35might do some other stuff in D'Ami for 70 yards, scoring six.
10:43Yeah.
10:44I see a balanced breakfast, Kevin.
10:47That'd be new for you.
10:50No, like you said, Stabney, 60, Stabney for this guy, Stabney for this guy.
11:01Because Stephon Diggs sounded real coachable in that press conference.
11:05He did.
11:06He did.
11:06But that's, you know.
11:09And people will say that he is in that first year usually.
11:14No, no, no, no.
11:16No, no, no?
11:17I was just agreeing with you.
11:19We had Bob Malloy on the air the other day.
11:22Yesterday.
11:24We're not asking Stephon Diggs to watch our kids.
11:28We're not asking him to cook our breakfast.
11:31We're asking him to produce some football field.
11:33You've been smoking this morning, haven't you?
11:35You are really, really laid back.
11:38You're really delivering a very, very methodical call here.
11:43I like it.
11:43I like it.
11:45No, because I see a balanced breakfast.
11:48Yeah.
11:48What did you have for breakfast?
11:52Weed.
11:53Yeah.
11:54Of course you did.
11:55A little Tito's and coffee.
11:56Yeah.
11:56A little Tito's and coffee.
11:58A little Tito's and coffee on a Friday morning with weed.
12:02You know what?
12:03You got good balance there.
12:06Balanced breakfast.
12:08Yeah.
12:09I see him.
12:10But at the same time, Stephon Diggs has played with super, like numerous quarterbacks.
12:16Yeah.
12:17We need to get our AC fixed.
12:20We need to get our insect repellent fixed.
12:22But at the same time, it showed that he's been different places and can adapt to different places.
12:29Yeah.
12:29He's a veteran.
12:31He played with veteran quarterbacks.
12:32He's a veteran.
12:33He's seen it all.
12:34No, but he's played with veteran quarterbacks.
12:37He's played with young quarterbacks.
12:38Yep.
12:39But at the same time, we have, like, Underline, Undercover, one of the top offenses out there
12:49because you got Chegg, who's finding himself.
12:57What are you going to have for lunch?
12:59What are you cooking up for lunch?
13:02Scooby-Doo style sandwich?
13:03Tim, don't dog me like I'm incoherent.
13:08You're not incoherent.
13:10You're actually entertaining.
13:11But I'm just asking you what you're having for lunch.
13:16I'm having Kevin Sheehan pause.
13:19Because the thing is, the tight end position has always been a security blanket for J.D.
13:24We got Stephon Diggs and Terry McLaurin, and I agree with you.
13:29Terry McLaurin is still a deep ball threat.
13:31But Diami Brown, that's going to open the field up for Diami Brown.
13:35Diami Brown has been told to me for years about somebody that lived down North Carolina
13:41and watched him in high school.
13:43Diami Brown came into his own with Jaden Daniels.
13:47Then we couldn't find the money to pay him.
13:50He went somewhere else and got the money.
13:52He had a good little year.
13:55But at the same time, it's going to open the whole football field up.
13:58And like you said, Rashad White, Bill, but we have a running quarterback also.
14:05I got to get to a break.
14:08I'm coming over and doing a balanced breakfast with you one of these days.
14:11And let me just leave you with this.
14:13Eric Metcalf, O'Connell.
14:17No, I'm mad I ain't saying I'm on air because, you know, I'm well versed in all this.
14:22I'm well versed in all this in the water, man.
14:24Yeah.
14:25All right.
14:25I got to go.
14:26I got to go.
14:26G from the shop, everybody.
14:28Stay on hold.
14:29How will the ball be spread around offensively?
14:33Where do you see the targets?
14:34Who leads in being targeted?
14:36Who's second?
14:37Who's third?
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