- 14 hours ago
Stefon Diggs is officially signed to the Washington Commanders and Kevin Sheehan reacts to Dan Quinn’s press conference where he talks about Stefon Diggs joining the Commanders, what his role in the offense will be and how they plan to catch him up to speed in the new offense.
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00:00We've got Ben with us.
00:01Ben's joining us from Ashburn.
00:03I believe he's still there.
00:04We played the Stefan Diggs press conference.
00:08You were there.
00:09Other than the bees or bugs that were flying around
00:12and the lack of air conditioning,
00:13I thought he really sounded like a true grizzled veteran player
00:19joining a team where there's something expected of him.
00:23I thought it was impressive.
00:25What did it seem like live, being there?
00:28Yes, and thanks.
00:29I kept my phone overheated, hence the delay.
00:33No, no worries.
00:34Yeah, no, he sounded like a guy who's like,
00:37wherever I'm going to go, you're getting a hell of a player.
00:42And I've been around the block.
00:44I know what I'm doing.
00:45I came into camp shape.
00:47I'm ready to roll, and we're going to roll with the punches.
00:52He wasn't shy about his answers, nothing through him.
00:57Like you said, he was talking about even like he couldn't hear the questions,
01:00which is a completely accurate point.
01:03I was in the back today.
01:04I was like, you can't hear anything.
01:06The distance terrible.
01:07I like that he brought it up.
01:09And then, you know, even stuff like the hometown.
01:11You know, we asked 17 different questions,
01:13what's it like to be home, which is a whole other story.
01:15But he kept saying, hey, look, you know, it's a great feeling.
01:19You know, when I used to play here, I was a visiting team.
01:22You know, I always played with a chip on my shoulder.
01:24That chip got exponentially larger when I came here
01:26because I always felt I had something to prove.
01:28And now that I'm here, that chip's going to be there.
01:30So, yeah, I mean, as far as press conferences go,
01:33I thought he was, you know, pretty fun and pretty, you know, direct.
01:36You know, you ask me a question, I'm going to give you an answer.
01:40I'm not just going to play around with it.
01:42And that's, you know, obviously, can be at least a bit of fun.
01:45Can be maybe a little live wire, but can be fun as well.
01:48Yeah, refreshing, but confident, you know, for sure.
01:51By the way, just as an aside, because you alluded to it,
01:56I don't have a problem with a player and the presentation being, you know,
02:02at least including the fact that the player's coming home.
02:05But it just reminds me of the dark days where we had an owner
02:11that literally, you know, thought that signing a hometown player
02:16was like a big deal.
02:18Nobody from any of their Super Bowl winning teams was from here.
02:22No one cares.
02:24Nobody actually cares about that.
02:27They care about getting the best players.
02:29It doesn't matter where they're from as long as they lead to winning.
02:33But, you know, I'm not criticizing them for making it a part of the,
02:40you know, presentation early on.
02:42But that's all we need to hear.
02:44Everybody knows Stefan Diggs grew up in the area, played at Good Counsel.
02:50Now it's about what he does as a player, no matter where he's from,
02:54from this point forward.
02:56Yeah.
02:56So it sounds like the way you mentioned it,
02:59it sounds like that's something that you kind of feel too.
03:02Maybe, maybe I misread.
03:04No, a million percent.
03:05I mean, look, to your point, the most popular and the best athlete
03:08in this town for the last 50 years is from freaking Russia.
03:11Like, if you win, that's all that matters.
03:15Or, you know, you play well, that's it.
03:17The rest of it, you know, it's a fun wrinkle, but it's hardly,
03:20yeah, we even just had it more recently.
03:22Chase Young was from here.
03:23You know, so, yeah, it is what it is.
03:25Snyder, Snyder with Young.
03:27Oh, my God.
03:28The whole thing was just, I just, I remember just saying, who cares?
03:34We know he went to DeMatha.
03:36Okay, fine.
03:37Now, is he going to turn into a great player or not?
03:40Because, as you said, you know, the greatest hockey player in the history of this town
03:44and probably on the Mount Rushmore of team sport athletes, Russia,
03:50the most beloved of all time in this town from, you know, the middle of Kansas.
03:55So, nobody cares as long as they're great and the teams that they play for win.
04:02All right.
04:02I have not talked to you since Monday, I guess.
04:06So, tell me your reaction to the signing of Diggs.
04:12Yeah, I mean, look, obviously, he is, you know, his career,
04:17he's been a tremendously productive player, four-time pro bowler,
04:21seven times 1,000-yard seasons.
04:23He basically has had nothing but 1,000-yard seasons since 2018,
04:26except for 2024 when he tore his ACL during the year.
04:29You know, like we were saying a minute ago, he's a pro's pro.
04:32When it comes to the receiver position,
04:34he is going to bring us a competitive edge without question to this offense.
04:39And, yeah, I mean, it raises the ceiling for what it is.
04:43Now, do I think they had to do something?
04:44I think if people are inferring that this was a sign of the front office
04:50and the coaching staff not believing in the current group, I don't believe that.
04:54I wrote the other day that, to me, this is the latest move that shows
04:59that Adam Peters has learned lessons from the past.
05:02Last year, it was blatantly obvious that the receiver room did not have enough,
05:05especially when Terry McLaurin's holding out
05:07and Noah Brown was hurt in minicamp, and they didn't do anything about it.
05:11This year, the room is better.
05:12These guys have looked good in camp, and then they still said,
05:14no, we have an opportunity.
05:15We're still going to do what we can do to get better.
05:18So, you know, how it all played out, we'll see.
05:22You know, father time eventually takes everybody down
05:24and digs this, you know, slowing down a bit.
05:27You know, I would bet he's going to be as much in the slot as in the outside,
05:32but we'll see because of that.
05:33But, again, a lot of the stats, I think you had Warren Sharp on the other day.
05:37I mean, a lot of the stats that he's posted still have this really productive
05:41and efficient digs was last year.
05:43He doesn't drop the ball.
05:44You know, he's a playmaker.
05:46It's what he's been his whole career, and if he's able to do that here,
05:50then obviously, you know, he's easily the best receiver that Terry McLaurin's had
05:54since he's come in the league, best tag team partner, right?
05:58So, it raises the floor, raises the ceiling, and when you look at, you know,
06:04we talked about does the offense have enough playmaking,
06:07and now you have McLaurin, digs, you know,
06:10a conclusion should be a yards after the catch beast.
06:13You know, Bill Krosky-Meritt continues, to my opinion,
06:17to show he's improved as a pass catcher, get him in space and look out,
06:20and, you know, there's the other guys to complement that.
06:22So, they've done a good job, I think, of getting pieces around Jaden Daniels,
06:26and that's the whole, obviously, the straw that stirs the drink,
06:29and he's looked better and better as camp's gone on.
06:31So, I think you've got to be pretty excited about what this could be,
06:34and hopefully, you know, like I said, big digs look good to me.
06:37I mean, he didn't do a ton today with the team, but he did do a few things.
06:41They did one-on-one drills.
06:44He did one one-on-one drill and just completely dusted the cornerback.
06:48The ball was overthrown, but just ran by the guy.
06:51It wasn't one of their main players, but just ran by him.
06:53I mean, he's ready to go once he learns the playbook.
06:55So, yeah, it's exciting for sure.
06:58Ben Standig joining us, our team insider at Ben Standig on X.
07:02Ben Standig has his substack called Last Man Standig.
07:07I would definitely recommend subscribing to it.
07:11So, I'm going to agree with you on one front,
07:14the Adam Peters, you know, doing more this year than he did last year.
07:18I'll push back a little bit on the idea that they didn't necessarily have to do it.
07:24And the only reason I would say that is going into this upcoming season,
07:30you only had one true known entity in your pass-catching group,
07:37and it's Terry McLaurin.
07:39You know, you've got a bunch, you had a bunch of maybes.
07:42You know, Burks is a maybe.
07:44Van Jefferson hasn't caught, you know, more than 50 balls in a season.
07:47Obviously, Jalen Lane and Antonio Williams and Luke McCaffrey, they're all maybes.
07:53And with the way the season is starting and the importance of the season in general,
07:57I think they just needed to feel like we got somebody that's going to take the field
08:03on September 13th in Philadelphia that isn't a maybe alongside Terry.
08:08Because if they didn't sign digs, it's all about which one of these guys is going to emerge
08:14into something that they can actually count on rather than just being theoretical,
08:19rather than just having, you know, traits.
08:24Diggs has done it.
08:25I think they needed it.
08:27Yeah.
08:28I mean, my, that's, everything you just said is, there's no pushback to that.
08:33That's why you go out and get one guy rather than having to figure out how to make it work
08:37with three and four guys.
08:38But I'm just saying, as somebody who last year was screaming, the receiver room is not
08:42nearly good enough.
08:43I'm just saying, my view, it's looking better.
08:47I've been pushing back on the idea that this was definitely a better group than the 2024
08:51group.
08:52I probably would say, I think it is now.
08:54You know, if they keep six, we'll see how many they keep.
08:57But if they keep six of the eight guys who were like sort of a vet or Antonio Williams,
09:02I legitimately could not tell you who I would cut.
09:04I think they've all had their moments.
09:06And you're right.
09:06I mean, it's, it's the difference between having one guy versus having, like I said,
09:10David Blau having to kind of figure out when do I want to use these different guys?
09:14So from that point, yes, I'm just saying that in totality, this group was not deficient
09:18in the way it was a year ago.
09:21And, you know, preseason, I mean, training camp practices, full of gold, if you buy into
09:27what we're seeing there as definitive of anything, let's be clear on that.
09:31But I'm just saying, I like what they've done.
09:34I like the group, the different skills, and I think there'll be good compliments to the
09:39McLaurin and Diggs.
09:40So sure, I get it.
09:41Like, and that's the thing, he's sitting right there.
09:42Like I said, a year ago when they had much less, I don't know what Adam Peters could have
09:47done, but he didn't do it.
09:48And the pre-camp press conference, when he's asked about the room, he's like, hey, we like
09:54these guys, but if we see something we like, we're not afraid to do it.
09:58And I thought that use of afraid was important because I'm not saying he was afraid last
10:03year, but they didn't do anything.
10:04And this year, even though, like I said, I think they had enough pieces to make it work.
10:08They said, no, no, no, we're going to push it and we're going to go get this guy because
10:12all the reasons you just said as to why the one guy would be better than three guys.
10:17Yeah, and I'm also just wondering, and you would have a much better feel for this, obviously,
10:24but do you think that at this point, and we're only, you know, nine days into camp, do you,
10:30and in seven days, I guess, you know, since the news broke that they were signing Diggs,
10:36do you think that while they like the players, and again, their maybes, that maybe Antonio Williams
10:44just is not necessarily a guy that they feel comfortable, you know, comfortable with from
10:49the jump, and I point to him specifically, and maybe even, you know, maybe even Luke,
10:55I think you may have asked this question, actually, about, you know, the development of some of the
10:59other guys with Diggs out there, but is it possible that if they saw something like Jay Gruden saw
11:06in Terry McLaurin in 2019, that they maybe wouldn't have made this move, and because they
11:14did, they haven't seen that yet.
11:16Yeah, if we're isolating it to the one guy, I do think that's a fair point, right?
11:22When Terry McLaurin showed up in 2019, it was like, whoa, this guy is clearly the best receiver
11:29in the room already.
11:31I don't know that I can make that claim about Antonio Williams, I mean, other than, you know,
11:39I understand the reasons as to why they wanted to get him, quick, shifty, rat runners, all
11:47that, but yeah, it's not like he's been, had a ton of big plays in camp, or has, you know,
11:53been a big target necessarily.
11:55I feel like some of the other guys, Van Jefferson, McCaffrey, Traylon Burks, Jalen Lane, they've
12:01all had more moments, so yeah, I think it could very well be that, because he's the one guy,
12:05everybody else who at least has some feel for in the pros, he was the one guy who's
12:09new, and he didn't, he hasn't come out and just been on fire, and therefore maybe that's
12:16where, like, okay, we don't necessarily have, we don't have one guy that, like you were saying
12:19before, could maybe be the obvious number two with Terry, we have a group, and yeah, I
12:24think it's fair to say that, again, it's not that he's played poorly, or it's a mistake,
12:28or anything like that, it is just to say that as a rookie, how much they want to lean on
12:32him at the moment doesn't look like it's probably going to be, like, a huge amount today, maybe
12:38that changes, like, week one or week eight, we'll see, but yeah, I think that's a fair
12:41thought for sure.
12:43How do you see the ball getting spread out?
12:46I gave it some thought, and we took calls on it, but right now, fast forward to the end
12:51of the season, everybody was healthy on offense, who got targeted the most, who got targeted
12:58the second most, who got targeted the third most?
13:03Um, yeah, it's a great question, and it's not a great question, it's a, it's an August
13:097th question, after they acquired Stephon Diggs.
13:13I, yeah, fair enough, um, I mean, I guess I say it's great, because I'm trying to figure
13:18out, as I said a minute ago, who's going to make the team, and I don't, uh, in terms
13:23of the receivers, and I think that goes a long way towards answering this question, like,
13:27if, if they think Stephon, like, Dan Quinn specifically, when I asked him about going
13:31up against Diggs in previous spots, he mentioned him coming out of the slot and how dangerous
13:35he is.
13:36Okay.
13:36So when I then brought that up again, he's like, well, he'll play everywhere, but people
13:41I know, but he had said slot multiple times already inside and slot.
13:45Right.
13:45And, and I thought you're talking to people around the league, you know, their general thought
13:49was, Hey, he's competitive, all that stuff, but he probably is going to be best using the
13:52slot at this point.
13:53Okay.
13:53So if that's the case and you're just saying three receiver sets, then what does that mean?
13:57Is he in the slot and Traylon Burks is the most obvious sort of other outside receiver,
14:02or is that not how they go?
14:04Do they move, you know, Ticka Conkle outside?
14:06And, you know, I, it's hard for me to sit here and tell you who I think is legitimately
14:09the third receiver.
14:11I, I, I, I, I really don't know.
14:14I think it's a, if I, if I do think it's a good question, like I, you could tell me
14:17it's
14:18Traylon Burks and you could tell me by the end of camp, Traylon Burks might be on the
14:21bubble, not because this isn't receivers.
14:24This is just overall pass catchers.
14:27Like for me, in that case, Chig, I mean, would probably be, of course, and probably one of
14:32the two backs.
14:33Yeah.
14:34I get, I get, yeah.
14:35Okay.
14:35If we're looking at the room in totality.
14:38Yeah.
14:38I would, I would agree with that.
14:42I will say this in terms of the overall receivers, the tight end room, obviously John Bates has
14:47been playing and it's always, again, you got to take it all with a grain of salt and camp.
14:51Colton Yankoff, I would say has played more, more plays in camp than any receiver in any
14:58of the positions.
14:58That's not to say that he's going to be jump up ahead of, of Chig or Bates or anything along
15:03those lines, but you know, he probably won't play enough at all to be in that conversation.
15:08But I just think he looks like a guy that can make plays and Senate, maybe a little quieter
15:12the last few days, but you know, I think there's still some more promise there, a better
15:16fit for this system.
15:17So yeah, I think it's going to be a diverse group.
15:20Now, look, when it comes to the week, when we get to week five and the, and the passing
15:23game isn't working and we're all going, why they should have done more.
15:27Well, we'll see.
15:27But right now it feels like they have a lot of ways to go.
15:31But yeah, the two obvious receivers, Chig, one of the running backs, that's probably a
15:37reasonable way to look at this for sure.
15:39Yeah, you know, I think it's really hard as well to figure out which player got hurt
15:48the most by the Stefan Diggs signing.
15:50I mean, I just threw something out yesterday and that is, is it possible that a wide receiver
15:57needy team like the 49ers would give up a day three pick for Luke McCaffrey to join his
16:03brother or something like that?
16:04But I think for now in sort of reading through a bunch of league wide receiver conversations,
16:12there is a belief that two or three legitimate guys are going to get released in New England's
16:18the place where everybody's looking, you know, whether it's Douglas or Booty, they can't keep
16:24all of them in New England right now after adding obviously AJ Brown via trade and Romeo
16:29Dobbs in free agency.
16:32Um, but yeah, it's kind of hard.
16:34I mean, I'll go ahead, just take a wild guess as to who Stefan Diggs hurt the most in terms
16:42of making the roster or being on the roster.
16:45I mean, I think Van Jefferson to me is probably the one, look, if you just, if you ignore who
16:50they are and everything else, Van Jefferson's had as good of a camp as a receiver as anybody
16:55out there other than maybe Terry McLaurin.
16:57But the role that he would fit in the sort of, you know, wide receiver two by committee
17:02is he's the sure hand guy.
17:04He's the pro's pro.
17:06Stefan Diggs covers a lot of that ground himself.
17:10But Jefferson's an outside receiver.
17:13Yeah, sure.
17:14But like, like I said, I mean, if they're only going to abuse two receivers a lot of the time
17:18because of personnel, then, you know, when you want the hand guy, then it's probably going
17:23to go to Diggs.
17:25So that, I would say probably him.
17:27And I think that De'Ami Brown slash Traylon Burks part, like I'm going to assume, barring
17:34a trade, that they keep the three guys they've drafted.
17:37So that would mean one spot.
17:40If they keep six receivers, maybe they'll keep seven, but potentially one spot for De'Ami
17:44Brown, Traylon Burks, and Van Jefferson.
17:46And De'Ami Brown helps on special teams.
17:49Dan Quinn loves his fight out there.
17:51But Traylon Burks has the most upside of the other, you know, sort of outside guys.
17:55So those three guys probably, I would say in general, probably hurt the most unless somehow
18:01they do move one of the guys they've drafted.
18:05All right.
18:07How did the guys coming off the injured list look?
18:11Trey Amos and Dorrance Armstrong specifically?
18:14Yeah.
18:15Armstrong didn't participate in the 11s or anything like that quite yet.
18:21He's, you know, it sounds like he's doing well, obviously they activated him, but not
18:24quite yet.
18:26Trey Amos was out there.
18:27I thought he looked pretty spry, you know, all things considered.
18:32You know, he tried asking him about the injury and, you know, what, was there any reason
18:38for the delay or it felt like it was a delay and he, you know, just kind of moved past
18:42that,
18:43didn't say too much.
18:43But he looked, he looked fine out there.
18:46You know, I would imagine sooner than later, he'll be the clear, obvious starter.
18:51And then it's just a question of, is the other outside starters at Russell Douglas, is it Mikey
18:55Sanders still?
18:56And then Tress, they didn't punt the ball today, or at least not on, maybe he was
19:02punting on the side field.
19:03I just didn't see it, but he was out there holding, which is obviously another part of
19:07his deal.
19:08And, you know, we're watching the kicking competition.
19:10But, you know, I would imagine Tress' issue was a pec injury, not a leg injury.
19:14So, I assume he's good to go.
19:16All right.
19:17Well, tell everybody about the kicking competition because you tweeted something out rather
19:23enthusiastically about the kicking competition today.
19:27Hey, well, you know, it's the one tangible thing we can all look at and say, okay, here's
19:31what the scoreboard is.
19:33Yeah, Drew Stevens, you know, they were, you know, fairly even the first few times where
19:37they would kick.
19:37The last two times that the kickers have been out there, Drew Stevens has gotten the better
19:43of it, for sure.
19:44Today, he was eight for eight.
19:47Two of the kicks were in sort of like they would run a play, the offense, and the kicking
19:52team would run on the field.
19:53Then the other time, the other six were what they've been doing all camp, like start at
19:57like the 28 or the 33 and then just keep moving back five yards.
20:00He was eight for eight on his kicks.
20:03Two of them were like one was like 53 and one was like 56.
20:07You know, he just has that big leg.
20:09We've talked about that all along.
20:10It looks pretty smooth out there.
20:12Jake Moody.
20:13It doesn't have as big of a leg.
20:15It's fallen off a little bit.
20:17Again, I don't, you know, we'll see what happens in the real game and then maybe or preseason
20:22and maybe the coaches are seeing something more than just a ball going through the uprights,
20:25but he has missed five kicks in camp and they've all come in the last two sessions and the two
20:30kicks he missed today were both the long ones.
20:33And, you know, obviously that's been a bugaboo for this team is like not just finding a kicker
20:39that's accurate, but one that can be a weapon beyond 50.
20:43And, you know, in this era, that's pretty becoming pretty commonplace.
20:47And Stevens looks like he is that kind of a guy.
20:50So, you know, we'll see what happens when they get to the preseason games.
20:53He looks pretty confident.
20:54Obviously, he kicked at a big-time program and often at a place that didn't always have
20:58a great offense and had to be, you know, he was the offense at times.
21:02So, yeah, I mean, he looks to me, you know, if he made me say today, I would probably guess
21:07he's the answer.
21:08But as we know, there's more to it.
21:09There's kickoffs.
21:10There's, you know, there's other factors, but he has looked pretty good for sure the last few days.
21:15All right.
21:16Last one.
21:17I know you got to run, but Wizards.
21:19Ben also covers the Wizards as part of his sub stack.
21:23Anthony Davis became eligible last night at 6 p.m. for a contract extension.
21:30What do we know at this point?
21:32What's your guess in terms of what happens here between now and the beginning of the season?
21:37Yeah.
21:37Yeah, I appreciate the mention of the Wizards.
21:39I wrote the other day about this, that first of all, I can't, like, sometimes it's all easy
21:46to say, well, you know, give him this kind of a deal, you know, this year for this amount
21:52of money, and that can make it make sense for both sides.
21:54It's hard for me to see how they're going to thread this needle exactly, considering
21:58Davis is making well over 50 this year.
22:00He's got a player option for over 60 million next year.
22:03The Wizards aren't going to want to give him an extension that touches those numbers.
22:07I mean, it's 33 now.
22:08He hasn't played much, as we know, the last few years because of injuries.
22:12So that would be crazy for them, based on where they are as a program to, or a team
22:16to, to pay that guy that kind of money.
22:18But on the flip side, is he going to be willing to say, okay, I'll extend, but for a lesser
22:23number.
22:23So we'll see what they do on that.
22:25But to that end, I mean, it's, I, my sense was that they were just going to wait and see,
22:30and not like the date was notable, but it's not, it's no deadline.
22:36It doesn't mean that much right now, but they're going to wait and see what happens moving
22:38forward.
22:39I mean, I think for both sides, it makes a lot of sense to see what Anthony Davis looks
22:43like, you know, say the first, I don't know, half of the year, because either they could
22:48say, wow, he looked really good.
22:50He's buying in.
22:51Let's do this.
22:51We're playing well.
22:52Or, hey, other teams, look how good Anthony Davis is.
22:55You know, you want him.
22:56You know, you need him.
22:57If you're going to go for a title, you want to deal with Victor Wimbanyama.
22:59Here's a guy.
23:00So I think it makes sense for both sides to wait.
23:03And to me, that's kind of the way it looks like it's going to go here.
23:07Thanks.
23:07Go ahead, Ron.
23:08Ben, appreciate you making time for us.
23:10Talk to you later.
23:11Kevin, always appreciate it, man.
23:12Thanks.
23:13Ben Standing, everybody.
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