00:00But the Commanders and the Lions are going to be putting the ball in the air in the early afternoon,
00:03matinee style.
00:04And the question is, who's going to be on the field?
00:07You can't have fewer starters than Washington had in their last preseason game.
00:11Because they sat about 30 guys next to nobody who's going to start or play a lot in the early
00:16part of the season was on the field.
00:17So there's going to be more starters.
00:19I guess the question is, how many?
00:21And the other question is, will Jaden Daniels go?
00:23And the tea leaves that I'm reading are starting to make it seem like he's not going to play,
00:27which would mean he doesn't play in the preseason.
00:29So the question we've asked here at 800-636-1067 is, Jaden Daniels not playing at all this preseason is?
00:37And we want you to fill in that blank.
00:39Danny says, amiss, I've gone with maddening.
00:42I think both apply because we're feeding out of the same trough here.
00:45Again, if my larger paradigm, 10 plays in a preseason game, 12, 7, whatever it is,
00:51I would feel better about it if it wasn't like, hey, he had a good Wednesday practice.
00:56Because that's probably what it is, right?
00:57Like, hey, we practiced Wednesday in pads for the first time really since we played last Friday where he didn't
01:03play.
01:04It's just not enough.
01:05And if it was a, look at all the work that we've done, not, oh, man, what if Nick Gallagretti
01:10can't go?
01:11You know what I mean?
01:11If it was a, these guys have done so much, we have to pull them back, I could kind of
01:17get on board with it, right?
01:18I'd go, okay, that makes more sense to me.
01:20If it's a, oh, no, like, Julian Good-Jones might play, we can't possibly do it, and he practiced on
01:26Wednesday.
01:26That's not enough.
01:27That's soft.
01:28That's just nowhere near what it needs to be.
01:29So I get that he's gotten a lot more reps because of the Mariota injury this week.
01:34That's very true.
01:35I've seen it with my own eyes.
01:37That's a fact.
01:37But I just don't know that the reps equate to the same thing that a game rep would be.
01:42And it's almost, for me, irrelevant how many practice reps he's going to get.
01:46Have you ever gotten a call into your helmet in a game from David Blau?
01:50The answer is no.
01:52Let's change that.
01:54Have you ever run this offense in a game?
01:57The answer is no.
01:58Let's change that.
01:59Before the Eagles.
02:00Just once.
02:01Let's go through the motions in a lower stakes situation is where I'm at.
02:06Have you played more than twice since Halloween?
02:09The answer is no.
02:10Let's change that.
02:12Before you have to take on a defense that I actually think might end up being the best in football
02:16this year in Philly.
02:17Although good news, and Lord knows you need some good news if you're a Commanders fan getting ready for week
02:22one against Philly's defense.
02:23It sounds like Jonathan Grenard is not going to be back in time to play in that game.
02:27I don't know if you heard the Vic Fangio comments today, but their DC at the podium said that based
02:32on his recovery and where he's at right now,
02:34they're not really sure when he's going to be elevated to practice regularly and that his regular season is in
02:40jeopardy right now.
02:41So this is trending toward maybe not having to deal with him, which is a big deal.
02:45He can take his time.
02:46I hope he's okay, but not just make sure you're really, really judicious about that recovery.
02:50The fewer quality pass rushers for Coleman and Connerly to deal with off the edge in that game, the better
02:56as far as I'm concerned.
02:57Because you've already got to deal with Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis on the interior.
03:00And that's the Allegretti with a light preseason and Chris Paul, Sam Cosme trio.
03:07700 plus pounds of hatred right there.
03:09Cosme's the one guy of that triumvirate that you feel really good about right now you can put in pen.
03:13He had a great interview today, by the way, on Beamich and Finley.
03:16If you guys missed that, you should grab it because I really enjoyed listening to that.
03:19Let's go to Kevin in Arlington on the fan.
03:22Kevin, you're on Grant and Danny.
03:23What's up?
03:25Hey, fellas.
03:26It is quite simply emblematic of poor roster construction this offseason on offense.
03:33Please give me a minute.
03:34Okay, we have a defensive brain trust in Peterson, Chris.
03:37We spent $166 million on defense in terms of the roster this year for defense.
03:44It's $140 million on offense.
03:47Okay?
03:49Okay, let's also look at the biggest bust so far with Adam Peters are definitely Radamore
03:53and Newton's pending that way.
03:55Okay?
03:56Before we signed Diggs, finally, we had over $40,000 in cap space left.
04:01Here's who we signed on D.
04:02Owe, Chase on Chennault.
04:04We got Stiles, seventh overall.
04:06Settle.
04:06And then a huge cross.
04:07Robbins and Rasool.
04:08On O, are you ready for it, boys?
04:11Shiggs and the Jags until we signed Diggs a week ago.
04:15And Hartman's on this roster?
04:18I mean, come on.
04:20This is poor roster construction on offense.
04:23We don't have linemen who can protect him.
04:26Someone just ranked us 32nd in the league.
04:28Please talk me off the ledge.
04:31I'm not sure I can at this point.
04:35Kevin and I are feeding out of the same trough.
04:37I've said that a couple times.
04:37You should say feeding out of the same trough.
04:39I might say it more.
04:40Here's how we're feeding out of the same trough.
04:41I'm imagining all the worst case.
04:44We should be allowed to have a, hey, if Connerly is better as they think he's going to be.
04:49If Allegretti's is good and they're as confident as they were to let Biotish go because they knew Allegretti would
04:55be able to do it.
04:56And Chris Paul really is as good as they think and not as good as the league market thinks.
05:00And Coleman will be just fine.
05:01And watch what happens with Bates.
05:03And Blau's scheme will be so good.
05:05We're allowed for growth.
05:07What I think Kevin and I are both imagining is the average of best case and worst case is third
05:15or fourth in the division.
05:16And that's kind of the point, the drum I'm beating here is that a lot has to go right for
05:21them to be right.
05:21If it's back of the baseball card, as Mike Rizzo always says, kind of the average of some of these
05:26guys' performances over the years,
05:27including some of those unknowns, it's probably not good enough to win the division.
05:31And you have lots of cap space left.
05:33What are we doing?
05:34What's the point of all of that?
05:35So you asked to be talked off the ledge.
05:36Here's how I would do it.
05:37I don't think the construction of the rosters is bad or as perilous maybe as it sounds there in that
05:43the defense is really important too.
05:45That's not like spending a lot of money on the video coordinating room or the security staff at the facility.
05:53The defense is vital.
05:55One of the best things they can do for Jaden Daniels is to have him have to score fewer points
05:59per game,
05:59to have less pressure put on him to be excellent and to win football games and to win shootouts.
06:04And so I didn't have a problem with going out and massively upgrading and addressing this defense at all.
06:11And I still think they've done a pretty good job with the skill positions on offense,
06:14where you've got McLaurin and Diggs, which is a top 10 1-2 punch at wide receiver with a lot
06:18of depth behind those guys.
06:20A bunch of players having good camps.
06:22Chigakankwo was the number two marquee free agent added at the tight end position in the entire sport.
06:27I think they're deep at that position where they've also sunk a early round draft pick
06:31and have one of the better blocking tight ends into the spot.
06:34And at running back, they're not loaded by any means, but I think they're okay.
06:38And you just saw a couple of the rookies, including a sixth round pick this year, show well in the
06:41preseason.
06:42So I think they're fine at the skill positions to maybe even, you know, slightly above average.
06:47And they upgraded their defense.
06:49Those are good things, not bad things.
06:51But the larger point on, you know, some of the vented frustrations of how they go about preparing,
06:58I certainly can understand that.
07:00Zach is in Stafford on Grant and Danny.
07:02You're listening to the fan.
07:03And, Zach, fill in the blank, Jaden Daniels not playing at all this preseason is?
07:10Scary.
07:11It's the perceived notion of Jaden around the league is that he's too skinny.
07:18He's injury prone.
07:19He's this and that.
07:20And then by us not playing him, it shows everyone else in the league that that's kind of what our
07:25front office feels the same way.
07:26You know, we don't trust him to go out there and protect himself and move accordingly.
07:31So I actually wanted to hit on that.
07:33It's a good phone call.
07:34Thank you, buddy.
07:35Does this indicate that they worry about his durability and keeping him healthy?
07:42Last year they played him, I think it was four snaps.
07:45And he ended up running for a touchdown on one of those when he pulled the ball down.
07:49It was the only drop back of the preseason.
07:51So it will be basically one series, four plays, over two years, and zero drop backs.
07:56Does that speak to a larger concern that they have in him getting out of these games healthy?
08:03We can tackle that next.
08:05Grant and Danny on the face.
