00:00Jim's Washington's rookie draft class on the field for the first time.
00:03We are trending toward the possibility of Joshua Joseph's playing a pretty big role, by the way.
00:08Speaking of the rookies.
00:10We've talked a lot about Adafi Owe's health.
00:12Caleb on Chason's still not completely 100% at all these practices either.
00:16There's a world where both don't play and he starts this game.
00:19I think it's more likely that at least Chason plays and he's probably the third edge.
00:23But that's a rotational position where more than two guys play.
00:27Yeah, everybody's going to play there.
00:28If you're up as an edge in today's game, you're going to get some snaps.
00:33Whether it's 25%, 35% or whatever remains to be seen.
00:36The priority is the guys that you're majoring in, but everybody's going to get a shot.
00:40I want to talk David Blau, though.
00:42He met with the media today for the first time and he talked about summer and getting everybody up to
00:48speed
00:48and doing so without a whole lot of ability to actually get game reps.
00:53They had two joint practices.
00:55They chose to use all of three preseason snaps for their starters on offense.
01:02Sack, pressure and completion, give up draw.
01:05So what gives Blau confidence that they can go out and execute right away against a good defense
01:10after they chose to do so little in their game action this summer?
01:13What gives me confidence is that this game always comes down to fundamentals.
01:20And the team that blocks better, the team that tackles better, the team that throws and catches better,
01:26the team that takes care of the football better, you know, will win the game.
01:31And we've been drilling it.
01:32We've been teaching.
01:34So I'm excited for people to see what our unit's about and our play style on full display.
01:40But, you know, we know as a group what it comes down to.
01:43There is a simplicity to that answer.
01:45We were joking about Durante Jones coach speak and David Blau just gave you some on offense there.
01:50But what I like about that is I think as everyone's gotten smarter from a fan base and media standpoint,
01:56if you want to be an informed NFL opinion giver, there's not a good excuse not to now.
02:01Do you subscribe to get the All-22?
02:04Do you watch the All-22?
02:05Do you study people who teach you how to read All-22?
02:08Do you, like, put in the work, so to speak?
02:11But I say all this to say that we have complicated this game a lot.
02:14And it's a complicated game.
02:16We should.
02:16But at its core, his point is still, are we blocking well?
02:20Are we catching passes that get to our hands?
02:23Do we hit on our assignments?
02:25Do we not turn the ball over?
02:27Because if we do all of that stuff, we're going to have a pretty good chance.
02:31Like, how you get guys open and what the scheme's going to look like,
02:34and are we under center in the shotgun, it all matters for sure, Danny.
02:38But the stuff that's going to cost us the most dearly has nothing to do with how often we're playing
02:42or not.
02:43I think that's smart.
02:43Yeah, I mean, it is a live chess match.
02:46With the most incredibly physically gifted human beings ever to live.
02:49I mean, that's what it is, and it boils down to.
02:51But there are some simple things.
02:54Like, at some point, no matter how brilliant a scheme or how incredible the design,
02:59one dude's got to stop the guy in front of him and vice versa.
03:02Right?
03:03Either you're open or you're not.
03:04The ball's in the air.
03:06Who's getting it?
03:06Right?
03:07There is a beauty in that simplicity in how violent and incredible the athleticism is.
03:13But it's also trying to put guys in good spots.
03:16Well, that good spot still includes you have to be able to win.
03:18That left tackle must block that defensive end.
03:21Otherwise, it's all moot.
03:23Right?
03:23At its most basic core are those universal truths.
03:28There's also something to be said if you're Blau and you're trying to find some confidence going into this massive
03:33test.
03:34Because all of the young, great offensive minds have struggled initially.
03:38Sean McVay, I remember, in his first year of call and plays, would beat himself up after games.
03:43There was one particular game I remember talking to him about against the Cowboys where he thought he was way
03:48too conservative and really cost the team dearly.
03:51It's inevitable.
03:51It's such a hard thing to do.
03:53And if you're making a leap at a young age like McVay did, or a crazy leap where you're skipping
03:58basically two jobs that are supposed to prepare you for being an OC and a play caller like David Blau
04:03did, it gets that much harder.
04:06But if you're looking for reasons like, why am I confident in this?
04:10Well, one of them can be, I got a quarterback who can make a lot of plays.
04:14There are a lot of guys calling plays in the league this week that don't have a guy like I
04:17have.
04:17Now, I got to put him in a good spot, but he can make me look good.
04:20He did it for Cliff Kingsbury in 2024.
04:22We've seen what that looks like.
04:24This was Blau on Daniels' motivations going in through the opener.
04:28He's very internally motivated, and it's been that way ever since he's been here.
04:33His life has changed a lot over the last few years, and we have seen him come in and do
04:39excellent things at this level, and there's things to build off of, too.
04:44So he knows there's areas he's got to get work at to get better, and that's our job as coaches.
04:51We're trying to challenge him in those spaces, and then he can go ahead and go take it and run
04:56from there.
04:56And we're just trying to provide the direction to help him, whether it's persevere through last year or help as
05:04we grow and go into 26.
05:07Oh, no.
05:08Blau just said in those spaces.
05:11It's happening.
05:11The infection.
05:12Oh, no.
05:13Is there a vaccine for it?
05:14This disease is taking over.
05:16In that space.
05:16If he says to go for no reason, now we're really going to know.
05:20If he talks about throwing a good practice, we need to have an intervention.
05:23You know, Jaden Daniels said he threw a good camp.
05:25He used that phrase.
05:27Did he really?
05:27Yeah.
05:27He said, I threw a good camp, and I thought, oh, no.
05:31Don't do it.
05:31Don't let Dan infiltrate your lexicon.
05:34But he just said, into those spaces.
05:36Anyway, on Daniels.
05:39So last year, the one thing other than the health that seeped into my brain and bothered me a little
05:45bit,
05:46where if I felt like a 10 on Daniels coming out of 24, it was tamped down to like a
05:517 or whatever, was accuracy.
05:53He was not nearly as accurate last year.
05:55There was some decision-making, decisive pre-snap stuff in some of the games against the good defenses,
05:59like Seattle, where Minnesota is an example, where they just got destroyed and swallowed up
06:04and didn't look like they belonged at all.
06:05And some of that's going to be on your QB and on your center,
06:07and that's part of why I think they're going to Allegretti to help him out a little bit.
06:10But the accuracy part of it, big, big deal.
06:14So, it took me two or three practices.
06:17I think Toby was next to me or something.
06:18I remember looking over and being like, Jaden's a beast.
06:21Like, he was so accurate all of camp.
06:24When he's on the move, when he's throwing, when he's...
06:26Like, it's not just...
06:27There's a difference in baseball between control and command.
06:31Control is walks over the plate.
06:34You're just not throwing a ball.
06:36You can control the ball by throwing a strike.
06:38Okay?
06:39Command is now within the strike zone hitting the mitt.
06:42So, if you want the top corner on the outside, that's control.
06:46If you want to go low and in on the...
06:48Paint the black, basically.
06:50That's command, rather.
06:51So, control, just getting over the plate.
06:53Command, where you throw it over the plate to hit a mitt.
06:56In football, I call that ball placement.
06:58So, there's like catch radius, where most quarterbacks are going to be in the catch radius.
07:02But for Jaden Daniels, he's got ball placement.
07:05And throughout camp, it was incredible.
07:07And that's where I'm kind of all the way back in on him.
07:09From an arm talent passing standpoint, does he just look the real deal?
07:12And it sounds like that's where Blau has been the most impressed about Jaden Daniels so far, too.
07:18You know, he's always had kind of an innate ability to, whether it's keep the ball out of harm's way.
07:25When you watch the college tape, his first couple years.
07:29And that shows up on the tape.
07:31And then, you know, right, we learn by repetition.
07:37So, the more reps that he has had with the same pass catchers, this group of guys, the more times
07:43in this system, you just see it.
07:45You know, you see his brain processing it more.
07:48It's why, in my opinion, you know, like, you know, we'll see a guy tonight, you know, play who I
07:55think has gotten better with time.
07:56Quarterbacks, as they just take, you know, all the reps that they have over, you know, culmination of a career,
08:04they continue to get better.
08:06Because it really is so mental and, you know, trying to pull from that bank of all the data points
08:14that you have to be able to anticipate and throw early, you know, different things like that.
08:20Blau needs Daniels to ball out.
08:22And if he does, he's going to get himself a coaching job in the next two years.
08:25Well, I think about this fairly often.
08:27It's kind of my go-to example for this phenomenon.
08:31Obviously, I think David Blau's really smart and has a lot of acumen as an offensive mind.
08:34And I think he was going to be in demand eventually, if not, you know, this offseason, would have been
08:39next offseason, et cetera, as he's climbing the coaching ranks.
08:41But it really is about having the right fit and right scheme.
08:44Remember Brian Billick, who was the offensive coordinator in Minnesota when they were the greatest offense anyone had ever seen?
08:50You know what helped?
08:51Having Randall Cunningham in kind of his second act as sort of a guy that was less about scrambling and
08:56more about being able to deliver a great long ball.
08:58The greatest deep threat in human history in Randy Moss.
09:00The greatest possession receiver going at the time in Chris Carter.
09:03And a good running back in Robert Smith.
09:04He was an offensive genius.
09:06He went to Baltimore.
09:06Their offenses were never more than middling at best.
09:09And it was about defense.
09:10So he was in the room when these great players were doing great things.
09:13They didn't get in the way.
09:14Like, you're on easy street.
09:16Because Jaden Daniels can make your bad play call a good one.
09:19He can make your mediocre thing a great thing.
09:21And you go, yeah, that was our plan.
09:24We're from the Dodge 7 people.
09:25Like he did against the Browns that time.
09:26And hit McLaurin 60 yards down the field off his back foot.
09:29There's a lot of guys who have gotten jobs working with great QBs or just being around great players.
09:35Nathaniel Hackett with Aaron Rodgers.
09:36Another great example.
09:37Became a head coach.
09:38Who was the guy with the really strange eyes with the Jets?
09:42Adam Gase.
09:43Adam Gase.
09:43Adam Gase, man.
09:44And Peyton Manning.
09:45Like those types of dudes who their whole careers are made if you're with the right players.
09:50Sometimes coaches can elevate players.
09:52Like I think Clint Kubiak is very, very good and is going to do a good job.
09:54Seattle might miss him a little bit after watching last night.
09:58You can elevate if you're him.
10:00But there are plenty of guys too that it goes the other way.
10:02Where the players pulled you into the fight.
10:04This is Blau on his first game calling plays Sunday against Vic Fangio.
10:08I think we'll all be ready to compete.
10:10You know, I think you can trust your instincts when they're founded in hard work.
10:16And our whole group has done that.
10:18You know, so that's kind of the mantra for us.
10:21We're going to go cut it loose.
10:22And, you know, let it all out there.
10:27What an opportunity for him.
10:28A year ago at this time, he's the assistant quarterbacks coach.
10:34In this league generally, you spend a year after that as the quarterbacks coach.
10:38This is if you're on a rocket ship.
10:39Right.
10:39This is the fast track.
10:41If you're a lucky duck on the fast track, then the next year you become like a pass game coordinator.
10:47Then the next year you become the OC.
10:49And sometimes you're the OC in a building where you're not even calling plays.
10:52You know what I'm saying?
10:53You might be like four years from calling plays.
10:55Or if you're David Blau, you just go, I'm ready to call plays against Vic Fangio.
10:59And they go, Cliff, we'll see you later.
11:01Thanks so much for everything, Cliff.
11:03Here's the door.
11:04Grant and Danny on the fan.
11:05Our double play is next.
11:06What's going on in our lives?
11:07Nothing to do with sports.
11:08What's going on in our lives?
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