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Will Montgomery believes the Commanders have plenty of room to improve as the season goes on.
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00:00Fired up to jump on the rude guest hotline here and talk to our boy, Mr. Will Montgomery, NFL offensive
00:07lineman for a decade.
00:08Will, what's up, dude? How are you?
00:10Hey, how are we doing? Long time no talk.
00:12Yeah, man. Thank you for making some time for us, dude.
00:16We're going to get to some college football a little later because I imagine this game is kind of on
00:22your radar as a Hokie fan going to college park after dark.
00:25Look out.
00:26Maybe you want to bet you, Will.
00:28Maybe we just get the college out of the way now.
00:31We'll start there then.
00:33You are a proud Hokie.
00:35What have you thought of Virginia Tech through two weeks?
00:38Well, I think the Hokies have taken care of business like they were supposed to against the warm-up games,
00:44you know, VMI and ODU.
00:46Although in recent years, we've lost to some of those teams, including I married my wife and went to JMU.
00:53In a handful of years, we lost to JMU, but I had to remind her that when I played at
00:58JMU, we beat them 43 to nothing.
01:01So the Hokies want to get back to what the Hokies are supposed to be, you know, which I'll say
01:05it's around my era or before me was Mike Vick.
01:09That's obviously the ultimate is to get back to the national championship.
01:13So I came there the year after, Mike Vick, and we won 10 games a year every year.
01:17We were going to, you know, the top bowl games, played the Sugar Bowl.
01:20So we want to get back to winning 10 games and competing for a national championship is what we want
01:27to do.
01:27And you were supposed to blow out the first two opponents called VMI and ODU.
01:33All right.
01:34So they've done that.
01:36Maryland, I think Maryland beat Hampton in the opener.
01:39But I think of the four wins between the two teams going to UConn and, you know, handling business up
01:46there is the most impressive win.
01:49I'm not necessarily saying it's that impressive, but like they went on the road.
01:52They played a group of five team, whatever that's called now, and won.
01:56What do you think of the way the Terps have started?
02:00You know, I think it's just too early to tell.
02:03You know, that's why this matchup is kind of interesting because Virginia Tech obviously is coming off of down recent
02:10years.
02:11People think Maryland is kind of down and both want to get up.
02:14Both are 2-0.
02:16So we're both local.
02:17You know, obviously here in Northern Virginia, Maryland is more local almost than it is more local.
02:23Maryland is about an hour away.
02:24Virginia Tech is three and a half, four hours away.
02:26I remember when I was getting recruited out of high school, I did take a visit to Maryland, and they
02:31were like, well, you're going to have to pay.
02:33If you walk on here, you're going to have to pay out of state even though you're 45 minutes away.
02:37So I stayed in state and walked on to Virginia Tech even though it was a four-hour drive away.
02:43So maybe they need to fix that in-state, out-of-state thing by how close it is, you know,
02:48when you're filling up your gas tank instead of what state that you're in.
02:51But I think, you know, there's a lot of this DMV area.
02:55You know, you have Maryland, Virginia Tech.
02:58I think this is the big game early on in the season to set the tone to see who you
03:02really are.
03:03Absolutely.
03:04You know, I thought I was the only person who dealt with that, Will.
03:06My daughter was accepted to UVA and Maryland.
03:11She chose Maryland, which was closer.
03:13Really?
03:13I paid more money at Maryland.
03:15Wow.
03:15I didn't know that.
03:18Yeah.
03:19Well, now it's all different.
03:20NIL and everything else.
03:23You know, one thing that I've kind of heard really sucks is a byproduct of the NIL stuff is there's
03:30way fewer walk-ons now,
03:32and it's like a much more weird route to get there.
03:36There's fewer preferreds, all of it.
03:38I don't know if that matters.
03:40Well, we can go down a tangent on that road a lot, including I'll do a quick story, you know,
03:46since I'm helping occasionally coach a little high school ball.
03:49At a high school now, you almost have to go to a tier two school and then transfer over,
03:55because now that college sports is a professional sports organization,
03:59they might as well just get a 20-year-old transfer instead of an 18-year-old freshman.
04:05So this whole route of college sports is definitely getting flipped on its head.
04:09For sure.
04:09All right, dude, as one Hokie talking to a Terp, what do you think happens Saturday night?
04:16Well, I would definitely take Tech by 10 points.
04:20They don't put the money on it.
04:22I mean, well, I'm good on that.
04:23I think we look good.
04:24Hokie pride all the way.
04:27And I'm a betting man.
04:29I'm going on the Hokies for sure.
04:31All right.
04:31How about beer and wings?
04:33One pitcher of beer, one plate of wings at Ashburn Pub, and, of course, we will get them beaver style.
04:39I mean, what you going to eat?
04:40Yeah.
04:41He needs two beers.
04:42The bet is a pitcher and wings.
04:44Now, we don't lost a lot of weight.
04:45We don't look like when he played.
04:47We don't like weight less than me.
04:48I have muscle memory, though.
04:49Like, if you find me after a couple beers and some wings and some ribs, I remember how that goes
04:56down.
04:56So, I have muscle memory on how to be a fat 300-pounder for sure.
05:01All right.
05:02All right.
05:02So, I now have a T-shirt bet with Jumi and a beer and wings bet with Will here.
05:08Really need the Terps to come through.
05:09We can't have any more Virginia Tech guests this week because I'm going to run out of things to bet
05:13on.
05:13I'm going to see if I can get D-Hall Friday.
05:16Oh, yeah.
05:17It is fun to have a local matchup with some juice.
05:21You know what I mean?
05:21It's fun to be talking about this.
05:25Yeah, no doubt.
05:26And I keep talking about the down recent years.
05:30I actually did go to the home opener this year.
05:33And, unfortunately, you have to go to the home opener in recent years because there's so hope.
05:38If you schedule a game mid to late season, the stadium's been half full in recent years.
05:43So, it was fun to go to Lane Stadium for the opener.
05:46It was juiced in there.
05:48It was loud.
05:49You know, we got up so quick that the fans kind of fell asleep on the third downs later in
05:53the game.
05:53But, now that we have another juice-up game at Maryland, I think probably you're going to get a lot
05:59of Virginia Tech fans going to that game.
06:01So, I'll be interested in the split.
06:04But, I think we're going to carry a lot of fans there.
06:06And, that will be a good environment.
06:08And, I can't wait to see the results of that one.
06:10Yeah, man.
06:11Me too.
06:11Me too.
06:12We're talking with our friend Will Montgomery here.
06:15Played a decade in the NFL.
06:17Played his college ball at Virginia Tech.
06:19I want to transition to the NFL here, Will.
06:21You played center in the NFL for a long time.
06:25And, you live here locally.
06:27I'm guessing you heard the significant center discourse that was going on surrounding this team throughout training camp when Nick
06:35Allegretti was out.
06:37Now that Allegretti has played a game, what did you make of him and what did you make of the
06:43O-line?
06:43I thought it was somewhere from serviceable to good.
06:46I don't know where you thought it went.
06:48Yeah, well, you know, as far as grading the O-line, I like to grade the other side.
06:53I mean, this Eagles defensive front is one of the best in the league.
06:58And, the Eagles offensive front is one of the best in the league.
07:01So, now you want to go back to the commander's O-line.
07:04Obviously, you're shuffling around some pieces.
07:06The center spot, you have a guy, Tonsal, that's out.
07:10So, I'm going to say that you're sort of not, you don't have necessarily your top O-line as you
07:16were planning it this past year.
07:17You're still moving some pieces and having some backups in.
07:20So, during that game, it was a vantage Eagles defensive line, in my opinion.
07:25Although, the commander's defensive line and blitz package looked really good, too.
07:30So, I think both defenses looked well.
07:32I think there's a slight edge, obviously, to the Eagles O-line.
07:36And, you know, you even, I know there's been some criticism on that last play of the game, that two
07:41-point conversion try.
07:43Well, schematically, that was drawn perfectly if you can make a back block on a no-sackle.
07:48But, you know, that no-sackle for the Eagles was able to spin out of a block and made a
07:53good tackle.
07:53But, if we get a hat on the hat, just on the back block there, then the net walks in
07:59for that two-point conversion.
08:01So, I think that they're not far off.
08:04But, it was an advantage to the Philadelphia Eagles O-line and D-lines in that game.
08:09Since you brought it up, do you think my, watching the two-point conversion more times than I care to
08:16admit,
08:17I kind of think Jihad Campbell would have made the tackle, even if Ajomo didn't make that killer play.
08:22Did you see that, the linebacker kind of on the next one?
08:25No, I mean, the way I look at it is if your center makes a good back block,
08:30then there's going to be a huge hole in there with a back and just hit it right down the
08:34middle.
08:35And, I think it's going to walk in and hit your head on the goal post.
08:39I think that the end, his feet are flat-footed.
08:44And, he's kind of frozen on that shovel pass action.
08:47So, if you freeze frame it and take away the guy that made the tackle,
08:51I think there's enough space in there that you get in there.
08:54Interesting.
08:55All right.
08:55Well, overall, though, I thought they were fine.
08:58Now, you're headed down to Dallas.
09:01Where do you think this Washington team is?
09:04Just like the mental side of coming up just short in what would have been a crazy comeback against Philly.
09:11Well, one thing that you do when you lose, unfortunately, in the NFL,
09:15is you kind of do like the what-if game.
09:17Like, well, did we play good enough to win?
09:20Maybe, you know, if you make a field goal, maybe, you know,
09:24if you don't get your extra point block in a field goal block, there's four points right there, right?
09:28So, defensively, you hold the other opponent to under 26 points.
09:33That's a good job on defense.
09:36Offensively, you know, you want to score in the high 20s to 30s of points to feel a little bit
09:40more comfortable.
09:42So, you're almost there, but you're not quite there offensively.
09:45But if you want to, you know, do the blame game, like, all right, well, we played good enough to
09:50win.
09:50We could have played better.
09:51If special teams, you know, make the field goal and an extra point, then we win that game.
09:55So, but you're still playing a competitive game against the Eagles,
09:59and the Eagles are a very good team in this league.
10:02And the Eagles have been competing, you know, to win Super Bowls over the last couple years.
10:06So, as you're measuring six goes, I think that the Commanders had a very good outing.
10:11It was competitive.
10:12It went down to the wire.
10:13But you just have to get over that hump on those last couple plays.
10:16Well, like, when you played, watching a team that does all the things that Durante Jones had his guys doing,
10:22very similar to Mike Flores, what kind of problems that caused for an offense?
10:28Well, when you're doing your film study, for sure, you want to see, okay, what do they line up in?
10:33Is it four down?
10:34Is it five down?
10:34Is it an odd package?
10:36I remember one time when we played the Eagles back in the day,
10:39they were doing all this double-mug blitz stuff.
10:41So, we spent, with Coach Beagle, we spent, like, two whole days practicing double-mug blitz packages.
10:48And guess what?
10:49We didn't see it once in the game.
10:50So, sometimes, you know, they'll put, the opponent will put stuff on film,
10:56almost Bill Belichick style, to make you prepare for it.
10:59So, there's all these exotic blitzes, and these coordinators are smart.
11:04They're not just going to do the same thing every week.
11:06So, they kind of have a cyclical blitz package themselves.
11:10They'll show an iteration each week.
11:13And then there's also tendencies.
11:14So, even when you're going over the tendencies and studying the tendencies on third and long,
11:18third and short, some of these obvious pass-downs, what do they do?
11:22Do they like to blitz one?
11:23Do they like to rush four?
11:25Do they like to blitz six?
11:26Do they like to overload one side or the other?
11:28And their answer is, yeah, they can do it,
11:31or they can have a week where they self-scout and break their own tendencies.
11:35So, at the end of the day, you just got to go out and play ball and expect everything.
11:39All right.
11:40You certainly got to expect everything.
11:42What did you think of Jaden week one?
11:44I thought, you know, started a little slow but showed who he was late in that game.
11:48No, I mean, obviously, the highlight of that game for him was that play where he scrambled
11:53and had a couple spin moves and was going down,
11:56and it looked like, you know, that was going to give him the energy to go put it over the
11:59top.
12:01Obviously, you know, his moneymaker is his legs, and he's got a really strong arm.
12:06I never really played quarterback.
12:07I mean, the extent of my quarterback career was one week of freshman football in high school,
12:12and then they moved me to line after that.
12:14But ideally, ideally, as an armchair guy that knows nothing about quarterback,
12:19you want that ball out on time a little bit more.
12:21I think that over the years, maybe it was last year or the year before,
12:25I think he took a lot of sacks, and I think that you can, you know,
12:28eliminate that by getting the ball out on time.
12:31You know, this league, even my year in 2014 with the Broncos and Peyton Manning,
12:36we only gave up like 16 sacks that year in 18 games.
12:39Well, it wasn't because of the O-line.
12:41It was because the ball was out like a hot potato.
12:43So you can help your O-line in the scheme by getting the ball out quickly.
12:47You know, Peyton Manning style.
12:49My other thing to leverage in this league was the Shanahan system with the play action,
12:54the bootlegs, the sprints.
12:56So if you have an O-line like the commanders do where you're shuffling around some pieces,
13:01you can help that O-line out by running the ball, by running play action,
13:04by running bootleg, by doing some quicker hitting throws.
13:08And that's kind of what Kyle Shanahan's always been the master at,
13:11is calling plays to help out the O-line, which in turn helps the quarterback.
13:16So draw up the quick plays, the play action, the bootlegs, and things like that,
13:20and try to eliminate those longer developing plays,
13:22unless it's a big bootleg or something like that where you have lots of time.
13:26What did you think of the offense in general?
13:29I mean, especially for you that played in the Shanahan system for so long,
13:33and then watching Cliff Kingsbury the last two years, which, listen, in 24 it cooked,
13:39but last year it seemed to get pretty stale.
13:41What did you think just of Blau's offense from a snapshot of it in week one?
13:46You know, I think there were some explosive plays,
13:49and there was some bits and pieces of the run game.
13:52Obviously, you want it to flow a little bit better, but, you know,
13:55you also have to look at your opponent.
13:56The Eagles are a very hard test for week one.
13:59So I don't know.
14:01I think other teams may be, quote-unquote, easier than the Eagles.
14:05So, nonetheless, you were in that game.
14:07You're, you know, an extra point in the field goal away from winning that game,
14:12which is in the NFL, you're right there.
14:14So I think it was good enough to win, but it needs to be better.
14:18Yeah, I agree with that.
14:19I was impressed with the commitment to the run game.
14:22Did you notice that, especially early on?
14:24It was almost more so than I expected.
14:27Yeah, well, you know, you really do have to do that.
14:30If you get in the first down drop-back pass game,
14:33that's about the thing that any O-lineman in particular hates,
14:37you know, especially when you get that first 15.
14:39When you get that first 15 call sheet out the night before in the hotel,
14:43I remember our group of guys would always study that,
14:46and we would, like, triple circle the drop-backs.
14:48We'd be like, okay, play number one, run.
14:50Play number two, bootleg.
14:51Play number three, play action.
14:54Play number four, run.
14:55No, play number seven, drop-backs, seven-step drop.
14:58Crap, I better know who my help is, who's on my side.
15:02You know, so things like that is definitely what the O-line is looking for,
15:06and especially early on in the season while you're getting the rhythm,
15:10call plays to help the O-line,
15:12which would then, in turn, keep the quarterback upright.
15:16One other question for you before,
15:18because I want to make sure we check in on what you're doing now,
15:21but did you watch the Tyler Owens gunner clip on the punk coverage that went
15:25super viral over the weekend?
15:27Yeah, yes.
15:28I mean, as a dude who plays special teams, what did you make of that play?
15:33You know, that is just awesome.
15:35Look, rarely in the NFL do you get pancakes, but rarely also even,
15:40this is like one of the craziest plays ever,
15:42can you throw two guys on the ground and then make like a suplex tackle WWE style.
15:48Yes.
15:48You could almost hold your breath out.
15:49You could have gotten penalized for crushing that dude so hard on the tackle,
15:53the way you slam him down in today's NFL.
15:56But that was an all-time play, just straight hustle,
16:00and regardless of what that guy does the rest of his career,
16:04that's an all-time highlight that everybody, you know, who's seen that.
16:09Rarely do you see special teams play as make SportsCenter
16:11or I'm sure as your doom's going through your Instagram or whatever,
16:15that play came up everywhere.
16:16I know Snoop did a thing on it.
16:19Snoop did?
16:19I was trying to pull it up.
16:20I couldn't get it, but Snoop went through it and did his little,
16:24what do you call it, like his analyst work job of it.
16:27That's awesome.
16:27So I'm going to laugh.
16:28Yeah, we got to find that out.
16:29So, dude, remind me what you're – at various times in your post-playing career,
16:35I was interviewing you as a tech executive,
16:37and now I think you've gone back to ball.
16:40What are you up to now?
16:42Well, I've done a lot of things in the last 10 years in retirement.
16:47You know, I've spent a year at Pro Football Focus.
16:50Obviously, I've spent a year doing Greeting Danny stuff.
16:52I spent seven years doing some management consulting where I was going to the
16:56Pentagon and Air Force bases and doing the government contracting work.
17:01Right now, what I'm really doing is focusing a little bit more on the football
17:05training, and Logan Paulson and I do our summer football camps,
17:08and I'm coaching every youth sport imaginable.
17:11So I'm coaching my son's flag football, his travel baseball,
17:15my daughter's basketball, my son's basketball.
17:17In the spring, I'm coaching two baseball teams.
17:19In the winter, we're doing swim team stuff.
17:21When the hell do you sleep, Will?
17:21I'm doing right now on the community coaching and the high school coaching
17:26and all the youth type of stuff right now.
17:29When do you sleep?
17:32You know, I don't.
17:33You know, when I talk to Logan about that, he's like,
17:35I can't believe you do all that.
17:37I'm like, Logan, you're training people at like six in the morning
17:39and doing your new media.
17:42Then you're playing adult men's hockey at like 1 a.m.
17:44So, I mean, everybody just, I think, in this life needs to do stuff
17:47that they're passionate about.
17:48And right now, it's kind of the youth sports and the high school stuff.
17:52And right now is what I'm doing.
17:53And people ask me, too, when I coach my daughter's basketball,
17:56I'm like, you know, the girls at this younger age are way smarter than the boys are.
17:59I tell them to do a pick and roll, and they actually roll.
18:02The boys just do the pick, and then they kind of stare at the rest of the play.
18:05So, it's funny seeing the girls and the boys' development, you know,
18:09at these ages of 9 and 11 and 4th grade and 5th grade.
18:13So, we're just having a ball with that.
18:14Yeah, dude, I do some youth sports stuff with my daughters.
18:17It's so much fun.
18:18And sometimes it's crazy and chaotic and busy,
18:21and sometimes you just feel like an Uber driver.
18:23You get a crazy parent here and there.
18:25You got to deal with Northern Virginia.
18:26It's all the things.
18:28Dude, we appreciate you making time for us.
18:31I hope you're buying me wings and beer soon.
18:34Okay, well, it might be multiple wings and multiple beers.
18:37We'll see how that goes.
18:39All right, man.
18:40Take care.
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