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It's no secret that the Washington Commanders could be without Jayden Daniels for multiple weeks and with the team starting the season 0-2 this is an important upcoming stretch of games that can make or break the season. Kevin Sheehan is not ready to punt the season just yet, but breaks down what needs to happen for the Commanders to stay afloat on offense and especially defense until Jayden Daniels returns.

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00:00Got this from Darren and Frederick. Darren wrote, Kevin, I'm not sure what we as fans did to offend
00:06the gods, but yesterday was too much to deal with. 2024 seems like 20 years ago now. When Tom
00:14talked about the aura of collapse, I didn't think it would collapse after two games. What the hell
00:21do we do with a season that's over after two weeks? I guess the countdown on Quinn and Peters
00:26is officially underway. Yeah, Tommy, over the summer, wrote and said on my podcast, he does it
00:35with me two days a week, he said that it feels very much like there's an aura of collapse around
00:41the team. He always has the aura of something. For years, the organization was an aura of
00:49dysfunction, which of course was accurate. His feeling was once Tunsil went down, it was like
00:54everything after that just seemed to be bad news. And it seemed to be doom and gloom everywhere,
01:00which was true over the summer during August. I mean, we went from the dig signing. Yay. We took
01:07care of that one spot on the team that we were really concerned about. Second receiver, number
01:13two receiver to Tunsil the next day or the day after being lost for the season. And then the absolute
01:21doomsday scenarios on the offensive line from three snaps in a Detroit preseason game and a couple of
01:30joint practices. Yeah, I do think that a question that probably everybody asked and answered on their
01:41own was the question in the moment with emotion surrounding the Jaden injury of the season's over.
01:50It's not even a question. That's a statement. I think if you, if you had asked the question,
01:54is the season over, you would have emphatically said in that moment, yes, it's over. But like,
02:00is it true that it's over after two weeks? I mean, clearly if Deshaun Watson can go from
02:10can't play quarterback in the league on the worst team in the league, Todd Munkin's going to get fired
02:16before he even starts or gets through his first quarter of the first season to beating Tampa on
02:22the road with Deshaun Watson going 24 of 30 for 238 yards, two touchdowns, no picks. He completed 80%
02:30of his passes. Like the NFL is set up for the most schizophrenic of things to happen. This league is
02:42bipolar. Maybe that's not the right description. Truly terrible teams a week ago ended up either
02:50winning outright or threatening much better teams until the final play of the game or in overtime.
02:56See the Jets and the Titans. Yeah. I'm not sure, honestly, if there's ever been a turnaround
03:05in one week, like the Deshaun Watson turnaround in one week, we're going to go around the league
03:11from Sunday because we did not have a chance to do that yesterday. We're going to do that on the
03:15show.
03:15I'm also going to go back to Saturday, Maryland, Virginia tech, Ole Miss LSU. And yes,
03:20the ridiculously horrendous, all time blundered ending in Nashville by the NC State quarterback
03:29and the NC State coaching staff against Vanderbilt. If you haven't seen that one or heard about that
03:34one, it's an all timer. It'll go down as one of the worst endings blunder wise in football history.
03:41But in a league that literally changes all the time, you don't know what is going to happen. The
03:50only way to view this league outside of Buffalo and Mahomes in Kansas City and maybe the Rams,
03:57Seattle and the 49ers is coin flip. You have no idea what's going to happen week to week.
04:04The Titans looked completely lost in week one. They nearly beat Philly. The Saints beat the Ravens.
04:13The Raiders are 2-0. The Jets are nearly 2-0. They blew a 10-point lead and lost in
04:20overtime to
04:20the Packers. The Chicago Bears scored 59 in week one and three in week two. The Panthers are the
04:30highest scoring team in the NFC through two weeks. No, the season isn't over yet. This may be wishful
04:38thinking, of course. I don't feel great about where things are after Sunday and the injury to
04:45Jaden Daniels, but stranger things have happened. The major reason to not feel great about things and
04:52to say beyond what you said in the moment, I screamed the season's over. That's how I handled it in
04:59the
04:59moment. I was utterly heartbroken gutted when I saw that elbow. I am the biggest Jaden Daniels fan.
05:10I'm obviously a lifelong Washington fan, but in so many ways from some feelings in recent years that
05:22didn't come close to the way I used to feel about the team for a lot of reasons, Jaden's brought
05:30that,
05:30some of that back for me. I mean, watching him in that first half, my God, he is great.
05:39Just got to play. And that's part of sports availability as much as ability.
05:48I don't think the season's over yet. I'm a lifelong NFL fan like you guys are. The strangest things
05:55happen in this league. It's impossible to predict. Now, I don't feel good about it because Jaden
06:03Daniels is the best player on the team and he plays the most important position on the team. So, of
06:09course,
06:09that's not going to lead you to thinking that the team can overcome the loss of him. But what if
06:16he only
06:16misses a couple of games? What if he misses the next four, then there's a bye week and he comes
06:24back
06:24and there are still 11 left? What if he comes back in two weeks with a brace? Now, there's another
06:32reason to not feel great about making the statement the season isn't over. Like, look at what is
06:40happening here early in this season. We are picking up from where we left off. You know, as Darren and
06:48Frederick said, like, this is happening again. Like, the gods just won't let up. Laramie Tunsil,
06:57second best player on the team, lost in training camp. Sam Cosme, the best offensive lineman without
07:03Tunsil on it. Concussion protocol. Chigakonquo, the team's big free agent acquisition at tight end,
07:10has already missed a game and a half. Who knows when he's coming back? Trey Amos, I know we haven't
07:15seen him basically in a year, but he's probably the most talented corner. Injured reserve, not back
07:21anytime soon. We don't even know if four weeks will be the time frame. Frankie Louvu, looking for
07:27a 2024 kind of a season, which I still think he can have, but he's now dealing with an injured
07:33groin after the first week. Kinlaw got hurt the other day. Nick Cross, Quinn told us late yesterday,
07:40spent the night in Dallas with an internal injury. He flew back yesterday. Deron Payne missed some time.
07:46Jordan McGee and Johnny Newton are an injury. I mean, the injuries here early. I mean, it is. It's
07:54giving some 2025 redo vibes. Now, other than the players who were lost for the year, Tunsil,
08:04right? For the most part, he's not lost for the year, but the majority of it, everybody still could
08:10end up being a really good player for this team for the majority of the season. So that's one reason
08:17the season isn't over. It's one reason to think the season could be over because you're missing your
08:22best players here early in the season, but those best players with the exception of Tunsil might be
08:28back. I'll give you another reason not to feel great about this season, perhaps still being alive
08:35is the defense. I mean, that was a pathetic performance. We had Pauly. Pauly called in
08:44yesterday saying he was really starting to feel the vibe of the defense after the one stop.
08:50Bless your heart, Pauly. I love you. But that team got shredded by Dallas. Dallas scored 37 points.
09:00They scored on seven of eight drives. They converted seven of 11 on third down. No turnovers,
09:08nothing even approaching a turnover. There were communication issues. I've watched much of the
09:13all 22. I'll wait for Suter to really weigh in, a true expert. But one of the things you could
09:19see
09:20is once again, major issues in their zone coverage with communication. Quinn kind of alluded to that
09:26yesterday. It's only two games. It's a new scheme. This was going to take some time. I'm not bailing on
09:33Durante Jones after two games. Of course not. I'm not bailing on the new talent that they've added.
09:37But for a team to hang in there and survive and keep the season alive without its starting quarterback,
09:49you got to have a defense to help. And last week, even though it was week one, there were encouraging
09:56signs. But I think most people, including yours truly, warned that Dallas is a different animal
10:05offensively. This is a much, much tougher test for this new defense. And they gave up big explosives
10:13to Philadelphia's offense. I mean, imagine what CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens could do if you're
10:20not buttoned up. I mean, there was a lot to like about week one. There was nothing to like about
10:25week
10:25two. The only thing I would say is the run stopping's been better, but they did give up a
10:31chunk run to Saquon Barkley. That counts, that 42-yard run. And Dallas didn't need to run the
10:37football. They didn't care about running the football. You know, that was not a priority
10:45for them. I wonder what would have happened had it been a priority. You can't weather the storm
10:55of losing your quarterback for some period of time, being without some other really good players.
11:02If your defense can't hang in there. Last year, we saw that, you know, it didn't matter really,
11:09because there was so much lost on both sides of the ball. But defensively, even if on offense,
11:16they had had some of their better players on offense to go with Marcus Mariota, which they didn't,
11:22they were missing so many of them. But if they had had consistently starting caliber wide receivers
11:27on the field, et cetera, you may have been able to win more games with an average defense. A really
11:34good defense, maybe more than that. Listen to this. This is really kind of interesting. You know,
11:40Durante Jones comes from the Brian Flores, Minnesota defense. Did you know that Minnesota has won
11:47going back to last year after their win Sunday in Chicago? They have now won seven regular season
11:55games in a row, going back to last December 7th, a day that will live in infamy Sunday, December 7th,
12:042025 home against Washington. They won that game 31 to nothing, as we remember. And they haven't lost
12:12since in the regular season. Do you know who their starting quarterbacks have been? J.J. McCarthy,
12:19Max Brosmer, Kyler Murray, and Carson Wentz. Do you know why they've won seven regular season games
12:26in a row? Defense. I went back and charted this, or just, you know, wrote everything down from this
12:33seven-game win streak going back to last year. Brian Flores is spectacular as a defensive coordinator.
12:40And let's not act like they've got overwhelming talent defensively. You know, they lost in free
12:46agency, well, via trade, one of their better players in Jonathan Grenard. Now, they have
12:51definitely, who, Church was on with us last week, right? Didn't Church say about Dallas Turner,
12:58look out, this dude's getting ready to break out big time? Yeah. He broke out Sunday in Chicago
13:04with two sacks and just all over the field. Number 15 is a turning into a beast as a pass
13:12rusher.
13:12I mean, they brought back 50-year-old Harrison Smith to play safety. It's not like they've got
13:19the best talent defensively in the league. But listen to this stretch of games defensively.
13:25Against us, they held us to 206 total yards, three for 10 on third down. They had three takeaways.
13:33Then they beat Dallas last year on the road as a big underdog, 34 to 26. Dallas was two for
13:3912 on
13:40third down. Then they beat the Giants 16 to 13 with Max Brosmer at quarterback. Giants had 141 total
13:48yards in the game, two for 10 on third down. Then they beat the Lions at home. I think the
13:54Lions were
13:55still in it, you know, playoff hopes wise. Six takeaways in the game. The Lions had 231 yards of
14:04offense. Max Brosmer was the starter. Then they beat Green Bay in a meaningless season finale,
14:1016 to three. The Packers had 121 total yards. Then you go to last week, week one, they come back
14:19against the Packers. They get two takeaways, two huge takeaways in the game. The Packers for the game
14:26were three of 12 on third down. And then Sunday in Chicago, yeah, the weather wasn't good. But they
14:36were facing a team that had put up 59 points in 560 yards the week before. And they held the
14:44Bears
14:44to three points and got two takeaways. During this stretch, 9, 10, 12, 12 takeaways, a third down
14:54percentage of 18%. And they've got a seven game win streak with JJ McCarthy, Max Brosmer, Kyler Murray,
15:03and Carson Wentz starting games. They have a good defense talent wise, and it's better than ours. I'm not
15:11suggesting that our defensive talent is as good as Minnesota's, but it's not like a mass difference.
15:18Coaching matters. Brian Flores is amazing. Can Durante Jones, giving you a reason to say the season
15:29isn't over yet, but what happened Sunday, defensively, certainly wasn't a good sign.
15:35But you get Drew Locke this week, not Dak Prescott. You do have to cover Jackson Smith
15:42and Jigba. He's going to be open. You got to get pressure.
15:49But is that an amazing run for Minnesota? I mean, I know some of those games at the end of
15:55last
15:55regular season weren't meaningful games, including the season finale. But actually, the Dallas game,
16:01when they went to Dallas and won, Dallas still was in the playoff picture. Detroit was still
16:05in the playoff picture. And they've just been a dominant defense. They just held a team that scored
16:1059 to 3. So you can do it in different ways when you don't have your quarterback. Now, Minnesota doesn't
16:22have a real quarterback. I don't know. We'll see if Kyler Murray ends up being that under Kevin O'Connell.
16:27But the season, is it over? Do you feel like after two weeks, now that we've had a full day
16:36to digest everything, do you think the season is actually over? As in, they don't have a chance
16:44to play meaningful football games when we get to November and December.
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