00:00We're talking with Trevor Sykema here.
00:02Check out his new show on NFL Media on Roku or give him a follow at Tampa Bay Trey.
00:07Kind of making this about Washington and Indianapolis.
00:10Brian and I are here in London ahead of Sunday's game.
00:13I saw you had a tweet maybe last week about just how silly the preseason conversation got with Sonny Stiles
00:20versus how well he's playing so far this season.
00:22What have you made of Sonny Stiles playing now through three weeks?
00:26Yeah, he's awesome.
00:27I mean, like, is he making it perfect yet?
00:32You know, is he Luke Keekly?
00:33No, but, like, man, come on.
00:35I mean, you watch that wheel route that he covers out of the backfield.
00:38It's like, come on, man.
00:39I mean, like, that's why you draft guys highly, to be able to do stuff like that.
00:43And then plays where he's flying downhill and he's making run stops at the line of scrimmage or in the
00:49backfield.
00:49Like, that's what you want to see from this player.
00:52I thought I was so shocked at how quickly, and I don't really know why, people just were, like, ready
01:00to jump on Sonny Stiles to say,
01:03oh, see, this is a bad pick.
01:05They shouldn't have picked him this high.
01:06But with some of those preseason plays, it's like, come on, man.
01:09Like, first of all, I think a lot of the people who are pointing that out do not understand how
01:14to play the linebacker position.
01:15Look, I never played linebacker at any level, especially the NFL, so I'm not going to pretend that I know
01:20as good as anybody.
01:21But I'm watching people sort of look at Sonny Stiles and point out some of these plays.
01:26I'm like, what are you talking about?
01:27He's doing what he's supposed to be doing.
01:29Not every – this guy's not going to blow up the play and run through a guard and get into
01:36the backfield on every play.
01:37Sometimes it's about taking the blocker you need to take.
01:40Sometimes it's about setting the edge.
01:41Sometimes it's about making sure that you're spilling guys back more towards the middle even if you're not the one
01:47to make the tackle.
01:48And then when it comes to zone coverages, I think there's a lot of people that just don't understand linebacker
01:53play well enough.
01:54And I saw – I was just so shocked to see people so ready to jump on Sonny Stiles in
02:00the preseason in ways that sometimes weren't even valid.
02:03So, look, as this early season has gone on, I think he is only getting better.
02:07He's only going to continue to get better in those coverage roles as well.
02:10I think that he is a beast when it comes to attacking downhill and being violent, being physical.
02:16And I'm a huge Sonny Stiles fan.
02:18I had him number three overall on my big board.
02:20I think he's going to be great for this team.
02:22And I think he's off to a good start.
02:24As we said earlier, it's his third year playing linebacker, and he's in the NFL playing it that well.
02:30So, people have to take a chill pill.
02:33You know, just because you're on social media don't mean you're an expert.
02:37That's very true.
02:37You're – sometimes myself included, but I try to make that as little as possible, you know.
02:43Yeah, I mean, there's also a difference between, like, having opinions that are informed and doing the research versus, like
02:49–
02:49Just knocking people.
02:50And just the microwave society of declaring busts and all that kind of stuff is just kind of silly.
02:54For sure.
02:55For sure.
02:56Trevor, I'm curious for you looking ahead to this Commanders-Colts matchup, just kind of where do you see it
03:01going?
03:02You know, for me, I think Indy really likes to try to run the football big and powerful.
03:06I think Washington's kind of well set up for that, through games anyway.
03:10Yeah, they are.
03:11In fact, Washington's pretty great at defending the run, and specifically, I mean, you mentioned the power run game there,
03:18but also the outside-the-tackles run game.
03:20I mean, this is a Colts offensive line that's pretty dang athletic, and they've drafted some athletic offensive linemen that
03:26are in the starting lineup now.
03:27And they like to get horizontal with their run game as well, whether it's those mid- and outside-zone
03:32rush concepts.
03:33And, you know, over at NextGenStats, we've got these matchup advantages that you could see.
03:37And a major advantage for Washington this week is that they're one of the best in the NFL at defending
03:42runs that are outside the tackles.
03:44They've got a 34.2% success rate allowed, that's third best in the NFL, just a 13.2%
03:50first-down conversion rate, that's the best in the NFL.
03:53And they haven't allowed a touchdown on an outside-zone run yet this season.
03:57And so I think they're pretty well-equipped to slow down what the Colts want to do in the run
04:02game, getting to the outside.
04:03But I think the big area of concern for this team is Shane Steichen and Daniel Jones, they like to
04:10attack that intermediate part of the field.
04:12And the coverage for Washington has not been good in that 10- to 19-yard area, whether it's been
04:17in the middle of the field or to the outside.
04:20So, to me, they've got to be much, much better covering in that area of the field in order to
04:26slow this game down the way that they want to.
04:28I think it's going to be a tight contest, obviously.
04:30I think that these are two teams that can absolutely go blow for blow back and forth, whether it's good
04:36plays on offense or defense.
04:37But that, to me, is that area.
04:39Can they defend the intermediate middle of the field where Daniel Jones likes to pass?
04:44He doesn't love to chuck it too far deep.
04:46And they don't love the screen game type of a thing.
04:49But when it comes to those intermediate passes, I think the commanders have to shore that up to really get
04:55a win this week.
04:56As you flip it over, and now looking at their run defense, what do you think about the Colts' run
05:02defense against Washington's run game?
05:06Yeah, Washington's run game, I know they're trying it, but obviously it just has not been as successful as they've
05:11wanted it to be.
05:12They've got Bill Krosky-Berritt involved quite a bit, and I think they're doing that, obviously, because he's the more
05:18dynamic back there.
05:19But it just has not worked for them on a regular basis.
05:23Now, the Colts, I think their defensive line is up to the challenge when it comes to defending the run,
05:28but their linebackers have really struggled this season.
05:31They've been better in run defense than they have in coverage, and maybe that's an area where this commanders team
05:36can really take advantage of the Colts,
05:38maybe over the middle of the field when it comes to their intermediate passes.
05:41But it's got to be better on the ground for Washington.
05:46I know I'm not breaking any news there, but it's got to be a lot better.
05:50It's got to be more dynamic, and they're going through their injuries on the offensive line.
05:54We knew that it was going to be a little bit makeshift, and it was going to take them a
05:57little bit of time.
05:58But I think it's just got to be more dynamic.
06:01They've got to find a way to, even if on a carry-by-carry basis it's not one of the
06:06better numbers in the NFL,
06:07they've got to find a way to break off some of those dynamic runs, getting runs of 10 or more
06:13yards, up the explosive plays.
06:16Because without that, I just don't think that this run game is going to be complimentary enough for them to
06:20stack wins over the next couple of weeks.
06:23Yeah, it's one thing to show the commitment that you know the guys are going to get the carries,
06:27but until there's some productivity that matches it, it does get difficult.
06:33I'm curious, what, if anything, you make of the Marcus or Jaden situation for Sunday,
06:39where they're playing this extremely close to the vest and not really tipping their hand which way it's going to
06:44go.
06:44I still think it's going to be Marcus, but I didn't know if you felt differently.
06:48No, I certainly wouldn't say that I have a better beat on it than you guys.
06:53Obviously, you guys follow the team very, very closely.
06:56I think it's wild that we're talking about this with Jaden, but I'm hoping that they're just making the right
07:06decisions, right?
07:07I'm hoping that they're making the decisions for the right reasons with Jaden even being potentially available in this one
07:13because everybody in the world kind of saw that injury from him,
07:17and you have flashbacks to obviously what happened to him previously with the elbow,
07:21and you go, man, are we rushing things here?
07:24And I know that there's not a great answer because I believe if he has full surgery on it, he's
07:31out for the year,
07:32and so I think that that's a tough decision to just make to say that he'd be out for the
07:36year
07:36in what is a pretty pivotal year for everybody in Washington, specifically this coaching staff.
07:42But you hope that they're making the decisions for the right reasons,
07:45and Mariota very clearly, look, look, is he the most dynamic starting quarterback at this point in time?
07:50No, but is he one of the better backups in the league?
07:52Yeah, you better believe it, and you see that they can get a win against the Seattle Seahawks
07:56with Seattle committing three turnovers last week,
08:00and Washington scoring three touchdowns off those three turnovers.
08:03I mean, he can get you a win, especially for a team that's more low-ceiling like the Indianapolis Colts
08:09are,
08:09and so I wouldn't be in any hurry to rush Jaden Daniels out there.
08:13I think Marcus Mariota is fully capable of getting you a win this week.
08:17I agree with that, and Trevor, last one for me.
08:20I know, obviously, you're an NFL analyst and analyze everything week to week,
08:24but I know how much work you put into the draft.
08:26B and I were talking, was that last week?
08:28I mean, is Jeremiah Smith going number one overall?
08:31I know there's so much talk about the quarterbacks in this class,
08:33and people love Arch because his last name is Manning,
08:35but Jeremiah Smith is just a monster.
08:39Yeah, look, he's the number one player on my board, that's for sure.
08:44You know, is the NFL going to take him number one?
08:46We'll see, but it hasn't exactly been a live-up-to-the-billing type of a start
08:51to the college football season for a lot of these quarterbacks
08:53that we thought could be number one overall picks.
08:56Dante Moore has struggled, and now he's got the concussion.
08:58Arch Manning has been fine, but hasn't taken the step everybody thought he was going to.
09:03Drew Mestemaker from Oklahoma State,
09:04he's the one who's really rising,
09:06who potentially could maybe take a shot at that number one overall pick spot,
09:10but for as dominant as Jeremiah Smith has been
09:13over the last three years of college football
09:15and how it looks like he's not slowing down anytime soon,
09:17it's hard to not think about him as a potential number one overall pick,
09:23even though he is not a pass rusher, pass protector, or a quarterback.
09:27Those are the positions that go number one,
09:29but when you have a talent like Jeremiah Smith,
09:31it's hard to overlook that, that's for sure.
09:34He's just a monster.
09:35He's unbelievable.
09:36Dude, Trev, thank you for the time, man.
09:38Appreciate you, brother.
09:38Congrats on the new show.
09:39I hope you have a ton of success.
09:41Yeah, thanks, brothers.
09:42Anytime, guys.
09:43All right, man.
09:44That's our guy, Trevor Sykema.
09:45Give him a follow at Tampa Bay Trey.
09:47When we return, you'll hear from the quarterback, Jaden Daniels.
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