00:00My boy Vladi just texted me.
00:02What up?
00:03He said, wait, serious question.
00:05Did Jake Plummer really try out for the Commanders,
00:08or is my man at the River Road Sunoco totally messing with me?
00:11That's Jack Plummer.
00:13Yeah.
00:13Vladi, it's Jack Plummer.
00:16And Vladi Divac calling up here tripping, man.
00:19Vladi, did you?
00:20Great people.
00:22So the Commanders brought in Jack Plummer.
00:27This is interesting on a lot of levels.
00:29He played four seasons at Purdue.
00:31I can't imagine he overlapped with Blau at Purdue,
00:35but that's probably worth checking.
00:40I'm going to check that right now.
00:42Okay.
00:43Blau, yeah, they did overlap.
00:46So Blau was on the 2018 Purdue Boilermakers.
00:50How old is Jack?
00:51Jack Plummer was a redshirt freshman in 2018.
00:53Okay, but how old is he?
00:56He was born in 1999.
00:58You want to do the math for me?
01:00He is 26.
01:0126, 27.
01:02He's turning 27 in two weeks.
01:05Wait, wait, wait, wait.
01:05Happy early birthday to Jack Plummer.
01:07Wait, wait, wait.
01:09What, Blau went to school late or something?
01:11Because I was, what, 35, right?
01:13I think Blau's like 31.
01:14Oh, wow.
01:15I thought he was like 35.
01:16So he's like 31?
01:17Damn.
01:19I don't, I mean, I bet Blau was in college for five years.
01:23Yeah.
01:2414.
01:24But if he was 35, like I was thinking, that wouldn't be possible.
01:28So if he's 31, 32, yeah, I could get that.
01:31So there is some knowledge.
01:34There is a familiarity, right?
01:37Yeah.
01:37Yeah, Blau was born in 95.
01:39So what does that make him?
01:4132?
01:4131.
01:4231, 32?
01:43Yeah.
01:43So what I'm picking up is when you talk about a person's offense,
01:50if you're David Blau, I guarantee you something from Purdue is involved
01:55with his offense.
01:56You get what I'm saying?
01:57Yep.
01:58And if that kid.
02:00There's a level of familiarity.
02:02So, yeah, they know each other and he probably has some familiarity
02:06with what this offense is.
02:08Let's work him out and see what he has.
02:10And then Blau may know a little something about him.
02:12Like whenever someone is connected with somebody or been with someone,
02:17if we hire him or we interview him, I'm going to call somebody I know
02:20that may know him.
02:21Right.
02:21I reached out to Deuce and Deuce told me about David.
02:24So I can see this situation.
02:25Let's work him out.
02:26Let's see if he's still what he was.
02:28So Plummer played four years at Purdue.
02:30The COVID rules changed everything.
02:32Then he transferred to Cal, started 12 games for the Bears.
02:36Then he transferred to Louisville.
02:38Had a good last season at Louisville.
02:40Team went 10-4.
02:42What tech did you just say?
02:45White Bryce.
02:46Thinking of talking about kindness.
02:48Yeah, that was funny.
02:49Please join the stream.
02:50That was funny.
02:51His last year at Louisville, Plummer, the Cardinals go 10-4.
02:55He completes 65% of his passes, 3,200 passing yards,
02:5921 touchdowns against 12 picks.
03:01That's a pretty good college season.
03:02All right.
03:04In 24, I think he signs his UDFA with the Panthers.
03:10Spent most of the year on the practice squad.
03:12Got promoted to the active for probably week 17 and on.
03:16Then they cut him in the offseason.
03:19In 26, he played for the Orlando Storm of the UFL.
03:24Okay.
03:25League MVP.
03:26Wow.
03:27Had a pretty good year in 26 in Orlando.
03:31White Brian, forgive me for not knowing this.
03:34Did Orlando win the league?
03:35They went 8-2.
03:38He completed 65% of his passes for about 2,200 yards, 17 touchdowns against one pick.
03:44So if I'm a coach, I love that he doesn't throw picks.
03:48I don't want to make too much about Jack Plummer getting a tryout, right?
03:55A lot of people are asking if he's related to Jake Plummer.
03:58He is not.
03:59Okay?
04:00Names certainly sound familiar, though.
04:02I understand why you would guess that.
04:05But B, the bigger question to me, and this is all from Mike Garofalo's reporting this morning.
04:09If others have reported it since, I apologize.
04:12Mike's the first guy I saw it from.
04:15Mike said, the Commanders worked out quarterback Jack Plummer this morning.
04:18The former Panthers quarterback and UFL MVP with the Storm threw well and could be a consideration down the line.
04:24But Marcus Mariota isn't going on IR right now, so Washington will keep rolling with their four in-house quarterbacks.
04:31Okay.
04:32So you've got Jaden, who I've already told you is going to start this week.
04:37Backing up Jaden, I assume, is going to be eighth at Kaliak-Manus,
04:40who I think showed just something.
04:42Yeah, yeah.
04:44And then you still have Marcus, who will just be inactive.
04:47If they're not putting him on IR, he's just going to be inactive.
04:49And then you have Sam Hartman on the practice squad.
04:52Mm-hmm.
04:54At what point, just what are we doing with Hartman?
05:00He's a super nice guy.
05:01I don't know what's going on with that.
05:02Anytime there's a charity thing, he's a great guy with it.
05:04Yeah, but that situation right there, if it's about having people on the team that can help you,
05:08and every time something happens to a quarterback, he's not the person you go to,
05:12then you must not believe he can help you.
05:13So I don't understand that move right there.
05:17One has me scratching my head all the time.
05:19And we've now seen this repeatedly.
05:22Yeah.
05:22Like, late last season, when Marcus goes down and Johnson's going to be the starter,
05:28rather than elevate Hartman to be the backup, they bring in Driscoll.
05:32Yeah, yeah.
05:32Like, I just, it doesn't add up to me, and I feel like nobody wants to hurt feelings or something.
05:40But, like, you just benched Allegretti, who you spent six months telling us was the answer,
05:45because you wanted to give another guy a shot, and you said it's about competition.
05:48Mm-hmm.
05:48Like, what is this about?
05:50I don't get that one.
05:52That one confuses me a lot.
05:55Me too, man.
05:56And I'm not mad at Jack Plummer.
05:57Maybe he's a guy that could help you, or you think he could run your scout team or something.
06:02You know what I mean?
06:03But also, the guy on your scout team is someone that you hope in a couple years
06:09could be a guy that could help you out that may move up.
06:11And if a guy's been on your team three years and he hadn't moved up yet,
06:14then you don't think that guy could help you.
06:16And so if another guy has been around and has done a little bit more
06:20and accomplished more at this level, you might want to say,
06:23okay, let's get this guy on our practice squad so if we get to that situation again,
06:28we have somebody we may have some faith in.
06:30Right.
06:31Like, if you're going to continue to have a quarterback on your practice squad,
06:36you'd like that to be somebody you think could maybe become a player.
06:40Like, Kaliak Manis, for what it's worth, that was a seventh-round flyer.
06:45This kid's got a big arm.
06:46Let's see what we think.
06:47But he's already kind of shown you something.
06:49Yeah, but people look at it just for the quarterback, Jay.
06:51I look at it for anybody on your practice squad.
06:54If they're on my practice squad, since you can move people up and down now,
06:58if you're on my practice squad, hell, I need to have the faith in you
07:02that if something happens, I can move you up over the weekend.
07:05Well, you know what happened over the weekend?
07:06And you probably missed this because you were traveling.
07:08The Seahawks signed Robert Henry to their active.
07:11Janarian Price is on IR.
07:13Like, they identified a running back, a young guy,
07:16that they think maybe this kid can help us.
07:17Yeah.
07:18And Robert Henry showed some flashes in preseason,
07:20also put the ball on the ground probably too many times.
07:22He showed some things that weren't very, very tasteful.
07:24I was just looking at some comments from people where, let's be real,
07:28he did show flashes, but he showed flashes on the other side too.
07:33Right.
07:33But I think the role of the practice squad has changed so significantly
07:38that you can have veterans on there and you can elevate them Saturday night.
07:42It's really changed how a roster works.
07:44So I get it.
07:46People want to – I think there were some that were frustrated that Henry gets the call
07:52and meanwhile they promoted Craig Reynolds and signed Austin Eckler,
07:56two guys that are 30-plus.
07:58So it's not necessarily developing more talent there.
08:00I think that practice squad role has kind of changed in that it doesn't have to be
08:06talent development.
08:07Like, Van Jefferson's on the practice squad.
08:09Yeah.
08:09You know what would happen?
08:10Like, if somebody goes down, their competent man can step in and play.
08:13I think the thing with Robert is this.
08:15When you go into that game and you had Rashad White is out, okay,
08:20you had Bill and basically Fat Man.
08:23Then you get Austin and you want to have somebody else up,
08:26you bring up a guy who can play special teams.
08:28In that situation, Austin's not playing a special team.
08:31Bill doesn't play special teams.
08:33That is why they brought up Reynolds because Reynolds has done this stuff in the league
08:38for a little bit longer.
08:39He may have a better feel of it.
08:42He has more experience.
08:43I think fans sometimes look at one player and they forget about the rest of them.
08:47You know, you need to be legitimate at pass blocking, picking up blitz, everything.
08:54Not just, ooh, he had a touchdown in preseason.
08:57That's happened many times.
08:59I've seen people return a kickoff in preseason and get cut.
09:03Sure.
09:04It's a complicated calculus, right?
09:07This is not simple arithmetic.
09:09There's a lot that goes into all of this.
09:12But working out a quarterback, just to have an idea down the line, to me, is like,
09:20I don't know if you feel this way, B, but like, okay, if somebody else goes down,
09:25we want to be able to bring somebody else in.
09:28Or if Marcus's knee injury comes back, he's going to miss six weeks.
09:34You know what I mean?
09:35Uh-huh.
09:36Typically, if you bring somebody in and don't sign them,
09:39it's because you want to be ready to sign them later.
09:42Or you want to see if you like it, and if you don't,
09:44then you're going to bring somebody else in.
09:46Yeah.
09:46Like, it's – this is not just a favor going into week five.
09:51No, no, no, no.
09:51It's not a favor at all.
09:52Now, you've got to feel that that person can help you.
09:55That's why the other one confuses me so much.
09:57Yeah, man.
09:58That one is odd.
10:01And when you saw last year bringing Driscoll in is where, to me,
10:06it really stopped making sense.
10:08Yeah.
10:10It's also – we're talking about a practice squad quarterback.
10:12Like, is that going to make or break the difference against the Giants this week?
10:15Probably not.
10:16What could make or break the game against the Giants this week
10:21is the tight end position.
10:22And there's been an incredible lack of productivity from the tight end position.
10:27I want to have a tight end conversation when we return.
10:29You're listening to B. Mitchell Finley.
10:31You're listening to B. Mitchell Finley.
