- 2 days ago
With it seeming unlikely Jacory Croskey-Merritt will play for the Commanders on Monday, will they have to rely more on Jayden Daniels to be the running threat?
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00:00Speaking of the commanders, so good news, bad news here. We'll start with the bad news.
00:03It seems like something's afoot with Bill.
00:07I thought the lack of Bill involvement as the game went on was maybe a oversight, not running it enough,
00:14not using him.
00:15There were only three carries in the final 20 or so minutes of football, and one of them went to
00:21Bill.
00:22But it seems like if you couple that with the fact that now he's not on the practice field,
00:26and we haven't really seen him around the practice times where the media is out there,
00:31maybe we're trending toward no Bill on Monday night unless something considerable changes over the weekend.
00:36Yeah, you wonder.
00:38I mean, it feels like we're always in this place with him, whether it's training camp or every regular season
00:44week ever,
00:45where he's just out on the field Wednesday and it's limited Thursday and sometimes Friday
00:49and not for the portion where the media is at on Saturday or whatever.
00:53But, yeah, I do get that sense.
00:55I wonder, again, it just feels like that was a game where he was going a little bit,
01:00had a couple burst runs, and it just seems like why wouldn't you go back to that,
01:03but whether that was injury-related or it was they preferred somebody else.
01:08His first carry of the game was a 33-yard touchdown run.
01:10Yeah.
01:12Explosive, looked like it was well blocked.
01:15He was able to rip something off.
01:17And even if you want to take that out, he was still averaging over five yards per carry otherwise.
01:20But it was a monster day.
01:22It was an 80 rushing yard performance for Bill on about 10 carries.
01:27You're talking about eight a pop.
01:29This was as good as it's gotten.
01:3011 for 82.
01:31Seven and a half per for him with that 32 through three-yard touchdown.
01:36And their regular run game has needed that.
01:38They just have not had anything in that regard.
01:39I felt like unlocking the run game was going to take the quarterback position running the football,
01:44whether that means just getting Jaden back, and clearly he unlocked it, or even Mariota.
01:49And you saw it against Indianapolis on that first RPO that they ran,
01:52where it was like a read option at the mesh point, and he rips off 25, 30 yards around the
01:56sideline.
01:57He would soon get hurt.
01:58But if there's a threaded quarterback, it's going to be a different-looking situation.
02:02So I was glad to see them run the ball better.
02:04If no Bill, then what?
02:06But it's going to be, I would think, probably Austin Eckler is the next man up
02:09just because he's gotten the most touches over the last few weeks.
02:13Rashad White is back.
02:14He did have seven carries in the game.
02:16He's got the second-highest carry total this season.
02:19I still like him more catching the football.
02:21Jeremy McNichols is on his way back from injury.
02:23So there's no shortage of quantity here.
02:26I just think that you miss the home run ability of Bill that none of your other guys have.
02:30Yeah, and that style, too, right?
02:33I mean, it's that patience, the shift in this kind of – I mean, it's not Le'Veon Bell.
02:38There's only one of those guys.
02:39But you know what I mean?
02:39The ability to kind of run with a little bit of patience and some vision.
02:43The other guys are just a little bit different there.
02:45But, yeah, you don't –
02:46Do you think Bill's shown less of that this year?
02:47Yes, I do.
02:48I think one of his big issues – and this is just completely anecdotal for me
02:53watching this thing from outside – it seems like he runs a million miles an hour
02:57into the line of scrimmage.
02:58Like, there's so little wasted movement from him.
03:01When I think of Bill early on at training camp last year
03:04when everyone fell in love with him, Le'Veon Bell is an interesting name.
03:07But it is that, like, patient, kind of hopping, you're feeling things out,
03:12like prodding approach.
03:14Now he gets the ball and he just slams into the line.
03:16And that's why I always wonder –
03:18Less patience, less vision, more just, like, battering ram.
03:21What are we being coached to do?
03:23I wonder about stuff like that because you're right.
03:25Stylistically, he does look different than he did last year at various points
03:28where, you know, I always thought patience was a virtue for running backs
03:31a lot of times when things are developing.
03:31But I feel like Rashad White still does that.
03:33Yeah.
03:34And I'm not a big Rashad White guy, but he looks a little bit more like that patient –
03:38You're on skates a little bit.
03:39Yeah.
03:40You're sort of waiting and – it's like a slide more than it is kind of an explosion.
03:44Now, he doesn't have the burst.
03:45He doesn't have that I'm patient, I'm patient, now watch me go.
03:49He's just kind of patient, hey, there I go, and kind of leans forward.
03:51It's three yards and let's go back to the huddle.
03:53Well, but, yeah, I don't know.
03:55They don't have much dynamic at running back right now in terms of what happens
03:59when they hand the ball off.
04:00Again, that's the best it's looked all season long, and I'm hoping that, you know,
04:04whether it's Eckler, just do enough here running the football so you can kind of
04:09get to the other stuff because, to me, it's one of those you've got to eat your
04:12veggies against a really good defense.
04:13You know what makes it okay, though, if you're not that dynamic at running back,
04:17is having a quarterback who runs for 103 yards.
04:20That'll do it.
04:20So last week, if you just look at the numbers after the game, of the 378 net
04:27yards for the commanders, which is not a particularly exciting total, it was 6.3
04:32yards per play, just 60 plays run.
04:35They ran for 202 net yards.
04:39200 yards is an elite total.
04:41That's a dominant game.
04:42When you run for 200 yards, it means you absolutely mull the team in the trenches.
04:47Well, how'd you get there?
04:49From running backs, it was 82 from Bill.
04:52It was 18 from White.
04:53So you're talking about an 18 for 100.
04:54That's productive.
04:56The 33-yarder is a big reason why.
04:58That's your big reason, yeah.
04:59But that's 18 for 100.
05:00That's where you want to be.
05:01You add an Eckler, it's 21 for basically like 99.
05:05So you're right around five yards per carry.
05:07But then you insert Daniel's 38-yard touchdown.
05:10Daniel's 26-yard touchdown.
05:12103 yards.
05:13He changes everything.
05:14And this is why I've always pushed back when people want to pretend like he shouldn't be running the football.
05:19He needs to never run.
05:21You can't call designed runs.
05:24That his scramble rate, which has always been a little bit problematic to me, it's just too high, needs to
05:28come down considerably.
05:30This is what he does, man.
05:32That 38-yard touchdown, it's like him and five guys in this sport that can do that.
05:37You can't take the things that make people special away.
05:42You just have to bake that into the equation.
05:44That is part of it.
05:45You're way too bothered by that beat.
05:47Yeah, he's come back for me several times over.
05:50It's annoying that this Georgia Tech yellow jacket is in our vicinity and is hunting us.
05:55I'm surprised Cap's not doing a bunch of weird stuff.
05:57I don't think he's noticed.
05:57Remember when he normally panics with bees?
05:59Yes.
06:00At one point you did this.
06:01You were like...
06:02It landed on me.
06:03Okay.
06:04So anyway, your point, again, I don't think it's all or nothing.
06:08I don't think it's absolute.
06:10They love to run quarterback power, for example, with Jaden Daniels.
06:13I think that should be disallowed.
06:14I think you should have your play calling duty stripped from me if you think that's a good idea to
06:17feature that multiple times.
06:20Maybe once when you need half a yard for a touchdown in the fourth quarter of a must-win game.
06:24But yeah, I think you saw the dynamic.
06:27You saw what makes him special.
06:28If they're playing man or they have their head turned, he's gone and nobody can catch him and he's incredible
06:33in the secondary.
06:34He's actually done a phenomenal job this year.
06:36And it's ironic.
06:37We're talking about someone that's missed time.
06:38But he's been awesome at once I'm out in space, not cutting back to the middle of the field, not
06:45going where the defenders are.
06:46It's either out of bounds, touchdown, or get down.
06:50And to me, that's kind of my order of operations because obviously you prefer the touchdown.
06:55But that's my paradigm for him, which is the contact.
06:59That's what must be avoided.
07:00However we do that, let's do it.
07:02Yeah, it's a constant push and pull, I think.
07:07Always, yep, forever.
07:07And it will be until he's no longer the quarterback, which is hopefully 15 years in championships from now.
07:14But how do you keep him on the field and also not take away the things that are making him
07:22more of a risk that make him Superman?
07:28And I think that's what they've got to constantly navigate.
07:31To your point, he's actually done about as good a job as you can.
07:35Like, I can't believe how effective he was at not landing on his elbow this week.
07:38Like, because it's easy to say, I'll just make sure I land on my right side.
07:43And then you get out there and you play football and you're getting hit and you're getting tackled and you're
07:47falling down.
07:48You keep landing on your left side.
07:49He didn't.
07:50Over and over again, he was cognizant of it.
07:51It's pretty amazing.
07:52It's almost like he's so fast that he's able to slow himself down at the end of the play to
07:55normal speed.
07:56And then he falls on the correct side or whatever.
07:59It just takes one where that doesn't happen.
08:01But, yeah, he is worthy and deserving of, I think, some flowers on how he's protected himself.
08:08Even in the game where he got hurt against the Cowboys, I remember sitting there watching with my brother-in
08:13-law and we were raving about how he wasn't taking hits.
08:16Because he was running wild in that half.
08:18And I said to him, like, is he running too much?
08:20This is kind of crazy.
08:21He was at, like, almost nine carries for 100 yards in the first half.
08:24Which is ridiculous.
08:25I mean, that's not what quarterbacks should be doing necessarily.
08:28But he was also keeping him in the game doing it.
08:30It was their best weapon.
08:31And he's like, but he hasn't taken a hit.
08:32And I'm like, that's a great point.
08:33He's sliding.
08:34He's using the sideline.
08:35He's falling.
08:36He was textbook.
08:38You can't coach it better than that.
08:39It's a teach tape.
08:40And then he still got hurt, which was a complete fluke thing.
08:43Totally.
08:44And that's the heart.
08:46And I said at the time, that's the heartbreaking part.
08:48That's the part that isn't fair.
08:49Because that's what sports is.
08:50I mean, sports is a microcosm for this little thing we're going through called life, where you did everything right
08:55and you still got punched in the nose.
08:56You did everything perfect and you still lost.
08:59It's like in baseball.
08:59When you take the best swing of your life, you hit a ball on the screws and the center fielder
09:02never moves for a line drive out and you go back to the dugout with nothing.
09:06That's what sports is.
09:08But, yeah, I mean, they've gotten through to him.
09:11And, again, remember the design of, or to me, one of the major reasons why they just kind of circled
09:17back to our first hour.
09:18Why you go with David Blau, why you do what Cincinnati, what Philadelphia, what some other teams have done is
09:25you're going to this under center paradigm.
09:28The great irony, of course, was that it's to keep him, it's part of what's going to help keep him
09:31upright, part of what's going to keep him healthy.
09:33And getting stepped on in a freak way from that is what ended up making him not healthy that time.
09:39Again, it's just, it's all so, you just kind of shrug your shoulders and not do a real laugh.
09:44You're one of those like, are you kidding me, kind of laughs.
09:46One of the things I heard today from him that I actually really liked was he said he never thought
09:51about his brace while he was playing.
09:53Which is such a departure from a year ago in Minnesota when you and I watched him play the only
09:59game he's played in an elbow brace to this point.
10:02And he was, the entire game, he was messing with it, he was redoing it.
10:06He would come over to the sideline and they'd have the trainers redoing the straps and helping him and taking
10:11it off and putting it back on.
10:12They had like a brace assistant.
10:13Like there was a guy that was only concerned with the brace.
10:15But it's one of two things because it's a bigger, bulkier brace.
10:18So you would think it's not more comfortable necessarily.
10:20I think it speaks to mentally he is playing ball a little bit more.
10:24Like I'm not going to be as annoyed by this thing if it just is what it is.
10:28If my parents, when I'm going out to a party, like make me text them every two hours or something.
10:33If I'm cool with that, I just do it.
10:36You know, I'm just, if it's a thing, then you're annoyed, you let it ruin your night, right?
10:42I think the brace the first time he wore it, he wanted nothing to do with it.
10:46Probably thought it was unnecessary and clearly let it bother him.
10:50And this time I think he just went out and played football and he never thought about it once, according
10:55to what he said.
10:55According to what he said.
10:56I mean, but it's one of those six one-half dozen the other.
11:00If you never thought about it, how come you fell on your right side only?
11:03Do you know what I mean?
11:04I just think he meant like in the, that's fair, but I think what he was answering was he didn't
11:09think about it in the sense of letting it be a deterrent in his performance.
11:13Yeah, he didn't let it get to him, which I think is kind of the real way to put it.
11:17But again, I'm not being critical of it.
11:18It's just sort of saying it's like.
11:19I think the falling is based on not wanting your arm to dislocate again.
11:22It has nothing to do with the brace.
11:23Which I find reasonable.
11:24Yeah, but it's like a, I don't want to fall on my left side.
11:27Why?
11:27Oh, I'm wearing my brace because, you know, my elbow goes to the nether realm every time I try to
11:31plant.
11:31But yeah, it's, he looked comfortable enough wearing it.
11:35I mean, it is bulkier and more cumbersome than the one that he wore last year, certainly.
11:40Grant and Danny on the fan.
11:42All right, let's get to the good injury news for Washington.
11:45That is on the defensive side of the ball.
11:47All arrows pointing toward more Trey Amos at practice this week.
11:51Like, he is the second round cornerback who last year had what I would call a very encouraging rookie year.
11:57Based on the offseason, the plan was that he was going to be their cornerback one.
12:01And in this Durante Jones scheme, which calls for a lot more blitzing and quick pressures,
12:06they're not going to prioritize spending a lot of money at corner.
12:09They didn't go out in free agency and add a guy for a bunch of money.
12:13They didn't draft someone in the early rounds.
12:14So it was, Amos became really important.
12:16It was him and Sandra still.
12:18And they went and got Amik Robertson to play in the nickel, who has been outside more than inside.
12:23They went and got Rasul Douglas just to provide a little depth.
12:26And it's a godsend that they did, by the way, because Amos got hurt in training camp and hasn't played
12:31yet.
12:32But it looks like he could be back.
12:34What I see when I look at Commander's Twitter and kind of generally the pulse of the fan base
12:42seems to be an expectation that the return of Amos could be a game changer in the secondary.
12:47I'm not as convinced of that.
12:48I think he's a good player.
12:49I think having more good players helps.
12:51But I think you go from having probably a subpar corner room to still like a slightly below average corner
12:58room.
12:58And I don't know that this is like some end-all, be-all fix for them.
13:01It's not like they're getting Patrick Sertan or Christian Gonzalez back.
13:06They're getting a good player.
13:07But Amik Robertson's been tremendous.
13:09I think he's been great.
13:11Rasul Douglas has been very, very solid to good.
13:13I don't think their corners, other than Sandra still, have played poorly.
13:17So I'm not expecting some major jolt here.
13:21The one thing that could change, Danny, is maybe this means you almost don't see Sandra still at all at
13:26corner.
13:26There it is.
13:27And that might be addition by subtraction.
13:28This is what people are excited about, I think, more than anything else.
13:31It just means less Mikey, probably.
13:34So I don't know who that means.
13:37They get kicked to nickel or kicked inside or if there's a four-corner time.
13:41Play Amik inside.
13:43That's what you brought him in to do, put Amos outside with Douglas outside.
13:46For sure.
13:46But that, again, would mean less Mikey Samuelson, which I think are why people are excited.
13:51But to your point, this is what always happens with us, where it's a, with Washington fans in general,
13:55like a guy is absent and we sort of go, you know, that's probably the single most important player ever.
14:02I mean, think of the, you know, you guys, we still bust John Kimes chops every time we talk to
14:06him about,
14:07like the one guy that never played here.
14:08But it was like, when is this dude coming back?
14:10Remember the secondary that gets inflated into Daryl Green and Deion Sanders.
14:14Tanar Jackson.
14:14Yeah, Tanar Jackson.
14:16So, yeah, I like Tramis.
14:18And I think you're right.
14:19More good players is better than less or than fewer.
14:22So I'm excited to have him come back.
14:23He was promising his rookie year, but got injured a bunch and has already missed time again this year.
14:29So hopefully he's able to have the rubber meet the road and play and be fine.
14:33But, yeah, it's not as if he's, if he was replacing Robertson or Douglas, I'd go, that's annoying.
14:38But to me, this is just means probably less Sanar still in a primary role,
14:42which I think is probably good for everybody right now.
14:44Yeah, they now have, if he plays at a high level, maybe three corners that you trust,
14:49which is a prerequisite in today's NFL.
14:51Because just about every team operates out of 11 personnel pretty frequently, which is three receivers.
14:57And so if you're going to have three receivers in space, you better have three corners that can cover.
15:01And if Sanar still is out there, he's been a liability.
15:03Even in the very limited amount of reps since being supplanted and demoted that he's gotten, he's really struggled.
15:09By the way, I saw a funny clip online where Rich Eisen was talking to a guest, I don't remember
15:15who it was, on his show.
15:16He's like, what's going on in Washington?
15:18You know, where are they at in the grand scheme of things?
15:21And the guy's like, I just, I don't know how good they are.
15:23They got Daniels.
15:24They got Styles.
15:24They don't have much else.
15:25And Rich Eisen, who's a Michigan guy, goes, I'm a little bit biased, but I also think they got something
15:30really special in Mikey Sanris still.
15:33And this was this week he was saying that.
15:34Oh, dear.
15:35And I'm like, this is an example of a national pundit, you know, an analyst on a national level,
15:42where it's really hard to keep up with all 32 teams, not updating your file, or not being on it,
15:48necessarily.
15:48And I get that it's hard to keep up with everybody.
15:50It really is.
15:52But that's one of those, ugh.
15:55Like, if he'd mentioned, I don't know, like, a guy that you really like, hey, Frankie Louvoo had a great
15:59year a couple years ago.
16:00That's a nice asset.
16:01If you've gone there, you go, okay, well, we don't know about some of the ups and downs.
16:04And there was a, last year wasn't very good, but this year maybe there's a revitalization.
16:08But Sanris still has been public enemy number one, probably, for this fan base this year.
16:13I don't know what happened to him.
16:15I don't either.
16:15It is confounding, because as a rookie, he was really good a couple years ago.
16:20I know that's not just my own, like, feelings.
16:22No, you're not crazy.
16:23He did good things.
16:25He was not spectacular.
16:26I mean, I remember the Bengals game in Cincinnati.
16:28He gave up the 40-yard touchdown right off the bat to Jamar Chase, and that's going to be a
16:32mismatch for most corners.
16:33It wasn't perfect, but he played like a rookie, almost like Amos did last year, where you do feel like
16:39he's a building block.
16:41You could put him in Penn as a guy that's a fixture, who's going to be around for the long
16:45haul, that you don't have to worry about.
16:47And that is where there's a little bit of reservation for me on Amos, that everyone's just crowned him and
16:50decided he's the next great corner.
16:53I don't really get that.
16:55I think he is good, and I think he was a good draft pick.
16:58But we've done this with a second-round corner that we just crowned and said, oh, we saw everything we
17:03need to see.
17:04I thought it was shocking that they basically made him their corner one this offseason after what was a very
17:09solid sample.
17:10He wasn't spectacular.
17:11He wasn't one of the best corners in the league.
17:13He was pretty good.
17:14And then he was just going to be their number one coming into the year.
17:16That felt aggressive to me.
17:18But maybe it's just my PTSD from San Restyl's regression where I want to see it to believe it here.
17:24Especially for a larger sample for a guy that missed a bunch of time last year and has already missed
17:27five games this year.
17:28He gets injured a lot.
17:29Also, when you're a corner, as you play longer into your career and the book is out on you that
17:37you're good, more is asked of you.
17:39There's more on your plate, right?
17:41So it's almost like getting promotions at work where it's easy to be okay at that entry-level gig.
17:46Now you're managing a few people.
17:47Now you're running everything.
17:49You go from that initial job that you have if you're San Restyl, everyone's impressed because you're not even supposed
17:55to play outside and you're playing at a decent level.
17:58But now you're following the number one around all day long.
18:01Now your job is CeeDee Lamb.
18:03There's a big difference between Amos as a rookie last year and Amos if they actually are going to ask
18:08him to be a number one corner.
18:10Yeah.
18:10We talk about this all the time with sports where it's like, dude, they got something with this starting pitcher
18:15who all of a sudden looks pretty good.
18:16Like, hey, how great is this Andrew Alvarez story, right?
18:19Every time he's been asked to pitch, he's throwing well.
18:21That's a nice asset for them.
18:23You want him starting game one of a division series?
18:26You know what I mean?
18:26Like that's the difference, right?
18:27Is that, hey, this is cool.
18:28It's gone from, hey, in his role he's succeeded to now not only are you successful, but as you said,
18:34much more is counted or we're depending on you for a huge, huge role here in a division with plenty
18:41of good receivers.
18:41Grant and Danny on the fan.
18:43Question for you guys at 800-636-1067.
18:47That's 800-636-1067.
18:49You want to hop in on the phones.
18:51What do you expect from Amos if we get to see him for the first time against the Niners and
18:54just how big a deal is it for the defense to get him back?
18:58Does he change things for this secondary, which has been a struggle?
19:03They've given up way too much in the passing game.
19:05You're listening to the fan.