- 11 hours ago
Kevin Sheehan dissects Washington Commanders GM Adam Peters' weekly appearance on The Sports Junkies, analyzing Peters' candid reaction to Jayden Daniels’ fourth-down throwaway against the 49ers, his quick dismissal of hiring an offensive consultant for David Blough, the rationale behind bringing in Steve Wilks, and the emotional and schematic aftermath of Terry McLaurin’s knee injury.
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00:00there were a few sound bites from the interview with the junkies that wanted to play for you
00:05one of which will include kind of his explanation of why they hired a defensive consultant and
00:12whether or not they're going to do the same on offense but the guys did ask him about his
00:17reaction to the fourth down and two in the first half when Jaden threw the ball into the crowd
00:23Adam what was your reaction to Jaden Daniels throwing the ball out of bounds on fourth down
00:29instead of trying to squeeze it into a teammate he's taken a lot of criticism for that from the
00:33media over the last few days what was your reaction and what did your takeaway from that
00:39yeah you know actually live um I I didn't see that because I was down with Terry I was down
00:45in the
00:45locker room with Terry uh and then I heard about it um and because Terry had just been and done
00:52his
00:52x-rays and everything and then we took him back to the locker room uh I heard about it and
00:56I think
00:57it's been addressed and Jaden's addressed it he knows you know that that's not a situation where
01:01he could throw the ball away he said he saw the flag there he thought it was on them um
01:05and that's
01:06that's not an excuse that's just what he said and and he knows he knows moving forward he's got to
01:11put
01:11that ball in play and try to make a play there and and you know let the chips fall where
01:15they may with
01:15the flag but you know it's a learning lesson um that you wish you know we wish isn't learned during
01:21the games but uh it is nonetheless and I I'm sure Jaden's a really smart guy and that won't happen
01:27ever again I know that yeah okay an answer that you know he saw the flag Quinn tried to explain
01:37it
01:38that way as well the flags are relevant to the play anybody that knows anything about football
01:42understands that and Adam Peters understood that and said it's you know you got to put the ball in play
01:47clearly and let's hope it doesn't happen again you know this is going to be something where I'm sure
01:52internally they're going to emphasize all of these game situation things with Jaden but then in game
01:59it's going to have to be paid attention to in a much more you know meaningful way meaning don't assume
02:07anything you know at this point with your quarterback don't assume that he knows it's fourth down uh don't
02:15assume that he knows it's fourth down but you can't throw the ball away don't assume that he knows
02:21that he doesn't have any timeouts but that means if he gets sacked the clock might run out you know
02:27you have to be very specific he's still a young player he's dealing with a new scheme a new offense
02:33new play calls you can see they're getting out of the huddle a lot you know a little bit late
02:38he's got
02:39a lot of things on his plate so they have to literally handhold him that's got to be the
02:45strategy moving forward it won't happen again if they've got somebody that just understands basic
02:52football stuff and can communicate it to him as if you're not assuming he knows it in real time
03:01that should happen anyway most coaches have said in discussing the Jaden Daniels plays over the last
03:07two weeks this was Adam Peters discussing why Steve Wilkes was added to the defensive staff
03:16joined by Adam Peters commanders GM uh so this week we learned about Steve Wilkes being added to the
03:23defensive staff fill us in on when this was planned why it's necessary uh what is the upside here with
03:31Steve Wilkes being added to the staff yeah I'll start you know I know Steve um we coached together
03:37well I didn't coach but he coached and we worked together in San Francisco and um so he's an awesome
03:44awesome person first and foremost just a really good man um this is something we had talked about
03:49really throughout training camp you know DQ and Durante had talked about this during training camp and
03:55and adding um another experienced mind uh especially in the secondary back there with with him and
04:01because that's his um Durante's you know expertise is in the secondary and with him coordinating the
04:08defense you know wanted to get another set of eyes back there as he he actually took over the whole
04:14defense so that's where that's where it started the guy started talking about it in training camp
04:20and you know so these things I think take time and so as they're they're looking for someone who's
04:25the right fit they found someone in Steve who's close by he's living in Charlotte he still has some
04:30obligations that he's doing with um with App State and that you know that's that's I think it kind of
04:36took
04:37a little bit longer going through all the different you know people that we can go through in terms of
04:42who's available and then how they're available and this ended up being the fit that we liked and
04:47you know so he's been here um he just got here a couple weeks ago or last week and um
04:53you know
04:54he's coming in a few days a week and so we think I'll just give an extra set of eyes
04:58on really you
04:59know the next opponent and ourselves and our self-scout and just trying to to just get another set of
05:05experienced eyes in the building interesting I did not know he was he's actually working at
05:13Appalachian State who upset JMU last night in overtime uh JMU no longer undefeated uh this year
05:20really wild game uh that App State won I think 34-31 in overtime so I I looked this up
05:29after I heard
05:30that he had mentioned that he sort of had another gig he's a special assistant in the school's athletic
05:37department but helping the football team as well that that is his alma mater Steve Wilkes played
05:44college football at App State Appalachian State back in the late 80s early 90s and has had you know one
05:51of
05:51those amazing sort of football life resume'd um careers like you look up his resume and it's like
06:0019 or 20 different places starting in 1995 at Johnson C. Smith University as the defensive
06:09coordinator he was at Savannah State Illinois State App State East Tennessee State Bowling Green
06:14Notre Dame Washington College then all of a sudden he's in the NFL with the Bears Chargers Panthers
06:20Cardinals Browns then he's back to college at Missouri then he's with the Niners then he's with
06:26Jets now he's back at App State but now he's a special consultant to Washington's defense I mean
06:33that is quite the life lived uh in terms of travel and living in different places um over you know
06:41basically a 30-year period uh it's it's amazing I I'm always blown away by the incredible uh amount of
06:49places that that a majority of the coaches um that you end up seeing and getting to know
06:56where they've been prior to them becoming household names um look I I don't Ben Standig said this to
07:04us you know after Blau was elevated to OC and Durante Jones was hired as defensive coordinator
07:10he said I would expect them to bring in you know senior level assistants since they're two first-time
07:18coordinators now Durante is different than David Blau in that he's got one of those long grinded out
07:25resumes as a coach um and he was a defensive coordinator in college at LSU um whereas Blau
07:33was playing in the league as a backup quarterback just a few years ago uh but they didn't do it
07:38in
07:38the offseason they sort of got around to doing it it sounds like you know Steve Wilkes he lives in
07:43Charlotte but he's got a real job and this is going to be sort of a consultant gig I don't
07:48know how much
07:49it's actually a great gig if you can get it right I mean a lot of you who are consultants
07:53it's like
07:54you just you know you got a lot of ideas you sit in front of a whiteboard twice a week
07:58and
07:58and and and spell it out you send a couple of docs and it's like you know that's it because
08:05on game
08:05day he's not there so he's not responsible for anything um be interesting just to find out what
08:12those you know in-season part-time consultant gigs how they get compensated like what are they paying
08:19him to do that uh but I still think it's odd I think it's odd because Dan Quinn is a
08:29defensive head
08:30coach Dan Quinn should be the defensive consultant if they feel Durante Jones needs that
08:41offensively that's where I would have guessed if somebody had said hey they hired an assistant
08:46a consultant you know to come in and help out I would have said oh who was it on offense
08:53but it wasn't on offense but the junks asked Adam Peters about whether or not there's a plan to bring
09:00in help for David Blau as well that makes sense to me a lot of people though wonder are you
09:06going to do
09:07the same thing with the plan to do the same thing with the offense and with Blau especially given that
09:11both these guys first-year coordinators yeah that's not something we've talked about uh with Blau but um
09:18but now is that it was that the answer that's the whole answer that was the whole answer the whole
09:27answer okay go back to it I want to hear it again wow especially given that both these guys first
09:33-year
09:34coordinators yeah that's not something we've talked about uh with Blau but um but now
09:45I mean he's usually got longer answers right usually yeah every on these this is by far the shortest cut
09:55on the interview I mean it it's an absolute natural question I mean it's it's there's no way
10:06that he could have felt like it was an unfair question I think most fans most media members
10:14would have guessed if somebody had said they hired an assistant for one side of the ball that it was
10:19on
10:21offense look Adam Peters is in terms of you know we've talked a lot about this right the two hires
10:29one wasn't really a hire it was an elevation it was a promotion from within and the promotion of David
10:35Blau from within was certainly something that Adam Peters was very much in favor of um and you know
10:42it was one in which you know you could never kind of hang it on Quinn as he's out on
10:51a limb
10:51you know elevating David Blau and moving on from Cliff Kingsbury now whether or not that was exactly
10:58what Dan Quinn wanted to do or not who knows but organizationally no one's going to get pinned
11:05more than others on the David Blau elevation I might be corrected on that I'm just going to suggest
11:13that there's a possibility that we get to at some point in the season and there's more discussion
11:19sort of behind the scenes that this was you know something that Dan Quinn didn't want I've not heard
11:27that I've not heard that Dan Quinn stood on a table and said no I want to keep Cliff Kingsbury
11:33but I do know and I think we all know that this was certainly something that Adam Peters was in
11:37favor
11:38of but from my standpoint I'm going with for right now they were all on board with this and you
11:45know
11:45if it fails it's an organizational fail it's not a Dan Quinn fail defensively Dan Quinn had the ability
11:54to go out and find the defensive coordinator that he wanted and he picked Durante Jones so if Adam
12:01Peters was more Blau and Quinn was more Jones not that there wasn't collaboration the two of them talk
12:08about their collaboration all the time um maybe Peters is calling a lot of the shots right now as it
12:18relates to we need help for Durante Jones well do we need help for David Blau because he called a
12:26pretty
12:26dumb play in the giant game in overtime and there have been a couple of other things that haven't
12:32seen look he's a young guy there's going to be a learning curve here just like with Durante Jones
12:37although Durante Jones has certainly more battle scars as an NFL coach interesting how short that
12:46answer was it could have been unintentionally short but it certainly wasn't an unfair question
12:52this was Adam Peters on Terry McLaurin's injury and who needs to step up Adam so you touched on this
13:00earlier in the interview you were with Terry after the injury obviously everybody's gutted for him you
13:05lose the heart and soul guy on your offense what was the locker room like post game first of all
13:10you're
13:10dealing with the loss of the game and you lose Terry what were the players like and on the other
13:15side
13:16you know it's a next man up Lee you look at opportunities now for Antonio Williams going
13:21forward and Chig's been emerging over the last two weeks so other guys are gonna have to step up in
13:26Terry's void uh take us through the injury yeah uh you just gutted for Terry and and and I can't
13:35say
13:35enough good things about Terry obviously we had um you know we went we we went through the contract
13:41negotiations last year which was not fun for anybody um but yeah the way Terry came in this year
13:47you know we um I couldn't be more impressed and just thankful for a player like him and his leadership
13:55and the way he attacked the offseason the way he attacked the season not only on the field but off
14:01the
14:01field with his leadership and he was a captain and um and he was a captain in every sense of
14:08the word
14:08uh on and off the field for us this year and so for all the work that he put in
14:13as good as he's looked
14:14as good as he's been playing um for that to happen to him on something like that you're just gutted
14:20and um you know so you're not only losing someone on the field but you know in the locker room
14:25you
14:25know on game days that that really it's really you know you feel for him um you know and and
14:31really
14:32the thing that it was just he's not even worried about that he's he's the first thing he said to
14:36me is
14:36I'll be here for these guys you know I'm going to be I'll be with these guys every step of
14:40the way
14:40moving forward and just that's the type of guy he is so he's not worried about himself he's worried
14:44about continuing to lead this team and and um so I got a ton of respect for him and I
14:51know he's
14:52going to attack this thing like he attacks everything and and you know I wouldn't be surprised
14:56whatever timeline they give him he'll beat it he'll be back here um but like you said in terms of
15:03moving forward with our guys you mentioned that you know Chig has had a couple really good weeks
15:08you know after the first week kind of feeling his way back and against the Colts uh off the injury
15:13last couple weeks he's been really good and I think you know he's continued going to continue to do that
15:18and add an element to our passing game and then the other guys will have to step up you know
15:23and
15:24on the outside Traylon's been playing some really good football Deami's another guy who can stretch the
15:28field vertically and then you have um we still have Steph which we're really thrilled about having
15:34him and then Antonio is the guy who you brought up who I think uh really has a chance to
15:39be a
15:40playmaker in this league and he has shown that and and he'll get a bigger role now yeah much bigger
15:46role
15:47and uh nice things that Adam Peters said about Terry McLaurin and I think everybody even fans
15:54understand how important he is and what a pro uh he is and how he'll attack it and he'll still
16:00be
16:00around but it's going to be a loss you know offensively not to have somebody like that not
16:06you know we're not talking about the big separator we're not talking about the big home run threat but
16:11what we are talking about is the contested catch the third and three slant the third and six slant uh
16:18the contested catch on the sideline the guy that can absolutely do it after the catch on a bubble
16:24screen um that's going to be missed and they're going to have to get Antonio Williams and Traylon
16:30Burks to step up I'm very interested and I don't know what the answer to this at all is but
16:35I know
16:36during the summer the off season in the summer how much they liked Van Jefferson and you've got
16:44Diggs you've got Diami you've got Burks and you've got Antonio Williams right now those are the four
16:51that are going to play um I'm wondering if a Van Jefferson gets called up and is active and maybe
16:59for Luke McCaffrey who's not been very impressive on kickoff returns or punt returns I right now the
17:07punt return answer um if it's not um if it's not Luke Luke McCaffrey I think is Antonio Williams
17:15didn't we see Antonio Williams back on punt returns in a game this year I believe we did yeah I
17:20believe
17:20we have yeah so you could go Jeremy McNichols along with Antonio Williams or Burks or Diami or Rashad
17:30White on kickoff returns because remember you get two kickoff returners now it's been that way for
17:35since they changed the kickoff rules and you could go Antonio on punt returns and you bring up Van
17:42Jefferson my thing am I missing any other wide receiver that's on the practice squad
17:51no so
17:54so not going to be easy uh but they gotta they gotta figure it out um and they'll have obviously
18:00a week
18:00a week of practice and a week of rest uh heading into that
18:04you