Best Interviews on 106.7 The Fan/The Team 980: September 7-11

0:00stretch run of Grant and Danny with you until 630 coming your way. Thanks to our friends the law firm Condorian Murrow. We love those guys that can help me with so much like a state planning elder law real estate transactions, probate administration. The attorneys are always there to protect you and your family's assets. Schedule a free consultation with their team today by visiting KM lawyers.com and be sure to let them know that we sent you. That's KM lawyers.com. We are pumped to announce that our buddy, Jay Gruden will be back on the show with us after Commander's games primarily on Monday's all season long and he's with us right now on the road guest hotline rude the most reliable heating and air conditioning products in the DMV Jay it has been too long to talk to you man. How are you? I've been great. How you guys doing? Great buddy. We're doing good. We are ready for some football. What's your feel on the commanders going into the season after they signed digs prior to the tonsill injury? But like everyone was well on their way to picking them to be in the wild card mix. The momentum got really bad in the preseason the joint practice and a sluggish preseason game about a week and a half ago. But things

1:03are trending as we get closer to week one and they get healthier back in the right direction. What's your feel? Yeah, I kind of with the majority of people I have made your concern with the front man. That's that's it. The left tackle. You know, left guard moving the left tackle. I know he played Manussee championship at a decent year there, but not a left guard. It was good. Chris Paul is back in there. He's okay. But the loss of center. We got out. Ready. Moving in there. Cosmese. A good right guard. Connolly struck it last year. So, yeah, there's there's issues up front for sure. So they're going to have to do a good job. David Bliles. I have to do a good job of really mixing them around past flash, past quick game, RPOs, all that stuff. Make sure they're not in a lot of third and long known passive situations. If he can do that, then they can move the ball. I mean, we know what Jay could do. You know, digs can do. You know, what obviously Terry can do and, you know, this new tight M jig. He's got a bad player. So they have a weapon. We just got to get the ball out quick and stay and keep filling from putting our hands on the ground in the Russian capacitor. Do you agree with what this team seems to think, which is that the center position isn't that big of a deal and is the least important on the

2:05offensive line? I totally disagree with that. I think it's a very important I would say guard would probably be my thing that you can read. Hell, I went through like 40 cards. So I kind of know it. I just stickers on their home. But on the Friday before game, but center to me was big. I mean, everywhere I went, because they're communicating. They're touching the ball on every play. The blitz tick helps are very critical with the center. Now, now, when you're talking about just straight up playing and blocking and stuff like that, he will get double teams. He's a double teamer. He did get put on an island too often, unless it's five down Laman and it's one on one. That doesn't happen very often. But I just like the center because they're the smartest guy in the field. They really the second line, the second that I should have quarterbacked. Jay, you mentioned it with some of the things that an offensive coordinate or a good mind can do. But if the line isn't a strength, and if it's actually going to struggle at times, what are some of the work rounds? Because you know, just put on first down, you got to try to get some some yards and points and good things that happen. But how do you do that to the defense? Can't just sit on stuff? What are some of the workarounds?

3:05Yeah, for sure. I think there's a lot of things. One is trying to be physical. I think when you have an offense line that may not be very good, passing their past blocking and all that stuff, picking up the stunts and some of the speed rushes and the power up the middle. Try to get the tight ends out there, get baits out there and get jig out there, get some two tight ends. That's three tight ends. Try to pound them a little bit and the plashes off of those can be pretty good. And get the quarterback outside the pocket for downflats, low crosses where he can get the ball out outside. So there's ways to do it. Our POs have always been good. Jay's always very good at our POs. You know, if there's an extra guy in the box, you pull it out though the bubble screen or a slant combination, slant fats, pick flat combination. A lot of ways you can offset it. You just got to stay ahead of the change. You know, you got to stay away from penalties. Connerly had a lot last year. You got to stay away from the false starts and the holding penalties. Second and 15, second and 20. Then you can have a chance. Jay Grooton on Grant and Danny. He'll be with us all football season long, breaking down both the commanders and the NFL abroad. Actually, when he get into the Eagles for a second, the Jayden Daniels is in a new offense with David Blow. And I was at practices,

4:06all camp long. And he looked very sharp and comfortable under center. The reports out of Philly, though, were the opposite that hurts. He's really struggled with this. And Jay, you know this in his career, he just has not thrown the ball over the middle of the field. I don't know if it's a size thing or a comfort thing or what, but he hasn't really layered throws on those digs and stuff behind linebackers. And that's what they want to do with Manion. What do you make of them shifting to an offense predicated on something that's been a weakness for a guy who's been to two Super Bowls already? I think they might try to push the envelope and camp and say, hey, man, let's try to get this stuff done. But if he's really still struggling at it, you're not going to call it the game. You're going to stick to what he's good at. He's good at being a shot gun and throwing a ball outside the numbers with the Vante or whatever, working as tight end across the middle sometimes. I mean, all these outside the pocket he can see. I think he'll let it go across the middle on the low crosses and some of that nature. Just sometimes he plays really small within the pocket. I don't think he can see all the windows. He doesn't see the hook players and all that. So he's afraid to pull the trigger. That's why he holds the ball a little bit longer.

5:06He does make some plays with his legs. But some of these shorter type quarterbacks, they just don't have the face to let it fly with anticipation across the middle because they don't trust it. They don't see it. They can't see it. Jay grid with us here on GND. So do you expect that offense to work and click in Philadelphia? Maybe not in week one, but at some point or do you think it's just kind of a fool's errand? Well, I think their offense line is going to be healthier and they're going to be a lot better. So I still think whatever you want to say about Jalen Hertz and throwing the ball across the middle is still going to be. They still got that big back who squats about 500 pounds to and say, Juan Barclay, he's coming off the year. He's still having 1100 yards. But I think he'll be the focal point and the playaches off of it. I think they'll be just fine. But with Lane Johnson coming back and Malada on the outside, those guys dick or something on the inside. Camerurgens want best centers in the league. These guys can move people. And so I expect them to really try to hammer it up the middle and try to make funny styles, make some plays. Who do you have winning the East? The Eagles are the Cowboys. I think I have the Cowboys, unfortunately. I just think they've done enough defensively.

6:08They've really fixed the safety position with Downs and the kids from Arizona or Jaylen Thompson. He's a hard hit and son of a gun. Bring a little attitude to the defense. Quintany Williams will help out a lot. If they could just get some stops and a few turnovers, these guys are offensively they're special. But I think the Eagles are going to be good, though, too. They got some really good defense of players. They got a couple of past rushers. They got those monsters in the middle. They got two linebackers. They can really, really run. They get the secondary with Quintany on them and Cooper to Jean. So it's going to be a tough battle. Washington's got to play great football, be in the mix towards the end. They got to play turnover free. It'd be really good at the penalties. And Jayden's got to stay healthy. No doubt about it. But I don't count Washington out either. I think they have some really good players. They've made some good adjustments to their defense. And coordinators will be the key and keep in Jayden healthy. Jay Grudwood is here on GND. So you mentioned the safety spot. Caleb Downs was a star at Ohio state. And that's one of the guys that's kind of anchoring Dallas's defense now. I want to go back though to sunny styles. Draft number seven overall by Washington Jay. This is kind of hard

7:09to quantify. But see if you follow my line of thinking here. If he's just a regular old middle linebacker, that's kind of film some holes in the run game and getting a hundred tackles, you can get a lot of guys to do just that. What does he have to do to kind of make him worthy of that top 10 overall selection to sort of unleash the full capabilities of somewhere that can move around like that? What kind of the metrics for success there? Yeah, I think he's got to be at every down player, which I think he should be. I think early on he's going to struggle with the big sets, full backs and all that stuff because he plays pretty high. But he was side-wide to side-line player. And I think eventually if you're a three-down linebacker, that you can do a lot of stuff. And you cover back, you cover tight ends, you can rush the pass or you can do a lot of different versatility is what you love about him. Now, I don't know if he'll be able to show his versatility as rookie, but as the season go on, he gets more comfortable and defense. He can move around on the edge and rush from the edge. He can rush from the A-GAP, B-GAPs, he can cover. Obviously he can play the run. So I think just being able to use some like a Swiss Army knife using my different spots with his versatility, I think it'll be critical for him to move

8:11forward. Jay, if one of the Patriots or Seahawks gets back to the Super Bowl this year, which team do you think would be more likely of the club's meeting tomorrow night? Seattle's probably even though they really have a tough road. The NFC is really, really, really good. But yes, Seattle seals off onto lines all back in tact or tight ends back. Obviously the running back loss is going to hurt him a little bit. I'm interested in Seattle's riffing running back to Notre Dame plays. That's the biggest piece of them, but the receiving core is intact. The defense is really, really good strong. They don't have any weaknesses on defense. They just play really good sound football. How do you like the NFC North? Every team was over 500 last year. Chicago had unbelievable turnover. Good fortune. But everybody seems to be pretty good, maybe with a rinkler too. How do you see that division? Yeah, I think all four of them have a chance really. You're exactly right. I think Minnesota, I think I'm hoping they get better quarterback play. That's a big thing with Marie. So if you can play halfway to his number one overall pick potential, then I think they'll be pretty

9:12good. Just Jeff says just needs a competent guy back there to throw on the damn ball. And their defense is always going to be good. Green Bay's going to be okay. I think Green Bay is going to struggle a little bit with without Parsons. I think defensively they'll struggle. But Detroit's going to be better. Obviously Chicago, I think in the cream of the dropout there. Yeah, they lost Jeff Hathley too. Their coordinator last year was now the head coach, the Miami Dolphins, on the defensive side of things for Green Bay. So that makes some sense that they might take a step back as well. In the NFC South Baker Mayfield, just got paid today. Sounds like 55 million per by 160 million dollars. Where are you on Baker at this point? It's just a bad division. Eight and nine won the thing last year. Yeah, it's not a very good division. I don't think Atlanta is going to be any better. Although they have some really talented players in Atlanta. Carolina, they just, you know, they're not sure what they want to do quarterback with Bryce Young. I don't have any idea the Saints are probably the team that everybody's talking about. They're young and upcoming. They got eight. This is an eight chain. Now they change his name from ETM to eight chain.

10:13They're a good back. They had a couple good receivers and Tyler Schuck is playing pretty good. But I think Tampa Bay is defense with the past rush that they have. They're going to be pretty good. I just worried about them covering people, but you can have them get rid of a quick with the past rush that they have. But I'm with Baker. I like Baker. I think this day and age, you need a quarterback as a competitor. Not everybody can be as athletic and talented as Patrick Mullins and Josh Allen. But Baker is right there with the competitiveness and he can make plays in clutch time situations. He's tough to sell. He's always going to be out there no matter what. So yeah, I think it's a good signing for Tampa. Well, Jay, you mentioned my homes. And I think a lot of people are kicking dirt on that Kansas City dynasty here. They had a whole bunch of years, like a decade plus of winning 10 games or more. And they were 15 and two, a couple seasons ago. Maybe it wasn't an authentic 15 and two, but still the records, the record. And my homes got hurt last year and kind of everything went bad. I feel like there's still a threat out there in a really crowded AFC West. But where are you out on Kansas City? Oh, yeah. They're always a threat. Andy Reed and Patrick, my homes, no doubt about it. It's amazing how in a quarterback get hurt. Teams don't really win that often. But anyway,

11:14yeah, I think there's no doubt that that AFC West is really interesting. Really, really. The chargers are going to be really good. Obviously Denver, I think Denver, add and jail and a lot of it is going to be huge addition. He has a really good player, Sean Payne, I'll move them around a lot and get him a lot of catches. And that'll help the quarterback quite a bit because he's not the most cool, the most accurate quarterback out there in Bo Nick's. Denver is really good. Those three teams are excellent. The Raiders will probably struggle early on. But yeah, anybody who's anybody who's a division in AFC West, but I'd never count out Kansas City half or eB a dead yet. Who would you start if you were coaching the Browns Watson or Orbshedor? Um, I, you know, I really don't know either one of them. I would, my personal opinion would be to Sean. I mean, uh, Shedor, I guess. Shedor hasn't really done anything in a long, long time and a little bit that he played. He still looks skittish in the pocket, um, shrinking the pocket. I know Shedor holds the ball a long time. I think they're both, I think he's leaning towards Shedor. Uh, the Sean because he's athletic ability a little bit

12:17better than Shedor. That's the only reason I could think of it. They might have some zone reads and things of that nature that can keep the fathos off balance. I think that might have been the selling point to the team. Hey, we got to use the quarterback design runs. The Sean's really good. He's still really athletic. Um, that's the only reason I can think of because I know that Shedor's a better passer than, but the Sean's a better athlete. So I think he's going to air on the side of a better athlete. Jay Grooton on Grant and Danny here on the fan, former head coach here in DC. What percentage of a playbook or an offense would you show in the preseason generally? Um, not a lot really. You're just trying to get people out there lined up. You want these guys to go out there and play, play fast. You don't want to go over think and try to out coach somebody in a preseason. You want to use these guys to line up and play. So you can plan on the life and get off blocks and beat double teams and all that stuff and and blocking and running. Protect the football and drop back and throw it and make some simple progression type throws. Um, they're not trying to outsmart people and get people wide open where anybody can throw a pass or see them go through some progression

13:18and all that stuff. So just want these guys to play. Give them a chance to make a team for God's face. And that's the most important thing with your starters. You might do a little bit more of it with your backups. You're trying to find that key backup linebacker, the backup guard, the backup center. You're trying to find backup core special teams guys. So get now get them out there. Let them play hit, um, do some things with their legs and their mind and see how they do it. And you got to pick your 53. Is that a choice you would make? Just thinking, you know, we talked out of Peter's the other night. We had an event with them. And it's like, yeah, the the long grind of this season. It's so physical with these guys getting a 70 car wrecks per week, 17 weeks and hopefully plus playoffs. You prioritize health over maybe readiness for week one. It's kind of that how you would do it. Just in terms of, you know, if you're sitting in the big chair, you got to go, I need to make sure these guys are as healthy as possible, even though it hasn't worked that great here in Washington over the last couple seasons. This guy seemed to be constantly banged up. But is that the choice that you would make? I would, you know, Sean McVeigh does the same thing. He doesn't play any of his starters ever in the preseason. You know, I think the preseason's meant for you're going to have to have a lot of these backups are going to have to play a start

14:20games in the middle of the season towards the end of the season. So you got to find out these guys, you got to make sure you're 53, your backups are in pack and they know what they're doing and they're ready to go. So these opportunities for these guys to play, you're going to have key battles for the backup linebacker, backup safety, backup defense, tackles, all that stuff. And and only way you can see these guys and see them in game time situations. This is the time to do in the preseason. So I still think it's worth having the preseason games, but for starters, like, I mean, why would hell would I ever play trampolines in the preseason game? I know it's some that's the best pack on the world. Right? But I risk some slappy falling down into the ankle and blowing his knee out or something like that. So yeah, I think reps are very important. You get them in practice, but for your star players, I wouldn't plan. But for everybody else, I think you got to find out who your forward line, your bottom tier starters are and your key backups are moving forward to the season. That sounds standing. Some slappy. That's why new goal in life is to not be some slappy in somebody's story. That is tough. It happened to Ruegan Foster. I had some slappy in a in practice fall down and land on the rubens down leg and he broke the loose knee out.

15:24Like, yeah, I'll be slappy. Unbelievable. Get this slappy out of here. I'm not even going to learn this guy's name. I saw a question asked of Mike Tomlin in his new role in NBC. And I liked it. So I'm going to pose the same question to you. If you could coach or like run a team with either Alan Mahomes, Burrow or Lamar is your quarterback, kind of the Mount Rushmore right now. Who would you most want to be your QB? I would take, uh, Mahomes number one, Alan number two, Burrow number three, Lamar number four. So I would be going Alan now. We just happy. What? A lot of people are going Alan over Mahomes now. You think that's too soon? Well, I mean, I've seen Mahomes play in a post season. I've seen a play in a Super Bowl quite a few times. I haven't seen Alan do anything in a Super Bowl yet. I mean, I just know that this guy plays his best in crunch time situations. And it's not always pretty, but this guy's a he's a ward atty now. I just I just I like the I like the talent of Josh Allen. I like the talent of

16:26Patrick Mahomes. I like the production of Patrick Homes a little bit better Josh Allen. But I would love I would love to have Josh Allen. Don't get me wrong. I mean, I'd be jumping up and down knowing that if I had Josh Allen run out of talent, next to me, I'd play we got a chance to win every chicken game that we play by friends. So I feel like that's the the secret sauce or like the golden ticket. Like if you're a coach and you have a Josh Allen, oh, I was about to say, you don't lose your job. But then you're Sean McDermott and I guess you do. Maybe you do. But man, if you're an offensive minded coach and you stumble into a guy like that, like first time or Joe Brady, what a what a gift. Yeah, I mean, it's not bad. It's a pretty good fortunate idea. I feel I mean, let's see how he does against Houston week one because he hasn't done anything against week. If Houston last three times they played him and Joe Brady was off at the coordinator. So we'll see how Joe Brady shares against the text of the defense week one. That will be interesting to see. What's your view on Cincinnati and Burrow this year? I like him a lot, but it doesn't seem like that's the consensus among folks. Everyone just got bolted with the top of that division. I like

17:27their chances. Well, you got to love the fluff. I mean, you love the skill players. There's no doubt about it. They got the best skill. I mean, Chase Brown and Jamar Chase and T Higgins and then Joe Burrow. I mean, what the hell? What else do you want? They just got to protect. Hell, and they got to keep them healthy and they got to come out of the gate a little bit faster. The last few years with Joe Burrow, they just start out 0 and 3, 1 and 4, whatever it is. They big themselves in the hole. They can't get out of it. People get hurt and they think their defense, I think has gotten better. I don't know about the offensive line still. I think they're very similar to Washington in the fact. Everybody's concerned about the offensive line going in. So it's very important for the offensive coordinator there to make sure they keep Joe Burrow upright. And that gets so excited with the building of whistles on the outside. Just make sure they continue to push the ball, running the flip ball, keeping them safe. Play actions, max, max play action protections, all that stuff. I'm not getting so excited. Let's go out empty and five receivers down the field with 20 yard routes. Yeah. Good luck. You'll be peeling Joe Burrow off the turf. Very important. These guys stay healthy for the long haul that they do. Then Joe Burrow and Jake Daniel, have a great chance with their teams. Jay, how annoyed would you have been? It's been

18:3110 years since you went to London in 16. The Hopkins kick off the goal post keeps you guys from a win and you tie there and you miss out basically based on that game on the playoffs. But how annoyed would you be to coach in Australia? I mean, Kyle and Sean clearly have no patience for this at the podium this week. I think it's the worst thing in the history of football. It's you're so excited for the season to start the Rams or the favorites to win the Super Bowl. 49ers get pretty back and maybe kiddle and they're excited to get going and then you got to fly on a plane for 17 hours off Australia. You got to be kidding me. What are they doing? I mean, who cares about Australian fan support? Right? Don't they have enough money for God's sake? It makes me sick. It's unbelievable. I don't know. It's just not fair to the player. It's not fair to the coaches. I mean, they say, hey, we want to take care of the players. Okay, let's stick them on a plane for 17 hours and play full contact. I think if Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett, yeah, good luck. Yeah, but what about Margot Robbie and Chris Hemsworth and Hugh Jackman

19:34and Nicole Kidman? They won't football too, Jay. They can fly over here and watch it. Grant, that's right man. I'm with you Jay. Let's go, baby. What about the planes? They do. What about a plane? You go flight LA. Watch the game there. You don't come to TV. TV's work great too, man. What was the worst travel and dig into you guys suffered when you were coaching? There's an assistant or a head coach. I think when I was with Washington, one year, I can't remember the exact thing, but we had a Sunday night game. Then we had to play a Thursday afternoon game. Sunday night home game, which is really like a road game because we get home really, really late for our home games. Then I think we had to play a Thursday game afternoon. It might have been Thanksgiving or just a thing. It was Thanksgiving or something like that. That was really unfair because we had Monday, Tuesday. We flying out Wednesday in the games Thursday. It was like two days to get ready for a team and that was hard. The London trip was awful. Any West Coast trip I hated too, but the short weeks when you have to play on the road are very difficult for me. Jay, last one. David Blowell

20:35getting ready to call plays for the first time. Seems like Dan Quinn feels pretty good about where he's at. They had him in practices through these periods where he was calling things into the walkie talkie and got a lot of work in that way. They set the the play clock at like 37, 38 seconds. To speed him up a little bit. I still feel like there's no real way to simulate this thing. How hard is that? He's never been in OC. He's never even been a quarterback's coach really until the last couple of weeks last year. He was the assistant quarterback's coach. Now he's calling the place. Yeah, it's hard. My first time was in Cincinnati at Cleveland and we scored a touchdown on last play the game on some bull crap. No huddle quick pass thing. Day Jay Green. It's just it's something he's got to have to rely on his run game coordinator. He's going to have to rely on the assistant coaches to really help him with the ideas. It was just going to we're just going to have to throw him out there. See how he does. There's no other way around it. I mean, we can predict all we want to, but until we see him on third down and eight, third and 10, whatever the situation is our red zone short yarders goal line are so many different situations. Sudden changes that he's

21:37got to deal with playing with the lead, playing from behind. You see how he does, man? I think I think people seem to like him and I know Jayden likes him. So everything's looking good right now, but if Jayden gets sacked six times and gets sacked six times and they score three points against Philadelphia, people feel a little bit differently, won't they? Certainly will. Jay, we will talk to you next week. Enjoy the actual football, my friend. We can't wait to talk to you then. Yes, sir. Thank you guys. Yeah, big. Good. Bro, Jay Grootin looking forward to chatting with him all season long again on Grant and Daniel. All right, let's set out to the rude guest hotline where we're joined by our pal Brian Baldinger and list for NFL network. You can follow his breakdowns online at Baldi NFL on X this NFL insider call is presented by nationwide for your insurance and financial needs nationwide is on your side. What's up, Baldi? Good to hear from you again, man. Yeah, good to be with you guys, man. That time of the year. It is finally here. Yeah, I mean,

22:40yeah, but before we get to last night's game, I'm glad you made it through. I saw the video you have on your Twitter feed of you on the boat racing toward like trying to outrun a storm or racing right towards a storm in Cosmell. I'm glad you made it through Baldi. Good for you. I mean, no, with it. I mean, they'll seem to concern to Mexico about lightning. That one's all around us. So that was happening to get off the water and obeyed that storm and get it back here and get ready for this thing to kick off through this weekend. Very good. So last night's game, I mean, it just shows you how quickly fortunes can turn with Sam Darnold going out on the first, you know, series of the game looks like some form of hip injury. I guess we'll get some more details on that later. Were you surprised that the outcome of that game, Seattle's defense really came to play Drake May with the three picks in the fourth quarter and they'll timed on with about 20 seconds left where he throws a pick in the end zone. What were your

23:40takeaways from the NFL opener last night? Well, it was sloppy. It was a sloppy game all the way around. You know, becoming Seattle had 10 penalties. They're trying to overcome that all night long. But you know, it really says a lot though. I mean, June, I played very well. Did not turn the ball over. I guess maybe you could say that Chris Gonzalez could have had one. But I mean, he played very well and gave him a chance and then Jackson spits the jigma picked up right where he left off. I mean, he was awesome last night to touch down on fourth and one. A little spot stop, you know, route right there and the catch and run to finish it in the end zone to tie it up was big and then it's just kind of a headscrap match. You're really all free of Drake May's interceptions. We're not good even the throw to AJ Brown in the end zone that was interfered was under thrown. But that's what you get when you don't play in the preseason. You're just not sharp. I thought the last throw that was that was intercepted by Josh Joe. I thought he was throwing the ball away.

24:43I mean, there in field goal range right there. It's served down. You're going to kick the field goal and go to overtime. If you get a shot to the end zone, okay, take it. But you can't let that ball get intercepted right there. We're all sitting there going, okay, I'm ready for overtime in the first game of the season and they were set up for it. Took him right down the field. And so that was, you know, that was disappointing because I think Drake's a better player than that. But when you're not playing, you don't play these preseason games and you're not working with your receivers in real, you know, real time. It shows up in these games. So, Baldi, she, she, she I will decided to let Kenneth Walker leave the free agency. So there were some questions as to how Jadarian price the rookie would look in this game. I thought he acquitted himself pretty well. 10 carries, 52 yards showed a nice burst. Had a couple of short catches as well. They're kind of easing him in as the lead running back. It's like a stud. George Hylani, I thought was, was, was pretty good too. Looks like the running games in pretty good hands until Sharma Knight comes back from his injury. Now, now, Jadarian was great. I mean, from the first

25:44charity game we went for 13 yards, they blocked the plays really, really well. AJ Barnard, the tight end was an excellent off the, off the edge working with the tackles. They blocked him well, but he showed the burst that you're talking about to turn the corner on two of those runs, where he just out ran the pursuit and was able to turn the corner. I think he's going to be just fine. Chris Collins worked with us, you know, asking for more carries for him last night. And I don't disagree. He got up to a good start last night. Paul, what about the AJ Brown ankle injury, man? That's something that, you know, ankles are. That could be a week or it could be a month. I mean, depending on how bad it is. You don't know. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, they call them high ankle sprains. They used to come like, uh, spring ligaments. I mean, that thing turned all the way under last night. And I've never seen AJ Brown with an ankle injury like that. But he got his leg got caught underneath them and had the Seattle Seahawk player fall on top of them. I don't know how to diagnose it, but, you know, for him not to come back in the

26:45game, uh, it doesn't look like it's a normal spring where normally you would, uh, you know, just tape it up a little tighter and put them back out there. But, you know, for him to be out the rest of the game like that tells me it might be pretty severe. Maybe it's good that they played on Wednesday night and you get, you know, 10 more days before your next game. Baldi, I don't want to lead the witness. We just made our record predictions here for the Washington commanders, but a lot of the national media seems to be very down on the commanders expectations wise. What are your expectations for Jayden Daniels this year and the commanders overall? Well, I mean, I just hope that Jayden Daniels can stay healthy. We need good young quarterbacks in this league. Um, you know, we just saw Sam Darnell go down. He was fortunate that Drew Lock played very well. But, you know, when you get your backup quarterbacks the way the commanders said last year, I mean, guys get fired. Coordinators get fired and guys lose their jobs and, you know, they need to stay healthy. And that means probably be a little bit more judicious. Take it off

27:45with the football. Uh, we know what his stature looks like, but, you know, I think that it's going to help that digs is there. Uh, you know, last year from this time, McClarne was, I don't know if he was just getting signed or if he was injured after he just got signed, but he wasn't healthy for a long while. They should be better at the receiver position right now than they were a year ago. And so then it's just a question of I was out there, guys. I believe it was, like August 5th or something when I saw Laramie Thompson go down. And, um, you know, that was just, that's just a huge blow. That's just a big, big loss. Yeah. Had already lost Tyler Biotis. Uh, their second best offense alignment in free agency, you know, and all the gratties missed a lot of time. So just start up front. We got to see how they hold up against a pretty talented Eagles front on Sunday afternoon. What do you make of them defensively, though? They, they made a concerted effort to get younger and faster. And, you know, provided they get these guys back. Oh, a hoots of one is sort of in question here. Uh, I think they accomplished it. Well, they spent a lot of money. Yeah. So, I mean,

28:51I never thought that a Daffy always would be a hundred million dollar player. Well, I know it's, you know, some funny money in there. That kind of stuff. But it's a hundred million dollar contract. Yeah. And Caleb on chase on had his best season as a pro last year. And so he cashed in. So we got to see if those two guys, you know, can really live up to the amount of money that they've made them because they need to get better off the edge. And so, you know, we'll see, we'll see what that looks like. They brought in Charles, a man who who played very well in Kansas City last year. So they need those three guys who they paid a lot of money to to really assert themselves and be really good in the past. Russian. I think they're going to be fine with sunny styles, you know, and, and Lugo inside, um, and Leo Chanel. I mean, those are three good linebackers, I think. They should be better up front. And this is question of what the secondary is going to look like right now. There's some real questions. I like Rasool Douglas. He's a good zone corner. Uh, he's bounced around this league for whatever reason, but he's been pretty productive everywhere. He's been. He's going to get a chance to play right away this Sunday against the Eagles.

29:54Paulie, are you, um, are you a skeptic when it comes to first year coordinators? Like Washington has or does it really just come down to the players and guys staying healthy and being on the field? Well, Brian Florey last night was the first time coordinator. Now they put up only 13 points, but they did it with the backup quarterback. And they needed three turnovers to do it. But I thought he played it called a pretty good game. You know, um, that fourth and one call that was a touchdown in in jigba. Uh, Jackson Smith and jigba. It was, uh, you know, that's a pretty gutsy call right there. And it turned out to be great. I, I like to give these guys a chance. Um, you know, I mean, I, any read never called a play in his life until he went to Philadelphia and, um, you know, he's a Hall of Fame coach. So you just, it does depend on who the players are and, um, what you have around them on both sides of the ball. Nationwide is so much more than a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial services companies too. Nationwide is on your side. So ball, the, are you team 49ers or team Rams when it comes to traveling to Australia? The Niners got

31:01there a week early, want to acclimate, get everybody, you know, like shifting to Australia time. The Rams are like, you know what? We're just going to fly in, play the game and fly right back out. Which do you think is the better approach here for tonight's game? I think it's team 49 versus the better approach. I've, I've been to Australia. I've been there a couple of times. Uh, that's the worst jet lag I ever get. You know, going across at international dateline down to Sydney, they're flying in the Melbourne, but uh, that's, that's a long way. It's not, I mean, it's a long way to go Los Angeles to London. They did the same thing there and it worked out good for them, but this is, this is a longer flight. It's going west. Um, I can't imagine getting off that plane. And I, I played a game in Tokyo before. I, I didn't feel right all week. Um, after getting off a flight in Tokyo, I can't imagine getting off that flight after 15 hours, whatever it is. And go to a locker room, we get in dress to go play a game. I,

32:01I can't believe that. I think the 49ers did it the right way. So who do you like in the game? You like the San Fran? Uh, I mean, I think the Rams were a better team. Yeah. Um, in a lot of ways, but, you know, just because of the jet lag, I think that the 49ers are going to be a little bit more active. Maybe here. It's going to be a 49ers crowd. It's going to feel like a home game to them. I, I, I, I take the 49ers in a little bit of an upset here tonight. Hmm. Okay. I, I, I, I read, um, that the bangles, I, I could be wrong on this, but I think I read that the bangles have the easiest schedule. Uh, I feel one, the easiest is it was one of the third, you know, two or top two or three easiest schedules this year. They open up with Tampa. I'm not going to be easy there, but they're at home. Uh, they're laying three and a half. They went out and signed four or five guys in, on, on defense and free agency. They picked up Jonathan Allen. They picked up Dexter Lawrence. Your, your thoughts on, on this offense, they obviously needed to get better defensively. They, they, I assume they tried to and they did. Um, did, do you like the bangles this weekend?

33:03Yeah. I think it's going to get Tampa open up the season at home. No, is Jamar chase playing? Uh, yes, slated to play. Yeah. It's expected to play. He's, he's slated to play. Okay. I just wanted to know you got banged up. Yeah. Um, I, I mean, I liked the bangles. I, I think, you know, Joe Burles healthy. I mean, he's, uh, you know, he's the top three quarterback in the slate when he's healthy. And that's always been the question mark on him. I mean, he's as good as it is fundamentally, uh, in this whole business. And so, you know, I, I, I like the bangles this weekend. I like the bangles period. I think they made a lot of good moves. Defensively should be a very good division, very competitive division this year, even Cleveland has a chance to be very competitive because they drafted really well in the last two years. Give us a baldy before we let you go. We're doing kind of like our season long predictions, uh, later in the show. Give us one team that you think is going to really impress us and surprise us in the positive direction. And one team that might, might surprise us in a negative direction this year, just sort of globally when you look at it.

34:05I mean, I would say that, um, I would say the Minnesota Vikings can surprise. I mean, they won nine games last year. So if they win 10 or 11, is that a surprise with Tyler Murray? Yeah. Oh, I'm scared that they're up there at the position. Um, you know, everything around the quarterback is set up to win. Sam Darnal 114 games there with much of the same players that Tyler Murray is stepping into and we saw what Sam Darnal has become. So now that I think, I think Tyler Murray and and the Vikings can surprise, I think the Giants can surprise. I mean, I've been around that team this summer a couple times and they've got real talent. They got a couple of questions from Marks that defense attackal position. Um, it's not it's the roster isn't completely without flaws, but I don't think the Giants can surprise in a lot of different ways. And I guess if there's a team that, you know, could go backwards this year, um, I don't know, like, is the, what did we see from the reeling last night? I mean, defensively, they played great. Um,

35:06the quarterback has got to play a lot better and they did have the easiest schedule. Maybe of all time last year. So maybe the Patriots, you know, take a little step back this year. Baldi, what game are you covering? Where did your travel take you? Right there. Right there with your commanders and filled out in 425 with Tom Brady and the Fox team right there. I'll be right there and filled out. You know, Sunday afternoon. Very cool. Very good. Hey, real quick. What's your prediction for NFC East? Do you have winning it? I think the Eagles are the best team. Okay. They got to go do it in the day. Do have to, you know, there was a lot of new coaches and offense and new way of doing things. But the quarterback has shown that he can adjust over the course of his career in college and the pros. And I think you'll do the same thing here. All right, Baldi, enjoy commanders, Eagles. We're looking forward to having you on throughout the NFL season. We'll talk to you again next week. Thanks, buddy. See about. Yep. You've got it. Guys, see you next week. Ben standing is with us here before week one on a Wednesday. He'll join us on Friday as well

36:12with his, by the way, skins prediction for the season. And his pick for the Philadelphia game on Sunday. He's out in Ashburn, where the team is getting ready to practice at one o'clock. Dan Quinn will speak before that. But Ben has his annual agent survey, which has become must read. Every year he surveys a bunch of people and a bunch of agents. How many agents do you talk to for this? This was 24 this year. I mean, they've buried depending on, you know, who you get a hold up yet? Anybody from people who are representing, you know, MVP's and people, the record setting contracts to people, you know, trying to get guys on the practice plot and they're just sort of starting in the business. So it's a wide mix of perspectives. And that's always one, yeah, when I first started this, that was sort of my whole goal is to what do these people think? Because I mean, you know, well, the other than the Jeremy Gwyer, I know people always know exactly what's going on from the agent perspective. And that's what the point of this is it's not to say who is,

37:16you know, the best running backer has David Blauggen to do it. Okay, well, what is really going on here in front offices? What are the real conversations happening behind the scenes? It's a must read. You can do it on Ben's sub stack. Follow Ben on X at Ben stand again, link to it. So one of the first things you talk about is just sort of the top trends around the NFL that fans haven't fully caught on to yet. Give me a couple of the answers from agents that you like the most. Yeah, I mean, it's not even, I get, you know, maybe it's because the football nerd in me, it's not even so much like that they're like big and bold in this category. But like one that was just like the idea that people think that the practice squad is for development, right? That like you get down to practice squad and it's all about getting ready. And even like just bringing in players into the league that it's like, okay, well now you get to the team. They're going to teach you how to do X wires and you had to improve and obviously there's some of that. But basically a lot of it was like in today's NFL, you got to be ready immediately. Like the fact that they can have

38:19veterans on the practice squad is just an example of like, well, they don't, if you can't go, there, you know, there is no waiting. They're going to teach you, but it's mostly going to be about how do you work within this scheme? Not necessarily the basic fundamentals of stuff. And I think like, again, that's sort of the type of like deal. We all, you know, I don't think about it on a regular basis. So that was one that stood out to me. But yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot in there that really like I said, just sort of gives, that was a point I was I could think of emphasizing to the agent. Tell me, you every question I'm asking you from that perspective, don't tell me about, you know, third down blitz is tell me that others and look, there's obviously a lot in here about health of the players, right? Because, you know, that's a huge, you know, we all kind of, you know, we're looking to a degree if we're being super honest, you know, guy goes out, we immediately go to who's the backup? How long is it going to be as you go in? I or whatever. But obviously,

39:23these players are getting in car wrecks all the time. And you know, a lot of the agents have said, hey, look flat out, say whatever you want about the league, they just don't care. And I may sound like something we hear about often, but it does drive home the point because the agents are the one who, you know, beyond like the player's family, the agents, the one who are really like front and center and having to, you know, witness what is going on with these guys, possibly career ending injuries or maybe even worse, you know, things that are going to affect their lives. And you know, that was one of those points that was emphasized both in that section and elsewhere. But just like, hey, this is not good. Discussed enough what to really need guys to go through. I think the most interesting answer in that section, the top trend around the NFL that fans haven't fully caught on to yet is a GM telling you that gambling has broken the sport. Why don't you elaborate on that for everybody that hasn't read it that haven't read it yet? Yeah, I mean, look, obviously there's been some players that have been caught up in some of this a little bit

40:27in terms of, you know, like, you know, the branded swords be situation down in college where he made the former quarterback university since then he made over a thousand bets. I don't even want to find total number was, but some astro-gunnanmugal number and it's like, hey, you know, let's be realistic that, you know, the idea of point shaving can't be too far around the corner. People are making these kinds of bets and it's not like that gambling is new for people who always had access, but you had to go to Vegas right over. You had a baby. Maybe like the way I did in my youth, maybe had a guy who could go take a bet for you or something. Now, you know, you didn't have to go to Vegas before it was legalized. But we don't need to get into that. But I, yes, I, there is so much of it now with the legalization of it. And to me, what wasn't in this answer that I thought might be in the answer when I started to read it, prop betting individual player prop betting is the biggest problem this board has. Yeah, I mean, in, you know, the worst, I spoke to 24 people for each, I'll probably

41:29on average like 45 minute each. So, but at some point, maybe I didn't put this or a bit. At some point, they were like, hey, look, you know, you got friends. You may be your only up straight narrow, but like, you got friends who were like, hey, I can do something. Hey, tell me what's going on? Do you play this week or, you know, what about this or that? And you don't even think about it, because it's just like, yeah, I'm fine or whatever. And all of a sudden, they're putting out bets and now somehow it's going to get maybe traced back to you and, and, and so on. So, yeah, I mean, there's, there's a lot of questions. I mean, you know, I don't even understand truly like the calcium, the polymarket and, and all that, because that just seems like it's a whole other level of, of this stuff. And, um, yeah, I think the, the game we could put it is enough. Also, it's the, I know that was in that part, but it was a, the hypocrisy from the agents with like, look, players are not even going to walk into a casino. Like, they can't go in there. So, we're in Vegas, we can't go to a casino, but the NFL is taking all this money from it. You know, they're in dual and, yeah, they're after kings and all these other angles, you know, they're not just that

42:34there. Just, yeah, we're having an issue with Ben's phone. Let's see if we can, yeah, he's probably just driving through a pocket on his way out to Ashburn. Do we have you back? No, we lost him there. We'll get Ben back here in a moment. We got Ben back. All right, go ahead. You were saying. Yeah, yeah, I don't know where you lost about saying that. Yeah, look, it's the, the, taking all this money from all of its gambling partners and players can't walk into a casino to bet Blackjack. Actually, I didn't know that was true. I thought they could go in. I thought they just couldn't bet on sports. Let me move to this section where you ask, agents, what's one NFL belief you've completely changed your mind about over the past five years? They're like seven answers that you listed from agents. I thought this was, I thought all seven of them were very interesting. What was your favorite? Well, tell me what your favorite was because

43:37I'm serious. What day yet? What, what do you might think? Well, I think that the idea that you, the old belief, which is you build through the draft and rarely into free agency, but the rising cap year and a year out just makes it easier to spend. And by the way, I would add to what this GM said, the two teams that went to the Super Bowl last year improved their teams dramatically through free agency and it led to Super Bowl trips in an actual title. So just that the belief of, you can't necessarily turn it around with free agency and the draft is the way to go. Yeah, I think that's right. There are seconds in the air about who are the best in wars run franchises and who are the best GMs and things like that. And whenever the Rams would come up, you know, obviously we know about their strategy of not worrying about draft picks and they did it again this year with Miles Garrett and Trent McDuffie. But that was sort of a point that some agents were like, this isn't that complicated. Go get the better players. Yeah, draft picks are

44:41important, but you know what? Happy you screw them up anyway. So go get Miles Garrett. Go get the Vante Iams or Matthew Stafford. And as you noted, like if a cap keeps going up, it's not like there's any real issue. Plus, you know, there's always this question that the cap real. Yes, it's real, but there's also real ways to get around it and do what you need to do, you know, converting bonuses or structuring contracts or whatever it might be. So go for it and do that, you know, again, like getting a mile of Garrett easier said than done, of course, but like that guy is a guaranteed, you know, X amount of facts of year hall of fame or whatever, you can draft the guy and you can hope. But even if he does paint out, you're still going to have to wait a bit. It's not like it's going to happen tomorrow. Obviously, this is not a necessary, an easy rule for everybody. Some teams are just not going to be able to attract or maybe they just don't have ownership. It's going to be willing to go down that route. But yes, the idea of like, you know, you got to build through the draft, you know, milic even here, right? What was Adam Peters came in day one, building through the draft,

45:42built through the draft first 12 months, trades for Ladimore, trades for Tuncel. I'm not arguing, you know, the second one, the list was like, I totally get it. But like sometimes you got to, you know, you got to be aggressive. And I think that was sort of the point because I think it's fair. If you ask anybody of generally walking to the sports bar, hey, how are you building your team? The common answer is going to be the draft, which is still the baseline in most cases, but not as much as as you would think historically. Certainly that's what the point here was. And I think there's something to do that. Last year Ben's annual agent survey, and I don't have it in front of me. But there was a lot of positive that came out about Washington's organization now versus what it used to be. There was a lot in there that was positive about Adam Peters, Dan Quinn, obviously, Jaden Daniels, where did some of that come in with this year's survey? Yeah, so I, there's a little bit that I've held back, because I was of course asked questions

46:42about the commander specifically because, you know, I'm just a see my cover. But in here, there are questions that have been a lot of like front office kind of questions about, yeah, who is best general manager, account evaluator, which front offices are easiest to deal with? Which ones are the biggest pain in the butt to deal with when it comes to negotiations or really just kind of anything? Which ones kind of just really get it like an organization had a run thing? And I would say in general Washington came out pretty favorably on that. I mean, the five and 12 situation, you know, I mean, it came up in conversations and, you know, there is going to be some of that. But from the, again, the agent perspective, the wins and the losses are not the main story. It's, okay, I got a client that getting drafted by this team, or maybe I'm interested in having them talk to Washington to do it. Is this way, good way to go? And I think one of the, one of the questions was also, who is that, which front offices are the most transparent? And Washington's fair pretty

47:43well there. Like, it is like, as you mentioned, the previous iteration, when I first started to do this, whenever the, whenever was like a negative question about a GM or a front office, Washington was a paddainter for a lot of teams, a brewery sound in particular. And now it's almost like the boring is like, yeah, I have no issues with like anybody over there. Whether it's Peter's Brandon, Saufnose, the Cap guy or Lance Newmar guy. Yeah, there's pretty, and genuinely good thoughts out there. Now, for those who are going well, band is not going to get them more wins. I don't know what to tell you about that, but obviously, just like in life in general, you treat people fairly, you tend to come back your way. And I think they have shown that, according to the agents that I spoke with, which is pretty much, I guess, said overwhelmingly that way. Not everybody agrees, but pretty much overwhelmingly that, yeah, these guys are doing things the right way. You enjoy dealing with them. And even if they say, no, we're not interested. We completely disagree. They're forthright. They'll listen, but they're not,

48:44you know, they're not jerse about it. This is such a good thing that you have figured out here and have sort of cornered the market on. This agent survey, the agents have a lot of insight. Ben asked just about the Jaden Daniels LSU flap. And there were plenty of responses from the GMs that are very interesting. So I would certainly urge all of you to subscribe to Ben's sub stacks so you can read it. All right, real quickly, because I know you got to run to Dan Quinn's press conference. But what are we going to, is Daffy Owe, are we on a Daffy Owe watch for today to see where he lands on the, you know, did he practice in full, et cetera, list? Is that the only one? Yeah, I'm going to be any of the recent injury guys, right? I mean, Caleb on chase on return to practice, the last one last week, but you know, that that's just the one practice, you know, even Nick Allegretti came back to practice last week seemed okay, but hey, you just want to make sure we, you know, as we saw during training camp, you never know when something's going to crop up, bill returned last week and so on. So yeah, I mean, also Ben sent it. This is just my assumption,

49:49I'm guessing, but when they just resigned, but they just signed, and Jeffers into practice, squad, they cut one of the two tight ends they had on there. So I'm taking that as a sign of, they feel good before Benson. It is, et cetera. Jordan McGee would be another guy. So yeah, I mean, today is the first injury report. I, I, I gote the other day that there were zero questions asked of Quinn on Monday about the center position, but there were umpteen about the team captain, which is kind of whatever. But my point was that like, one, we were done with talking about the center, at least in terms of, he's not going to tell us anything we haven't already known. And two, until they put out an injury for I can't tell you or nobody can tell you what's going on. So we'll get one today later this afternoon. I don't know how would you think we'll fit share about that right now, but we'll get that later today. And obviously that'll be the first sign of, you know, what's going to be available against Eagles. All right. Last one, we had a bold prediction segment earlier on the show. I boldly predicted that Mikey Sanresto would lead the league in interceptions. Max's bold prediction was that Stefan Diggs would lead the team in reception yards.

50:51What's your bold prediction? Oh boy. Um, you gave me one the other day. I did. What was that? Well, you, you have great belief in Croskey Merritt having a big time year. Um, yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's saying Bill gets out is the first guy to get a thousand yards here since the intonio Gibbs and he played one. I don't think that's super bold because a thousand yards isn't a lot, but nobody's done it since Gibson in 21 here. Yeah. I mean, I think it's like, like this is a minor example. I had my first fantasy football culture. I've last night and, um, you know, I was looking, I hadn't looked at any lifts, but all the lifts have him way down. And I think that's because, you know, that one of the narratives that came out of camp early on was that Rashad White's going to be heavily involved. And I do think he will be. I just think that I, from what I saw with Bill, um, I saw a guy who's had a much more diverse, um, skill set, especially in the passing game. The question is, only going to be how comfortable they feel with him in past protection. It seems like it was better, but of course, you know, without much

51:54pads, he didn't do anything in the preseason. He can't tell a ton. If they feel comfortable with him there, though, I think he could have a pretty impressive year. Obviously, the offensive line is a huge factor there as well. But one thing we've seen from him is his ability to get in and out of traffic. And so, yeah, I think, I think that one is, uh, he is one I would keep it on. In terms of, I'll just say a step on digs. If you tell me he leaves the team in touchdowns, I don't think that will surprise me. And again, maybe that's not overly bold, but I just keep looking at like, he may be this year's Zachards and the Red Zone. I just think you've got that ability to find space, um, he doesn't drop anything. So I think, uh, the reception thing will be interesting, but I think digs could leave the team in touchdown. Uh, talk to you later. Thanks. You never answer. Ben standing everybody. Joining us now on the rude guest hotline, our friend, Mr. Peter Rosenberg. Now, Peter, I know New York's a different market. I know baseball matters. I know the nicks went on

52:55that run, but sir, there is nothing like football season. How excited you to have football back? Um, I'm, um, I'm ready. I'm right. I'm, I'm feeling very ready for football. I can't say I, listen, I was not a big fan of the Super Bowl matchup last year. So I can't say that the matchup last night, um, like really got me going. Like I was like, Oh my god, I'm counting down. I cannot wait to see New England Seattle run it back. But in the end, you know, to get a, to get a critical possession and see the Patriots make a critical mistake with a quarterback that people are already ready to put in the Hall of Fame. That's a satisfying way to start. And, uh, I'm excited for tonight's game as well. I think the whole thing is ridiculous that they needed to have. I don't know how you guys felt. I think it's crazy that their desperation to have the Super Bowl matchup kick off the season allowed them to put that on the Wednesday. I feel like the overseas weird game should have been

53:57last night. And it feels like tonight should have been the Super Bowl rematch. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, but hell, the Rams wouldn't have been there. Yeah. Yeah. And though the whole thing, the whole international thing is just, it's so random, bro. Like I've been, you know, I've been to all the, not all, I've been to a lot of the places they're having these games that I think are the least interested. Like I just don't buy Australia carrying that much. I don't buy Brazil carrying that much. Like I believe the Germany, England games like have some value. But like some of these other ones, man, like what are we doing in Australia? Like what are they? I guess they do the math and they see the results and, you know, the gambling of it all. And I guess it makes sense. But as a fan, it just feels like you guys remember what Sunday used to feel like when it was really, it didn't start till Sunday at one o'clock. Yeah. And now my fun day at one o'clock. When you eat bread, was you looking at football? Dude, Peter, so I said this to be, I think for years,

55:02the London game seemed weird. And then they did it enough that it was normal. So then the Germany game was weird. And then it seemed normal. I think when they went to Brazil, it was like, what the hell they're playing in Brazil? Now that seems normal. I think three years from now, when they're playing in Australia every year, they're going to Japan. We're going to be like, what? The Australian roof, football and all that stuff. I think it kind of can work with this to make people want to see it. England's speaking market. Yeah. And I think that's that's it. I guess that's part of it too. They see something there. They see some sort of connection point that makes it make sense. You excited? What do you think of being on different sides of the McVeigh plan to fly over kind of the day before to Australia for a game? Where do you land on? Is it reckless? Is it thoughtful? Is it somewhere in between? I just don't know if there's a really good way to do it. You know, I went to Australia last year if you guys remember for WWE. Yeah. It's an easy level of travel. That's another thing that just feels so

56:06greedy about it from an NFL standpoint. There's just no good way to do it. It's the furthest place away on planet Earth, guys. Like, it's and we went to Perth. We went even further. They're going, actually, you know what? I guess on the flip side. This game's Sydney? No, Melbourne. Melbourne. It's Melbourne, right? Yeah. Oh, it's Melbourne. So Melbourne and Sydney are both East Coast and Perth is West Coast. So I guess actually LA to Sydney is not as bad as it could be. Like East Coast of America to West Coast of Australia is as far away on planet Earth as you can go. It's like a 23 hour trip and there's no way around it. I don't know what would you guys know the actual time distance? I bet LA to Melbourne's probably like 10. It may not be that bad. It's a 16 hour flight. I don't know with the time zones, the width of the Pacific Ocean. I don't know. It's I think you're right, though. It's a lot like playing quarterbacks in the preseason. I don't

57:10know that there's a definitive right answer for what you should do. And I don't know playing a regular season game in Australia if it has a definitive right answer. But I'm sure it's how excited to watch tonight. I know that. Yeah, I mean, from a football standpoint, I'm actually more excited about this game than I am last night. There's something about both teams Seattle, New England. It just do not get me going at all. Whereas these two teams I do actually find interesting to watch. Agreed. Talk with our buddy Peter Rosenberg here on the Rude Guest Hotline. You can follow Peter at Rosenberg Radio. You can watch him do WWE. Listen to him on ESPN, New York. Let's talk about the game that I'm guessing is most near and dear to your heart. That's going to be the commanders going up to play the Eagles on Sunday. Eagles. How are you feeling about the matchup? Well, listen, you made me feel a little better about it. You're the one who made me feel like maybe this is a win-able game. And I thought you made a really sound point. I mean, these these openers are all so weird that the idea that this is going to be prime Philadelphia is pretty

58:13unlikely. Maybe this is a better week to catch them than most. So you made me think, hey, maybe we'll see something a little bit better. But listen, I have concerns. I was on social media yesterday seeing some of the posts that the commanders are putting up, like level of excitement. How are the players feeling? And for me being a man of word is probably nervous and a little bit cautious. I think last year you go into the season just completely hopes through the roof based on what happened at the end of the 24 season. And then last year was just a reminder that this can all go so bad. The one thing I do like though is that the preseason has been filled with so much negative and so little positive that it really has brought a really low bar. If they come out, if they come out and look like just pretty competent, I think I'd feel pretty good. I think they'll compete. I think this will be a competitive game. I'm not willing to go full JP family guaranteeing a victory. I don't know. Did I guarantee it? I'm just saying I'm picking them to win. You know what I think when I watch that game last night

59:14Pete, when I look at the preseason where people don't want anybody to play, you know what I'm saying? And then when the season starts, you see how it happens. I think both of those scenes last night were a little not there. And then you saw two injuries last night to two main people. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? So my whole thing is like I said all the time where you'd learn how to get hit. You learn how to take a hit. Just like a box of learning how to take a punch. And people just don't want to see that. But I just think right now, let's just start thinking of preseason as the first three to four weeks of the season. That's that is that is how I've seen it now for years. It used to all, you know, Steve Young used to always come on our show and say that the first month he saw his preseason. That was before they reduced it to three preseason games and extended it to a 17 game season. So like now guys, it might really be till mid-October before it starts to resemble like football as you know it. And I just think that point B match is so like it's almost like it's so obvious and

1:00:20simple that people don't want to accept it. Like in what world do you like not need to warm up? They like really don't warm up their bodies to this sport at all. And then AJ Brown does one thing, boom, high ankle spray. Like it just seems like you have so many people who aren't going hard that the second they go hard bad things happen. And it's really irritating. Like from a fan instead of point guys, every time I saw a highlight like online of Jaden in the preseason, I swear to God he was never moving full speed. Not once. He's always, it's always, and I'm not picking on Jaden. He's just who I pay the most attention to. But like everybody's just like casually doing this 50% speed. I'm like, you know when the game starts, it's 150 miles an hour. Like that bad things are going to happen. And for that reason though, that's that is kind of why you think you never know what can happen on Sunday. You know, I have people appear telling me

1:01:21that the jets lose to Tennessee to open their season. It's a law season because Tennessee stinks and you have to be able to be Tennessee. And I'm like, guys, you don't know what the hell. You don't know what cam ward is. Didn't pay the lose to the rated last year. Exactly. Didn't happen. We want people. People also forget guys and I think I've been saying the same thing. People forget that there's a 53 out of five. Like they constantly forget that you're playing against another team who also is putting their life on the line and things they're going to win. Even if they're on a bad team, they they are professionals who are working in their tail off. So like I just refuse to get caught up in this. As we talked about, I think the only scenario for worried is if we get to October and they have it one again. I think the Owen full-out deck. Oh my god. But there is a world at which they are one in three very

1:02:23easily. And I'm not feeling terrible going in October. I agree. I think even if they lose in this really tough stretch, maybe you don't face true lock in week three or maybe you don't you face true lock and you don't face Sam Darnell, week three. I think even if you open 0 and 2 in the division, which would suck, like the manner in which you lose matters. Because last year they went down to Dallas and the Cowboys could have dropped 70 on them. They caught the dogs at 44. Like the manner in which these games unfold is how about this? How about this? How about how about before that? How about the way they looked against Green Bay? I mean, they played against a game against Green Bay in which you thought Green Bay was the 2000 rated. Like you were like, oh my god, we are incapable. I guess it must mean that Green Bay is the best and we are the worst. I don't know if either of those things turn out to be true, certainly closer to us being the worst than Green Bay being the best. But like you we just you don't know what you're getting for a while. So you know, listen, I feel the wins when you can. The number one thing to look for is how does

1:03:28number five look on Sunday, guys? I'm sorry. I don't mean like over emphasize it. But don't you think like the one thing you can come away feeling really good or bad about on Sunday? Is their ability to protect him and how he looks? To me, that's just the it's everything. I agree, especially the ability to protect him with that Eagles front. I think what this defense looks like really matters to because they've worked God awful last year. And it's a new system. They spent some real money to try to generate some pressure. You got to have OA and chase on out there. I think you will. But I mean, certainly Jayden's the most important player on the team. And can I tell you something by the way? I read the feature yesterday and the was in the post about the CST. Did you guys read that the the the Dorontae Jones like like life feature? I'm ready to solve. I don't know if I read the same one you're talking. Listen, you guys are there all the time. So I'm sure you know much more about Dorontae Jones than I do. But it was like a weird it was like an inspirational article.

1:04:29But also I was like, yo, our defensive coordinators had like 93 jobs in the last 10 years. It was also it was like inspiring, but also slightly like I don't know. I kind of just moved to I had a coordinator who I knew had done the job really well in the NFL for 10 years. You know what I mean? Like that is a scary proposition. Nobody said today is in Minnesota the last few years. Brian Flora has let Dorontae Jones call all of these defenses and preseason. I just found interesting. I hadn't heard that before. That is interesting. Well, dude, it's funny. You say that about Jones who has had a zillion different football jobs and now gets his first chance as coordinator. But do you prefer that or does that make you more nervous than Blau having never had this job and only being whatever he is three years removed from being on a practice squad? We know it. It's interesting. It's like it's very situational. In the case of Blau, I feel confident only because I've always known who he was. It's like and his path is more familiar, right? Like

1:05:34you know, some par NFL quarterback who's meant to be more of a coach than a play. And then early on has eyeballs on him like whoa. This guy might be really good in the coaching ranks. That versus a guy who was sleeping in a car with his snake in Hawaii is not it's not traditional. So it does throw you off. So I guess it's biased. He has an actual Python living in his car. You don't like that. Say no more. Do he? I like the right thing. I don't think I'm being and I wouldn't be on the So I'm more comfortable with Blau. But in the case of both, man, I think I said this to you guys earlier in the off season. You know, sometimes they give you some name who, you know, you pay a ton of money for and you've already seen what that guy's ceiling is. In the case of Jones and Blau, yeah, we don't know what these guys' ceilings is. But what if they stumbled into something special?

1:06:34That's it's fun to not know what you might have. Yeah, man. It's like a first date. It's butterflies in the stomach. Let's go play some ball. Peter, thank you for the time, man. Enjoy this weekend. HTC boys talking next week. Hi, man. Hey, cameraman. That's a guy. Peter Rosenberg. Give me a follow at Rosenberg radio. All of our NFL opening week conversation on the team 980 is presented by hands free sketchers slip ins. Just step in and go joining us right now is Brooks, Cubina. Brooks covers the Eagles for the athletic. He is the Nikki Javala of the Eagles. And you can follow Brooks on X at B. Cubina is spelled K U B E N A Washington at Philly Sunday at 425 to open up the 2026 NFL season. So Brooks, we all know is NFC East people that 21 years went by without a repeat

1:07:35division winner until last year when Philly went back to back. Nobody's won it three times in a row since the Andy Reed, Donovan McNabb Eagles of back in 0 1 through 0 4. They actually won four division titles in a row from 0 2 from 0 1 to 0 4. So I'll just start with not bearing the lead. Do you think Philly wins the NFC East for a third straight year? I do. I think they're most persistent to do it. Dallas is, I think, stronger this year and I like what the giants are doing. They're going to be better. But I think they're the most complete team and have the most talent. And I think that'll drive out over a year that I think is going to start pretty slow for them at least offensively. But this is a defense that is going to at least be top five in the NFL. And last year they were an 11 win team by writing on a defense that wasn't as structurally talented on the depth chart. So I think everything's in position for them

1:08:42to three feet there as an NFC's title one. By the way, is Grinard going to be ready to play Sunday or not? I looked out on yesterday's the first time that he was in full pads and I mean it's a sign that they were that he wasn't on the public stand to the season. So I mean I saw him go through workouts and you know we're going to chance to talk to folks in the locker room. It's my it's things that he will at least be practicing over the next couple of days. And there will be kind of assessing just his spot. The thing that I'm wondering is not necessarily his physical capability. He also will be practicing is the parts of the game plan that the big fan show the edge rushers drop a little bit more in coverage and there's responsibilities that they have. And that Jonathan Grinard really wasn't doing in his past and Vic talked about that during training camp. If Jonathan's up to speed, Jonathan Grinard's up to speed. And I think those are things that are else it might be a little bit more contained on the field in certain packages. I think I think if those the next couple of days look good in his

1:09:43in his pectoral is fine. I think he's at least active. How many snaps and how involved he is in the game plan depends on those things that I've been told. All right, I'll come back to the defense in a moment because you said that you think it's possible that you know it'll start off slowly in 2026 on offense. And I'm assuming that's because there's a new offensive coordinator. Jalen Hertz is certainly dealt with that over the years. And there's no AJ Brown this year. So tell me what you're expecting offensively by first answering whether or not it appears to be a good fit at this point. The manion sort of you know, Shanahan McVey style offense with what Jalen Hertz does well. Well, it's all connected to the run game which is what I'm going to start with. If you look at it last year, it just it would sell off completely from what it was in 2024. What are that we do to their center cam jurgen center left garland and take this and be in vain that

1:10:44the bit they lost their right tackle. I mean, Jonathan later in the year. And they just couldn't run the ball with the vertical power system that they had been using. And that impacted the past game too. And there were structural issues in that they went to you know, in the bottom half of the league in terms of running the ball. And that's always what the Eagles have been able to put their hat on in a seriana era. And that was in that was the overhaul the off season. Yes, they changed off into coordinators. But what was to me a bigger change is that there are a lot of time off into line coach and run game coordinator and Jess Doutland. They they they moved on from him and committed to this wide zone scheme that is a big departure from what they would have been doing. And that was always going to impact the passing game because to marry the past that runs is understanding concepts. Jalen Hertz is going to have to embrace more that any has. And in training camp, I saw a the growing pain there. We saw an uptick in interceptions and that's partly because of Jalen Hertz connecting with his wide receivers on where they're supposed to be.

1:11:45This is a room that was only Devonte Smith and Darius Cooper, someone who really didn't have much involvement in the passing game last year. The only returning members after AJ Brown's departure. So a lot of people were learning new system and how it works within the run game and all those things. But to more your point, whether it's going to be a fit, I haven't seen that yet. That's one of the things most curious that's going to be in his first week and those to come. I have seen Jalen Hertz with his technique under center in training camp. I mean, he had not been one of the things that I think is interesting is the way that they had been playing was more so built on great pre-determining before the snap. What matchups they could get. It was a great gamble to be looking at AJ Brown and Devonte Smith both on the field and saying, okay, I'm going to go to this guy this guy because of the high leverage situation. Now they're going to more pure progression reads under

1:12:46this under center. So I look and it's something that Jalen has some experience but not much and these quick timing decisions that are working with receivers like Elijah Moore and you know, Don Tevin Wicks and Hollywood Brown guys he hasn't been around with. And the McCuy Lemmon, the first round pick, he was out for most of training camp at the hamstring injury. So all of these things, these timing, these connections within the system, it's going to take some time. So I don't know yet if it's going to be a fit. The things that I've noticed from Jalen Hertz, at least that he is committed to doing this. And I could speak more on that but that there's his confidence in Sean Manion that he has a deep conviction in his team and that was the number one, the number one thing that Nick Cereyani was looking at off as a coordinator. I was talking Jalen Hertz yesterday about that and he said that's a great word conviction in terms of what it goes to Manion and he's he's bought into the system and as we see them work through it, I think the the

1:13:46effort were absolutely be there. Yeah, really interesting stuff because you know, Jalen Hertz and and Jaden Daniels are kind of going through the same thing. They're both going to play under center more. They're both going to play in a zone run centric offense with a lot more play action and a lot more bootleg off of it. And for me, it's funny because I've been a big Jalen Hertz fan. I think he's played his best football in the biggest games for Philadelphia over the last few years. And I don't think that that's built up as much among NFL fans. It perhaps it is with Eagles fans. But I kind of view Jalen differently than I do Jaden. I think Jaden's going to be a perfect fit in this David Blau, Ben Johnson, Kevin O'Connell, the same kind of thing, a lot of the same concepts. And for me and watching Jalen during his career, I think he's much better when he's a big part of the run game. And look, you might you sound like you don't have an answer and no one will

1:14:49have an answer until we actually see it. But what do you say to that? Like I've always felt like he's at his best when he is a true dual threat quarterback. I agree. And the thing over the last several years, and it's been a point here in several stories across the past several years, the times that he has designed quarterback runs have steadily gone down over the last four years. It was around 110 in 2022. And it was down to I think in the high 60s last year. So the thing that is tied to that is that in 21, 22, 23 and even in 24, Jalen hurts, I've been dealing with some form of injury going into the playoffs. Last year was the first time that he didn't have it. It was fully healthy. And you could sense how that was something that he really liked. So it's a trade-off there to understand, okay, how much are we going to risk? I mean, people, the fans of the

1:15:50commanders recognized going into the 24. That's when he got his concussion and things that he was dealing with going into the 24 playoffs. So that remains as we've seen how much he'll be involved. I don't doubt that it will be. John Manian, Nick Serion, and Jalen Hersey, and yesterday when talking about using himself as a runner in this offense, they know that it's skill. And they're going to have it be part of this offense. At what volume is the question, at what times this question. And I don't think from the trends that we've seen over the last several seasons, that'll go up any more significantly than we're used to from last year. Brooks Kubino from the athletic joining us, he covers the Eagles for the athletic. So is there like a big exhale with no AJ Brown and no drama around AJ Brown, Jalen Hersey, etc. Or is there a feeling like there's a big hole missing at that position?

1:16:50There, I wrote about this a couple of days ago. Nick Serion, I opened the first team meeting of this season by talking about take-out earnest. It was something he was saying over the off-season, Jalen Hersey was taking notes during that meeting at any toll on supporters that he wrote down in his notebook, 100% alignment, zero entitlement. And he didn't name AJ, and maybe he didn't even directly mean to include him. But some of the last couple of weeks, just seeing how they've talked about the togetherness factor of this team, it seems to be that they're moving forward. Jalen Hersey in his opening remarks to start training camp said he couldn't emphasize how important it was to protect just the camaraderie of the team. And because they know the challenges are going to come. All these players, no last year, they had access, frustration, and I don't know if they'll remember, but there was a point where it was so absurd toward the last end of the year. There was like this

1:17:52blow up, Easter Bunny in the locker room that they called the positivity rabbit. And it was quickly deflated. But like it just was showing like how weird it was getting in terms of how people were able to express themselves and that just wasn't getting fixed. So the room, AJ Brown was the most outspoken about his on field misery. And there's no disputes of that. Even he would attest to that. And he thought it was actually part of the accountability that would point towards some of the corrections that need you to be made. But in some ways it just traced out lines for them to be more miserable. So like the point for things this year things would be directed towards constructive togetherness. So I've seen some of that play out in training camp. Obviously they haven't played a game yet. Obviously they haven't run into any problems. So that's going to be the test of whether that's actually true. Whenever they get an unscouted look that message them up in a game and now they've got to figure it out. And then maybe it persists for four or five weeks in Sean Manion is having trouble deducing how to stop that too. Where does that lead? These are questions

1:18:56that have come up probably midway through the season. But they're at least talking and I'm seeing some of those things play out in the locker room and in training camp about how they're supporting each other. I thought going into last season we did kind of the top five players in the NFC East heading into last season. And I think I had Jaylen Carter is like either the number one or number two player in the division heading into the season. I just thought he was an absolute game record of the year before. And I'm curious as to how Philadelphia fans and you guys see the season in the rear view that he had last year and then what the expectations are for this year. I mean last year got off to a pretty weird star with a spitting on that press. I know that was kind of one of the questions about like if the Eagles are going to commit a historic record breaking contract to somebody that their availability and their maturity is obviously one of the number one thing you're wondering about. Him owning up to that finding his spaces where you know he can be

1:20:01you know the defensive mind player that he wants to be or things that he talked about over the training camps. And he played and I remember the Chicago Bears game last year was one of the biggest signs of where he was at physically. He ended up having two operations on his shoulders one on each shoulder and then missed time towards the end of the year. He was dealing with those shoulder issues and now he's healthy. You know I see it in training camp. He's poised for what I think and what I know that Eagles believe that he can have the monster season. I think this is something where he can they're expecting him to take that all-pros step to be in the conversation or defensive player of the year. And he has the tools we've seen it. You know some of his pressure from the inside that's what Vic Fangio likes to see from this defense and some of the ways that he schemes it up. But all of those tools are there for Jalen Card to be there just his availability and his maturity those things that he's kind of addressed over the last couple of months. We'll see if those come out because we know that he can be a dominant player and they commit they

1:21:07don't commit that kind of money to people that they don't view as cornerstones of their team. Now it's time to see that action. Is there a better cornerback room than the one that Philadelphia has in the league anywhere? It's a good question. You know I was I haven't analyzed the depth charts post 53 men or Oscar cut downs. I know that you know the Rams have picked up their defense a lot but what makes it so unique to the Eagles and why they're so good there is the Cooper Degene's versatility. I mean they've occurring three safeties on the 53 man roster which is not normal for them because he's going to play there in base packages. Last year he played outside cornerback in base packages and he's an all-prone nickel. The guy can play he'd probably be an all-prone at any of those positions and that allows Quenya Mitchell to just basically be attentive on one side of the field or they can you know he can just be the outside cornerback that he needs to be but like yo I don't know but he also just twice last year watching them play

1:22:10the commanders but this was this was a weak cornerback two spot last year that the Fanger did a very good job of masking partly by using Cooper Degene and base packages but now bringing Rick Lulin into the equation. I mean it's it's looked it looked it's looked night and day and training camp because what he adds is I mean the things that he adds in Seattle in terms of this physicality some of the play press coverage some of you can play in those ways. The thing that he's and now they don't have to to to move Cooper Degene around in order to map that issue they don't have to worry about one side of the field as much that's what brings strength to that secondary. The question for him is he was not much of a you know off coverage zone coverage type of cornerback and Dick Fanger likes to use those mix uh uh those max uh match zones a lot and that's things that he's even spoken to will and ask about his development but most most of all like you see him in practice and the way that he's matching up against guys like the Montet Smith and

1:23:13uh evening and joint practices against AJ Brown and others like he's holding his own so like the question is how how much more did he elevate uh which I think uh is why this defense is going to be more of a get off the field team and 24 their three and opposite was amongst the top in the league and it went down significantly last year they can do that this year that's really what's going to help to tie it back to the offense something uh that needs as much help as it can get as it's maturing they're going to get that and part of that is how how good the secondary is. By the way I mean I don't talk kickers a lot but Jake Elliott had a rough year I remember as he was going to do it's like this guy's been money for his entire career and he had a difficult season he's back as the kicker correct he is I mean they've given him a lot of money and that's kind of part of the thing you got to commit to the guy that you've given a lot of guarantee money to and this is that last year uh where before it becomes uh feasible for them to part with that uh but I

1:24:14mean he also is capable and we've only seen a training cap and then practices some of the preseason games uh that he does have that accuracy still the question is whenever there's going to be those it really his struggles were apart from some point afters that were a problem but his from plus 50 uh where he had been very accurate over his course his career went down significantly in the late 40s but this is a team that's going to plant in conditions and it's going to be some tight games and that's the question for me so it there seems to be a trend again towards a bad year for Jake uh like I wonder if they're going to start bringing in some competition whether they start making some moves or if they're going to commit to them that's the question they've always verbally stuck by him and to this point um haven't haven't addressed that uh but this is the kind of year where financially speaking you know there there is a decision to be made and uh you know

1:25:15as soon as you see something on the waiver wire or something where they add a ticker and camp that's going to be a big story all right uh we'll finish up with this uh keys to a Philadelphia win we do it from the other side here leading into the weekend but keys to a Philadelphia win Sunday against Washington you mentioned Jonathan Bernard earlier i'm going to stick with that for the keys for this because you know Laramie Thompson being out really brings past protection into question and we don't really know the full depth of this eagle's edger usher room with out Bernard I mean that's the whole reason why how heroism has been a couple of third round picks to bring a man to giving him 96 million dollars um you know J.L.I.K.S. Hunt uh the guy that's been around for a couple years now former third round pick he he's looked at really good spots in certain games so we haven't seen him have a complete breakout year in Nolan Smith and the other end this is a big year for him contractually speaking as well former first ground pick he just he's not been available

1:26:15he's getting hurt a lot so how much how much past rush can they generate from the edge um and how quickly can they get off the field therefore because you know if they can get into some longer second and third down that's the things where this fourth of the second area is really can help the bear so I think that's the key and no the defense is uh the design and the history to be good if that is in place and they play like that then it's going to be very hard to say the eagles don't win Brooks thanks really good stuff appreciate it yeah anytime Brooks Kubina from the athletic covers the eagles uh really good information on that team Bernard is a key man I I wanted Washington to go after Bernard when he was available reuniting potentially with Toronto Jones he ended up in Philadelphia after a trade he was outstanding last year for the Vikings as an edge past rusher welcome back chunkies come to you live on 106 seven the fan and the team 980 here in

1:27:19the DMV richman appreciate you checking us out on 910 the fan or 105.1 FM and you can watch us on the monumental sports network celebrating 30 years of the junkies in 2026 presented by mainstream bank cheer local bank local mainstream bank is a business focused community bank proudly serving the DMV since 2004 visit mstrepank.com learn how to put their team in your office mainstream bank member FDIC equal housing opportunity lender spish cake CBNJP that is the for some Mike Loxley head football coach at university Maryland is going to join us coming up at 945 but join us to talk some gnats right now is the president baseball operations for your washington national's Paul taboni what's up Paul what's up guys what's going on hello Paul hey buddy we got to start talk well got to start off with the ice bucket challenge oh yeah that's true recap it we did do it we did our part we did it for your PT we did it came up big we challenged four other people I don't think any of them have done it

1:28:19and probably won we're men of honor Paul we did it for you no that was awesome I appreciate it guys I uh yeah I had a couple couple different people sending the videos uh that was great oh good I appreciate you guys doing it of course of course that was good all in good fun so should we start positive or negative Paul what's up yeah yeah what do you want to start you guys throw it out there whatever you guys just get it out of the way you guys set a record last night um for most born saves this year talk about where the bullpen was when you were kind of putting together this team this year and how it's been this year and how it can change moving forward yeah uh so starting the year we basically just had a bunch of a bunch of younger guys that uh you know we were we made decision to give opportunity to and just on the whole it hasn't turned out exactly how we like um sent me obviously uh we've you guys have seen it throughout the year we've been pretty aggressive in flipping it over uh to give more and more guys chances and um still haven't

1:29:25really found a rhythm with our guys so um there've been a couple bright spots but uh but on the whole we need to be better and uh we need to be better in a couple different ways just uh you know acquiring uh acquiring talent and uh developing these guys and and putting them in better positions to succeed when it comes to acquiring guys will you have more of a budget this next year to focus on bullpen so when I see a choir guy is like yeah part of it is in for agency but honestly I think like where you can really do damage uh from a bullpen standpoint is just doing a really good job drafting and signing guys over time and uh the issue with that in baseball is it's different than other sports where it just takes a little bit time you know if we take a couple guys into the draft this year usually they're not gonna we reach the big leagues for whatever it is two three four years so uh part of it's gonna take a little bit of time but

1:30:26then the other piece of it is just like yeah in free agency or elsewhere uh I think we just got to do a good job uncovering uh players that can help us and um that'll be the goal go for is it is it fair to say that bullpen's are often I think around here it felt like this that they're often after thoughts and that teams feel like that's something we can plug in as as we need it like we'll put we'll put our best starting you know guys together we'll get our position guys right and the bullpen we can always figure that out is it gonna be more benefit is that even fair to say than a lot of teams look at it that way you know I think you can look at it a couple different ways like one is um the bullpen's unique in it like you're you're usually optioning these guys recalling guys throughout the year quite a bit and so you know whereas you're not using five different short stops every year like a taxi swan almost yeah yeah you're using a bunch of different guys throughout the year so you know I think uh what the best teams do is they have uh

1:31:29three four five guys at the top that are really good uh really good relievers and uh I think it especially helps when you're a playoffs team and you get to really lean on those guys in the playoffs because you obviously want to take care of them during the year but you see it with some of these guys whether it's Mason Miller or Robbis Chapman um the other guys that the podgers have like you know if they're in the playoffs they're really gonna lean on these guys uh it's just that you know it's a cleaner way to win so it's important that uh I think you gotta get one now having said that um you know there have been teams to win it all that have an i-grade bullpen but uh we just we want to be in a spot where we're uh who we gotta get pan and we'll get there uh just might take a little bit time Mason Miller is ridiculous didn't he I mean he's on believer yeah he's an unbelievable town yeah he's uh he's something else like just you pretty much you pretty much have to take a pitch and um and if you don't get it you're probably coming out of your shoes whiffing by about right you're you gotta get lucky against him yeah both those offerings are still

1:32:33darn good so so out of all I don't know how I think you guys traded for eight pictures that could be wrong on the number or something like that eight or nine guys out of all the guys you traded for who have you been most impressed with oh great question uh it's probably a guy maybe you guys haven't heard of um but his name's Joe glass Joe glassy uh Ben Grable the two guys uh actually both in AAA with us right now they both got promoted from double a to triple a uh within the last couple of weeks and uh Joe in particular is he just carved up double a and then he got the triple a and uh he's been really good you know probably big the question like why isn't he up with the big lead team and he's only had a a couple of innings in in triple a so he probably needs a little bit more time but uh I'm confident he'll be able to help us in the future and and that's what I was talking about like referring to earlier in the call it's just you kind of have to take your shots on these type guys uh over time you know a number of them are gonna work out and uh whether it's Joe

1:33:35or Ben or other guys uh even the guys that are up you know Yavani um Jake Bird so on and so forth I know Jake's not up right now but uh I think these guys are gonna be uh key pieces for us going forward which is uh part of the reason why we made the moves that we did so let's go positive uh yo yo hit another home run yesterday what have you seen from him since he's been called up yes uh I think you know he's calling card is his power and I think you guys have seen it um you know I think he'll uh he'll he'll have to do a better job I think going forward or just controlling his own and I'm not chasing pictures pitches but uh he's uh he's done a really good job put a few swings on balls he's uh he's not intimidating up there he uh he believes he belongs and yeah I'm looking forward to to yo yo helping us for uh for a long period of time here Paul Dylan Cruz he had a couple of it last night hitting about 225 and it was on base percentages and great because he showed signs he's had some

1:34:38some nice little pops and he's um I don't know how do you think he's playing obviously very good defender um fast on the bases how do you think he's been progressing if that's the word you want to use at the dish yeah uh this last week he's been great um yeah yesterday I had a couple couple doubles had a homer the day before um you know Dylan uh especially recently Mike has looked really comfortable against left-handed pitching uh I think it's uh the key for him going forward I think is going to be able to um where he he's got to be able to I think translate that comfort to to again for right-handed pitching which uh which he struggled at times and you said it like you see flashes of it but for Dylan I think it's just about being really consistent um over time so you know it's still really young and uh you see the flashes of it but like I keep saying like he just uh I think you need to bring it uh every day and he's aware of it our coaches obviously are

1:35:41and um and so we'll continue to support him going forward and um you know hopefully it turns into this duck forest so Paul Eli Willett gets promoted from high A Wilmington to double A Harrisburg earlier this week he's still just 18 years old at this point does this put him on the path to being in triple A at the beginning of next season or is it just is it too early to tell you need to see what he does at Harrisburg first but I think most realistically he'll be in double A to start uh next season he's only going to get you know a week or so in in Harrisburg and so um you know my guess is he's going to have to rack up a good amount of games uh in double A and he's going to have to uh you know develop along lines of what we think he'll he'll develop like uh in double A before getting the nod to triple A but um I mean just that in in and of itself is is amazing how young he is the fact that he's already in double A uh he looks really comfortable there like he's uh he's going to be a really good player so is he sped up is it fair to say he's

1:36:41sped up your timeline so far? I mean yeah like a high school kid um you know was in like 14 months or whatever it is 15 months of being drafted being in in double A that's that's really rare so you know I don't think you ever want to put like a uh you know any sort of limit on number one overall pick but uh but yeah like shoot like I said within 15 months of being drafted being in double A that's tough to do so uh he has and honestly he's like just the the maturity and he's he's the son of a major league or like he's been around it for a long time but just the maturity and his understanding of uh you know of how he can have success he's just he's a very advanced baseball mind just generally uh forget for his age so uh we're really excited about him he's he can impact the game in a lot of different ways like he's a stud defender he doesn't chase at the play he's still getting stronger he runs the base is great so he does a lot of things well and uh I think

1:37:45Matt's fans are gonna be really excited to see him win whenever he gets caught Paul um I know that CJ has been struggling offensively since you know early August I don't know if a lot of that is the mental part of it with you know you obviously had the trade rumors and then move into second finally does move to second I know I know a lot of these games he's starting out at short and then maybe playing the later part of the game at second last night he only played short but what have you seen with him defensively since he's he has kind of moved over at least partly to second base yes he's um man for a guy that hasn't played over there in some period of time uh he looks really healthy over there at least in my eyes uh and it's not you know a huge surprise he's such a talented athlete he um yeah he's just able to range the balls and um and do things that not not many guys can do so um so yeah like I really believe that he's got a chance to be a special

1:38:47defender over there and um you know as he continues to get more reps over there I think he's gonna get even more comfortable it's just I think I mentioned this to you guys a couple weeks back but it's some of the smaller nuances that I think he has to uh really get comfy with you know like the pivot on the double play turn and some of the angles you're back and things like that so um he'll be he'll be good he's already good over there but uh I like I said I think he has a chance to be really good in time last question did Paul Timone participate in a fantasy football draft oh don't I did I did yeah I got one with uh you know it's my buddies uh that I grew up with taking way back so uh I I sure did let's go through seeing me your top guys who was your first pick yeah where did you pick where did you select do you remember my first pick I was uh I was ninth overall and this one might uh might surprise you guys but I'm high on this dude and it's

1:39:48the running back for Miami uh Shane is like yeah he's a stud HM yeah yeah love him uh yeah and uh who's the um head coach over there was saying they're gonna try again 40 touches of game or whatever it was yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah BC guy right yeah yeah BC guy right yeah uh who who who's responsible for like the weekly you know pickups and drops if you have to if you have an injury you got to pick somebody up are it's not gonna be you or one of your other buddies oh no you're talking about for fantasy like for for my team yeah yeah oh no I'll be locked in oh yeah so those buddies is bragging rights yeah yeah yeah yeah 100% right okay you're gonna uh yeah you're gonna go down with the ship it's gonna be right me in the right move I like that commitment to uh real sports and fantasy sports ball yeah fantasy sports advocate all right Paul good stuff we'll talk to you next week all right thanks all it's really thank you buddy that's

1:40:52Paul Timon in president baseball operations