Grant and Danny
Beltway Blitz, Jayden Daniels: Better, Worse, Or Exactly What You Thought?
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Tell them, we sent you, you'll get a discount, kmloyers.com. It is time for your Beltway Blitz covering the Nats, the NFL and the Commanders. So let's start you off on the diamond. Dave Jagler has been on the call of a couple of debacles against the Mets here, ladies. No more Mets, please. So we're good on moving on from that series, Dave. Whenever you're ready, thanks. Well, the one thing about the Mets, I will say this is they're giving off a little bit of a 2019 Nats vibe. In this respect, they were 22 and 33, which is pretty close to 19 and 31. And they've had a heck of a second half. And with what Jose Iglesias has done was talking to their folks. They're like, it's just what Para did for the Nationals in 2019, mid-season pickup, kind of, you know, leading the clubhouse. And, you know, the OMG thing is kind of their version of what the baby shark was. I'm like, oh, all right. I could maybe buy what you're selling. I don't know if they have shirts or in Strasburg atop the rotation, but the night has been pretty good. They get in. They're going to be a tough out. I will say that. So then that's ran into a buzz saw. Unfortunately enough to see him again. Yeah. So one of those things, Jags, where I'm watching the game last night and DJ Hers is pitching. And I think there was a change up about, you know, eight inches off the plate that got dumped in the right center field for a hit. A bloop down the right field line that Dylan Cruz actually made a great plate of short hop and hold to a single. A seeing eye ground ball and hit the glove of CJ Abrams. It wouldn't like they're banging them off the walls and hitting a bunch of nukes for a lot of those crooked numbers. It just one of those didn't feel like your night. How do you assess nights like that for someone like DJ Hers? Who's looking for positives? Yeah. I mean, I look at the big picture of the season and say this kid has been a tremendous positive. Unfortunately, because they've limited his innings, he's only thrown, you know, 80-some innings in the big leagues this year. And so when you give up a touchdown and three of those runs scored by the way after he left the game, his VRA was in the three-fives after he pitched three scoreless innings. By the time the day is done, it's at four-three. I mean, he jumped almost a run with that touchdown. So, I mean, it's easy to say last night was a rough night, but, you know, the first time through the lineup, he looked really good. I just, I think over the big picture of the season, this kid has been a tremendous positive. Now, are there growing things that he has to do? Yeah, he needs to be more pitch efficient, get deeper in the game. He's got that effectively wild thing going on where he can kind of lose control and then dial it in. And last night, a couple of walks hurt him. He's going to have to improve the command. But clearly the stuff is there because when he's in the zone, he gets swings and misses. He gets a lot of strikeouts. So from what we thought he might be coming into the season to where he is now, I'm not going to let one bad inning ruin that. He's had a very good season. Jags, I wanted to get your thoughts on some news in the rotation. So Trevor Williams is coming back and is going to make a start. And then they're going to go to a six-man rotation. It sounds like the last couple turns through the rotation. So I guess a two-part or first on your thought on the six-man idea. And then second, this will sound silly. And I know he's making six million dollars. But it's kind of admirable to me that Trevor Williams at 32 on a bad team that wasn't going anywhere. With maybe a couple starts left in his arm later in the year, scratched and clawed all year to get back at the end of the season. Yeah, I think as far as the six-man rotation first, this is all about the other guys. I mean, we've been seeing them with Parker and some up and down and Ervin, some down now up the last couple, hers. All these guys are well over innings totals that they've ever pitched before. So whether instead of having three starts left, maybe they have two or in the case of hers, one. So this is kind of looking at the big picture of those guys trying to get them to finish the season and not have to quote unquote shut them down. So that's part of the six-man rotation. And as far as Williams, I mean, I think this whole thing kind of took longer than we thought it would. But at this point, you're coming off the end of a two-year contract. He needs to be out on the mound to show that he's healthy, going into the off-season, hoping that someone can bring him back. I mean, he was so effective early in the season as kind of that five-ending pitcher. Now, he signed with Nationals to be a starting pitcher. I don't know what team is going to look at him and say, you know, after throwing 60-some innings, hey, we're going to give this guy 150 innings next year and give him a bunch of money. So maybe he's back to that swing-man role that he was successful with. When he was with the Mets a couple of years ago. So I think it's important for him just to show that he's healthy. And maybe there's some value there about a reunion with the Nationals. You know, he could be a guy to step in the rotation. But you know, they've never really had a true long man this year. And he could be someone who fills that role. And certainly a veteran to help the young guys now that Corbin's going to be departing could be a good thing as well. Jags, I like Tenna. Just what I see that, you know, he's probably maybe better at second right now than he is at third defensively. But I like, is it bats? What does he look like to you with 500 played appearances or give or take next year? Well, the question is what position is he going to play defensively? I mean, yeah, I think you'd like to see 500 of bats because he hangs in there against lefties. They've been playing them against lefties. So it's not like a situation where you'd say, well, we have to platoon him. He gives you a good at bat. So I think there's some potential there. But the question is where? I mean, we know that they like our sea at second base. Third base is an open spot, but he has struggled there defensively. So I think you've got to find out whether that's a utility role or is there some DH in there, but he's definitely put himself in the mix to look at going forward. Dave Jaggler will be on the call tonight. Nats, Cubs, and Wrigley Field. He and Charlie Slowes can be heard right here on the fan at about seven o'clock. Jags, thanks for the time. We appreciate you. Okay, guys. Take it easy. Good. Let's keep the blitz moving. Let's talk about the NFL. We spin around the national football league with our buddy Mike Jones of the athletic. Mike, what do you make of the New Orleans Saints scoring on every possession so far and being two and O with a quality win against the Cowboys? Man, I don't know because I saw week one and said, well, it's just against the pathetic Carolina Panthers. And then when they went out there against Dallas, you start to wonder, is this team actually for real? When he talked to people during the off season, some people wondered if maybe this was Derek Carr's last shot to be able to hold on to that job. And if he would wind up finishing out this year as their starter, just based on how last year went for them, very disappointing. They get a new offensive coordinator, Clint Kubiak, obviously was working with Kyle Shanahan, the son of Gary Kubiak, another Mike Shanahan disciple, and he has just infused that offense with life. They have the weapons, but then you look at their defense as well, which I think it's held teams like 14 and a half points a game, ranking among the stingiest as far as yards game. They have a really well-rounded squad. Now, again, it's two weeks, so we'll get two worked up about it. But this is a really big test for them this week. I know that Eagles wet the bed against the Falcons on Monday night football, but it's still a talented team. If they can go out there and be as, I mean, they don't have to score 40 points. But if they can go out there and beat the Eagles or look very good as they're competing, then I think you'll have to say that, yeah, they are a team that really can contend in this division and maybe in the conference. Similar question here, Mike, for the Chargers. Their strength of schedule thus far is that blown you away, right? They beat the aforementioned Panthers and they handled the Raiders in week number one of the Raiders coming off a surprise one on their own right. You look at this and I guess I'm asking, when do we kind of go, or do we kind of get rid of any asterisk or the yeah, but with them? Like they haven't beaten any good teams just yet. Pittsburgh this week, which would be interesting Kansas City in two weeks, but when do we kind of take away the label of, yeah, who have they beaten and they're there for real? What do they have to do to kind of prove it to folks? Well, I mean, I think if they come out of this first quarter of the season and they have a winning record, and we will see how they, if they, even if they give the Chiefs off, Chiefs a fight, then I think you can say, hey, they are a quality team. Their defense isn't really good. I think it's like six or eight points a game that they're giving up. That's it. And, you know, obviously they're running the football really well. We haven't even seen Justin Herbert start slinging the ball around a whole lot and have a big passing game. They haven't needed it. So if Jim Harbaugh can go out there, say they get a win, Pittsburgh, and then they can give a tough fight to the Chiefs, then we'll say, hey, they are improved. I don't know how far they can go and what they'll do against the tougher competition, but this recipe is working for them and we'll see how long it carries them. What team that is off to a bad start is surprised you the most and are you most worried about? I don't know, I think I'm a little bit surprised by the Ravens in the way that they've looked, but they did lose their defense coordinator and they lost their defensive line coach and their linebackers coach. So that's three talented guys that were the brains behind their operations. And now they're giving up 26, 25 points a game. That's not what we're used to seeing from a Raven defense. Their offense is actually racking up the yards. They're gaining more than 400 yards a game, but they're just very middle-of-the-road scoring wise. They've got to get things clicking there. And Mike Shanahan used to always say, don't rush to judgment before the first four games of the season are in the books, especially now because these teams don't play in the preseason. So if they can get things short up on the defense, then I think they're going to be okay. It's going to come offensively. A little bit concerned also about the Bengals. They always start slow, but if you get in a hole, one of those two teams, if the Ravens are 0 and 3 or if the Bengals are 0 and 3, then it gets really tough to compete in this division because you have a knockdown dragout with all the teams that face each other right here. And so it's going to be hard to go on a run. Mike, thank you as always, man. All right. See you guys. Appreciate you, buddy. Hit that local 53 sounder. My God, that's Earl Forsey's music. And here he comes on the Beltway Blitz. Earl, how do you feel right now, kind of a vibe check about Monday Night Football at Cincinnati? Wait, did you say Monday Night Football? Yeah. You know what my music this week is? That's my music. Look at that. Look at that. That's what it is right there. This week. What do we expect? It's a big game because it's Monday Night. We have seen a couple of weeks of Jaden Daniels, who's looked pretty good. I mean, this is record aside, which is pro sports. Look, record counts. But record aside, this season was about, mainly, have you found a quarterback and you can't say two weeks in, but so far so good. The best of the rookies. I know you guys have been talking about it this week and for a couple of weeks. He's done the job. All you can ask, it would be nice if they can score some touchdowns. Kind of an important thing, I think, in the NFL these days. But this is a, we go through this now every year, guys, where the first month is just chaos in the NFL. The first two weeks have been amazingly chaotic around pro football. You just heard my talking about, you know, the Ravens could be 0 and 3. This is a team. Everybody's Super Bowl pick. They're still, everybody thinks are the best 0 and 2 football in NFL history, 0 and 2 team. But, you know, this is where we are. The Miami Dolphins, now without a quarterback, maybe now for the rest of the season, one of those hot picks. So we don't know. The Cowboys got slaughtered by New Orleans, who now the Saints, all of a sudden, look like, you know, they're, you know, world beaters. What we should see this week is a team that goes in there and, I don't want to see doesn't get embarrassed. That's probably a bad term. But this is, this is a potential setup because it's Monday night. It's in Cincinnati. That's kind of a tough, a tough place to play a loud building. They've got a really good quarterback still, even though he's trying to battle back from last year's injury in Joe burrow. Oh, they have a receiver that can torch you and they've gotten, you know, beat up by receivers already the first couple of weeks. So you kind of want to brace yourself for this, but this is also the nation's first look at Jaden Daniels and if he should play well, if they win this game on Monday night, we've heard a lot of national talk, all these shows about Jaden Daniels for a while now through training camp and early this season. Watch out because you know, that could, that could go up to 11 if he plays well and they win Monday night. Oh, no doubt. This story is going to be awesome. Come Tuesday. What about the? Yeah. Maybe Ron will have something to say about it as an analyst. I'm quite sure. Well, you know, they got a quarterback. I would have taken. Are you more worried about the corner position or the lack of pressure from the edge? You've talked to me all summer about this. What I keep bringing up the defense of the secondary was always a concern of mine. I think one of my other concerns offensive line that's been okay. But Jaden Daniels is, I mean, everything's coming out quick. He's doing a great job. So that was obviously part of the plan. Let's not sit back there all day. Let's just do something quick and cover up that deficiency. The secondary is just, I don't know what they do, Grant. They just don't have the players in the secondary. You need defensive backs that can cover receivers. They seemingly can't find one still. And you know, the Emmanuel Forbes injury opened the door for a guy. They signed this off season, who may have been worse. So it's going to be a problem all year. Unless they add more players and guys who somewhere are not playing football that are suddenly better than what they have, this is going to be a problem. Yes, you can make up for it with some pass rush. And I know that was a topic with Dan Quinn. I'm going through the stuff right now. I'm going to use some of that on countdown to kick off what you can do. It should be a strength of your team and it's not that, that is a concern. But I think that comes around with the interior of the line playing better and pain and allen. I mean, you've got to have them, you know, be a force inside. I know that hasn't happened statistically yet. But no matter what, that secondary guys, they changing the players back there are not changing. And that's a concern because they had a rookie towards them last week, a guy in a second game in the NFL. What's Jamar Chase going to do this week with Joe Burr, I cringe to think about what could happen? Or I wonder what your interpretation is of this when Dan Quinn was talking and it was a thoughtful answer. And I certainly appreciate it. I'm not necessarily criticizing him. It was just, I'm just reading into it here a little bit when he said, we don't want to force the ball to tear him a car and the kind of putting words in his mouth. But that was the theme, right? Where I'm going. If Terry was that great, you would force it to him because it wouldn't matter like you do what the Giants just did for Malik neighbors. You would do what Kevin O'Connell is going to do for Justin Jefferson, that you do what McDonald's going to do for Tyree kill and so on down the line. I appreciated that answer because it reflects about Jayden Daniels, where the offense is, but I'm kind of going, if you, if you in your eyes, he was that awesome, you would force it to him. That was kind of my interpretation. I wonder what yours was and forcing is an issue because what do you mean by quote, forcing the ball? Now, Malik neighbors was getting open. So you know, you're just throwing them the ball, you know, what 18 times was it for him last week's targets? It's crazy. So, and that's the thing. If forcing the ball to McClellan means he's not getting open and you'd have to risk a turnover to do that, then that's more of a receiver problem, right, than an offensive scheme problem. So no one wants to hear it. And I know, you know, the commanders nation on X and all the social media don't want to throw their guy under the bus. He's our guide. He's given up so much, but you know, Terry is a professional and I know it's a new quarterback again, but you know, same year, same time next year, basically for him. So they're going to have to get some chemistry going. At this point, I wouldn't worry too much, but it is concerning. The guys got 39 yards receiving your number one guy, your number one receiver has not done much. But guys, you know, I can look around the NFL and we've seen Travis Kelsey is not put up great numbers this year so far and I know that's Kansas City. It's different situation, but it's happening all around. I'm not that concerned because I kind of trust and Terry McClellan before I go real quick because I know we're at the end this week. I got it. This is a full circle game. I mentioned Riverboat, but you know what? This is the rematch right from 2020 and this goes back to the draft when Chase Young was number two pick and commanders lost a year before that and the whole Miami thing and they lost a chance to draft Joe Burrow. Look where we are now. Joe Burrow has the still obviously lingering effects of the wrist injury youngest in New Orleans. The top of that draft, Jeff Ocuda in Detroit, he's already gone from there. Number three pick defensive back Andrew Thomas has kind of been a sort of a bust with the Giants. They're offensive tackle to a may never play football again. And Justin Herbert is now J. J. McCarthy in the pros, you know, he's throwing 15 times a game. This is where we are with that. So they've come full circle. This is the kind of circle around you play them every four years game. What are these teams in different places and we'll see what happens Monday with Joe Burrow potentially, you know, maybe never right again. I love Joe Burrow and he's already been to a Super Bowl. You can't take that away, but there's a weird way and maybe the commanders four years later are in a better place at quarterback than they were back then. We'll see. Couple A championship appearances Super Bowl. Yeah. They're just looking at a different team now. It would be hard to not take Burrow right now. But if I gave you the option to guys, you're drafting, will you take Burrow or you take, you can have one or the other burrow or Jaden Daniels right now where they are, what you know about them? Who would you take? Burrow easily. Right. Okay. Well, I don't know if it's easily. I don't know if it's easily, but you're right. You do take Burrow health, not withstanding, right? Right. That's the part that makes it maybe not easily. But I think Burrow is the top three quarterback. Okay. Let me go the rest. The other, the young quarterback where 10% of them do do anything. Let me take the other, let me take the other layer. Everybody thought, well, you should have gone to a number two. How does that look now? Would you take what you have now over what Miami has right now? Sure. Yeah. I mean, it's been four terrible years that we had to sit through. But yes, I never was a two guy anymore. More than four. Grant. More than four. 34. I think it's like 32. Since that draft. All right. We'll listen to this weekend. See buddy. See boys and girls, can you play the Monday night football theme one more time on the way out? There he goes. Yep. We got to get those chimes going. Dares. We got to hear those a few times. Asking you shall receive. My God. I'm looking forward to it. Monday night football. Your boys will be there in Cincinnati. The commanders and the Bengals, Grant and Danny on the fan that there is your beltway blitz. Next, speaking of Jaden Daniels, you've played two games so far. Has he been better about what you expected? Worse than you thought? That'd be hard to imagine really. You might have had some really lofty expectations. We'll dive in on that next on G&D. This summer, get away in the Hyundai you've always wanted at the Hyundai Getaway Sales event. Get the hottest deals of the season on many of our award winning Hyundai models, which all come with America's best warranty. But get going because these deals won't last. Add more joy to your journey at the Hyundai Getaway Sales event. Now for a limited time. Get 1.99% APR for 60 months on the Hyundai Tucson or Elantra. Hurry in to the Hyundai Getaway Sales event. Offers end September 3rd. Call 562-314-460 for details. In 90 minutes, we'll give away tickets right here on Grant and Yandy to the CAPS 50 Fest. Third eye blinds performing past capitals. Current capital is going to be there. It helps kick off their season 50 years of CAPS hockey. Alex Ovechkin needs a 45 or so goal season to surpass wing Gretzky. Wouldn't that be nice? He is in his sights, man. He needs one more OV like big year and he can pull it off this season. I was chatting with our buddy, Derek Forst DC News now, the other day about this. I'm, again, I, these come up a lot, but this happens as you grow older. I'm old enough to remember all of the Gretzky milestones. When he passed Gordy Howe, when it was beyond absurd that he was going to play in Los Angeles, because that's like what he and his family wanted, when he left that Edmonton dynasty behind and how, like, how ridiculous that record seemed, because it was from a time that we don't have anymore, where it was easier than it's ever been to score. The name of the game was getting up and down the ice and it was odd man rush versus odd man rush. It was everybody was fast-breaking all the time. And those Edmonton teams were beyond stacked. It was like, if you played there during that time, you're probably a Hall of Famer, playing next to Wayne Gretzky. And Ovechkin, in a much harder era to score, is going, hopefully, not going wood, to walk Gretzky down and surpass that record. It's stupid, dude. Like, there's only been a couple of those in DC history where when you're done, you're number one at the top of the list, Art Monk did it, and there's a chance that Ovechkin does it. Pretty good one. It's amazing. Forty-one goals behind Wayne Gretzky on the all-time list for Alex Ovechkin. All right, let's get into Jaden Daniels. We've got Frank Schwab coming up, Yahoo Sports, 5 o'clock, about 30 minutes out to lead us around the NFL ahead of week three getting started with Thursday Night Football tonight. Want to have a little opportunity to take your temperature on Jaden Daniels. We'll do that on the MGM National Harbor Lister lines right now, 800-636-1067. Question on the table for you is, based on your expectations for Daniels, has he been better? What you expected or worse than you anticipated? And I just can't imagine he's been worse because he's been pretty solid unless you thought he was immediately going to just light it up and take the league by storm or something. But it's your answer, not mine. 800-636-1067. And if you want to give us a little more detail, what's been better or what's been worse or what's been the same? There are two games for Jaden Daniels. So you lead the way. I'm annoying on these kinds of questions because this is what I expected. I was a Jaden Daniels Mark, I'm not saying I invented it, but watching him play, I coveted the skillset, not knowing the washroom would have the number two overall pick and that he'd be available to them. And I wanted him throughout the draft process for this reason. I thought day one bare minimum, he'd be fine. And that doesn't sound like a compliment, but it is, that's what it's meant to be. Because of his skillset, because of the work ethic, because of who he is, I think he is a high floor player, higher floor that we usually see for these quote, unquote, dual threats, right? I think there's a, the chances of the bottom dropping out and him being an embarrassment were never really there to me. Now, that doesn't mean he's a superstar, an MVP candidate. That's what I hope the high ceiling, that's, I still see, but I'm, you know, that's impossible to get to. Only a couple of guys get to do that. To me, this is what I saw, what I thought, you could spoon feed, you could bring him along slow enough, still have some progress, still have an offense and, and, you know, slowly build with him. And we've seen exactly that for two weeks. Yeah, I think like another way to, to word it would be, are you, you've been overwhelmed, underwhelmed orwhelmed and I've been well, I've been well, you know, so I'm, I'm with you. Maybe it sounds boring, but this is about what I expected. There have been things that have been better than I expected. A lot of the off season stuff we talked about yesterday from camp to the preseason to the work habits to the studying have far exceeded my expectations for a young guy. He seems really mature. He seems just grown up in how he acts and operates. By the way, I've been watching the documentary on prime. Oh, I haven't, I haven't had a chance to watch it. Is it good? It's very good. It's the LSU NIL documentary. Livy Don, you may have heard of her. She is a gymnast and extremely talented, you follow her, right? On Instagram? Yeah. I do not. If I do, it's only because my wife made me because she's a big fan of gymnast. Livy Don, Jaden Daniels, some other people at LSU, Jaden Daniels is so likable. It's the best access we've gotten him behind the scenes, essentially. You know who I really like who came off very well and I've only watched a couple episodes? His mom. I really, really like the whole bit is some of these people at LSU that are student athletes decided to go for money as soon as they could and his mom essentially said we are focusing on football because you can make a couple million dollars on NIL being, you know, the poster child at LSU for that law firm. If you go in the top five, you're going to make $30 million. We're going to focus on being the best quarterback in college football. I'm paraphrasing, but like his mom is sharp. I really like her. But regardless, long story short, I have been impressed by him and you know, that part of it overall, just him off the field, I think it surpassed my expectations. What I've also liked is he does not really put the ball in harm's way. That's a good thing and a bad thing. A small part of me would actually like to see him throw an interception soon because I think it'll just let him know like, oh, nothing happens. Yeah. It's like my kid finally doesn't strike. Yeah. But my kids afraid to like ride his bike down the hill because he thinks if he falls over, it's all over. We all die. Dude, you're going to fall over. You're going to scrape your knee. I'm going to pick you up. We're going to be okay. I don't care about a pick or two. I need some big plays too. I need some small window throws, some aggressive percentage looks down the field. So having said that though, I liked it even in practice when I was out there, the preseason. There have not really been many turnover worthy throws. That's a give it to take it the way thing. You know, I'd like to turn up the faders on that some, but I just think by and large, we saw four picks last year with the combined 50 touchdowns. He seems to be a guy that does not really turn the ball over a lot. I think that is a healthy, good thing. So that's been impressive where I say overall has been about what I expected is as a passing offense through two games, it hasn't been overly impressive. I thought the second half of the Giants game as we've talked about a lot was much better. He stood in the pocket, played quarterback, distributed the football that all the things I want to see him do. And I hope he builds on that. The only thing I would say that it's a little bit disappointing and that's too strong of a word, but the only thing I would say that has been, I've been a little surprised by negatively, even though I thought he would run a lot, his default setting to not like stay in the pocket and throw and to take off and run has been more extreme than I anticipated. And that was a little bit of a concern for me as it was, but I also know it's only been two weeks and it's probably too early to make a judgment on that. But if you're asking me, is there anything so far that you would have like graded as this that's been worse than that? He is such a good accurate passer. It is a part of his game. He does not have to be Lamar to me. Like he does not have to lead the league and rushing at the quarterback position. He can make all the throws part of the intrigue and Jaden Daniels is that he's an awesome thrower of the football. I just like to see him prioritize in major and that a little more certainly than he did in Tampa Bay and certainly that he did in the first half against the Giants. But maybe, you know, speaking of my son falling off the bike, maybe seeing what he saw on the second half that the offense opened up, that Noah Brown got open, that some things went his way, maybe he'll go back to the well more often now moving forward. That's certainly my hope. Yeah. I mean, and it's all, you know, it's all growth opportunities, right? They're my favorite, one of my favorite economists and it's very nerdy to have one, but Thomas Sol has a great saying that I brought up a billion times, which is there are no solutions only trade offs. So if you trade higher production, you're probably going to then have some more negative plays with that. Sacks that includes, maybe hold on to the ball too long for a fumble that includes throwing it into a tight window, which is traffic. Now the ball is tipped now it's an interception. Now you air mail somebody over the middle when there's a tight window and it sails to a defender for a pick. Even the greatest quarterbacks ever to live have to give up something, right? There's never one size fits all very rarely you get a season where it's all perfect where Pat Mahomes throws for 5,000 yards, 50 touchdowns and gets sacked in the bottom four or five, you know, percentage of quarterbacks to drop back. That's very, very rare. For the most part, even the great ones, like you look at Aaron Rodgers over the years when he's throwing again for 4800 yards, 45 touchdowns was one of the league leaders in sacks allowed. That was the trade off. You had to give something to get something. So you would like some of those danger zone faders to turn up. And I think eventually you will, you learn when to fire, when to tuck it, when to throw it away. And it's never perfect. You're always pursuing this ghost of perfect quarterback play. But I'm with you in the sense that the trend line is, okay, first sign of danger, even not even danger, even the potential that something might lead to danger. He took off. He ran week one, week two, less so. So now there's a balance, right? Everybody wants to say, Oh, it's been two weeks. I get it. We're talking about that. The two games that he's played, what do you think so far? What I think so far is it's been pretty good. It's been a lot better than Caleb Williams. Caleb Daniels is that guy would be amazing. Imagine how good he'd be. It's been a ton better than Caleb Williams has been a ton better than Bowdniks. He doesn't look like a rookie very often. That's all really good. Mostly everything is either what I expected or better. And that would be the one thing is, and it's just my own proclivity, like not everybody cares about that. I'm sure there's someone listening who doesn't mind if he runs for 171 and throws for 105. I happen to, I think it's good for business. Your receivers are happier. People in the locker room are happier if, if you're majoring in passing the football and minoring in wanting to run it. And we'll get there. I believe that. But we just, we got eight quarters to evaluate so far, 806361067 is the number. Jaden Daniels has played two games. Things are going pretty well for him. I would say if the season ended today and it doesn't, he would be probably the offensive rookie of the year. What's been better? What's been worse? What's been as advertised? To this point, we'll get your thoughts next on Grant and Danny. [BLANK_AUDIO] Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, still football is still going out there having fun playing the game. But I'll say probably one thing is, you know, is going out there and, you know, they got guys that get paid. And we got guys that get paid. So give them my guys chance to go out there and make plays and you've seen that towards the second game. I guess the Giants go out there and make plays so we can help win the game. But, you know, the name of the game, man, you know, we got to put up points. We got to score touchdowns, finish in the res zone and that's something that we need to do. That's Jaden Daniels, met with the media today, welcome back to Grant and Danny on the fan. We've both gone on record same, he's been about what we expected. Question is better, worse or the same as you expected through two games. Let's go to Kevin and DC on GND. What's up, Kev? >> Hey, guys. >> What's going on? >> Hey, guys, I got two points to make. One, I think he's played a great for one reason he's not trying to force the ball anywhere, especially if he's not forcing a ball to carry, only if he needs the slack, instead of flipping. >> I just don't think he's going to slide. I don't think he's got that club in the bag. Now, that does not mean he's not going to avoid contact. He will do his best to do that. He does the Lamar Jackson role, the fall forward thing. As we've seen, though, that could be somewhat scary. But I think we have to prepare for him taking shots. It's just going to happen inevitably, it'll happen in the pocket when he gets driven into the ground at times, happening at Alabama game a couple of years ago when he got concussed. It's going to happen out of the pocket. I do agree he needs to prioritize his health as often as possible. The bottom line is we're through two games. That's all there's been is two games. He took a helmet helmet shot from a safety coming downhill and he left the field after getting the wind knocked out of him, trying to get a first down in the first half of the game, taking a huge shot to the ribs. >> Yeah, I mean, it's just baked in. >> Hits are going to happen even if you don't run as part of the quarterback position. The whole point here is to try to limit the devastating ones, to limit that kill shot, so to speak, right? I mean, all it takes is that one moment where you cut back or trying to get that extra yard or two or whatever, it's, you know, it's again, it's a trade off. They're going to be at one, maybe one or two fewer big plays, one fewer third down converted in week number five. But you get more weeks in theory, right? You're limiting those really big shots where everybody's running full speed. >> Do you agree with me to some extent that it's just not going to be. >> It's not going to be what I want. >> It's your priority for him. >> No. I mean, yes, I agree with you. >> Yeah. Like on a one to ten scale of how much do you care about avoiding contact? I'd like him to be at a six and I think he's kind of always going to be at a four or something like that. I mean, I just, it's not like I'm punting on it or don't care about it. I just think it's inevitable. There's going to be times where he's slow to get up and you just hope that when he gets banged up, it's, you know, he's able to get right back into the game. The only thing I hate is there's an independent person that can just pull him off the field at any point after one of these hits. That's the part that worries me because he doesn't just get to say I'm fine. He doesn't get to just keep playing if he wants to. That's out of your control when they tell you to go over to that tent. Mike's in Fairfax. What's up, Mike? >> Hey, what's up guys? Love the shows always. Hey, just have a couple quick points for you guys to give me just a couple of moments. I agree with you, Grant, regarding the rating. I think he's, he's much better than Caleb so far and both here's my issue. After a during the first game, I was not thrilled with Kingsbury and the reason was especially when they got to the red zone, he was calling plays as if Jade were a 250 pound football back aboard. What the hell is he doing? You know? >> Yeah. This ain't Kim Newton. It's not Josh Allen, man. >> Dude, that was insane. Okay. So second also with the second game, I was more pleased. She and Jayden Shug, he's a rookie. He doesn't know that this is all they knows is one, go, I'm faster. He is quick, but what's really going to determine if he's really going to succeed in this game is when Kingsbury opens up the offense because right now he's just doing a lot of the short passes to the side, et cetera. Yes, he sort of passes down field, but not enough to really determine if he's, can he read the field the way that the top quality, the guys that really succeed in the NFL read the field. If he can do that and keep away from interceptions and not run as much, he will be awesome. I'm really excited, but guys, guys, look, he's got to stop at the right look, he's got to get hurt. He is going to get. >> Well, well, here's the problem with that, Mike. Thanks for the call. He's not going to stop running and he shouldn't because he shouldn't have drafted him if he didn't want him to run that that is the superpower. But if your point is he should avoid contact more, I can agree with you there. It's just, it's a really tough needle to thread, frankly, no, for a guy that's going to be running frequently and he's going to be, and he should be, frankly, to avoid contact. It's football. It's going to happen. He's just got to be smarter. Like the hit he took helmet to helmet in the first game was a bad one. The hit he took on the ribs and everyone said, oh, he was getting the first down. He showed up. That was awesome. I agree with it. It's the fourth quarter in the games on the line. I'm not sure if I agree with you in the first quarter of a football game against the Giants instead of setting up a fourth in one and maybe having a punnet or whatever. But luckily he just lost his win. It sounds like he was on the sideline. He was back in the game. The horizontal passing game, the league is trending that way. We talked a lot about it yesterday. If you want to go back and grab the pod, the way defenses are covering this now in the secondary, the cover two looks, they're forcing underneath throws, even by that metric though, that's not a good enough way to say why they've been so horizontal. Thirty eight percent of their wide receiver targets have come behind the line of scrimmage. The league averages 11 percent. You're talking about they're turning up that dial basically forex for them on wide receiver targets behind the line. So that's going to have to change moving forward, but they have not to their credit. I think this is smart. They haven't asked them to read much out. That's a good thing with a young quarterback, but you're also not going to really get great results in the passing game until you start asking them to do that. Let's go to Kevin in Arlington. What's up, Kev? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. I've got to admit, I'm a little intrigued and surprised because again, the jump from college, I don't care if he did throw 40 PDs and four picks and was just so incredible, but the leap is so great. What I've seen is first of all, he starts his career against Todd Bowls and don't think for a minute, Todd Bowls, whenever he plays Washington, he wants to make a statement. And he did. That's a hell of a team, and we're going to see it as they continue to move forward. But by the second half, he was better. And then in the second game, by the second half, he was better. He seems to get better as the game goes on. He's incredibly accurate. He doesn't make foolish decisions that does not seem with the ball. He may be foolish or just inexperienced in terms of knowing when to get down, how to get down, whatever. But again, second game, the progress I saw was really, really intriguing and exciting. But my concern at this point, other than obviously, we're all concerned if he gets hurt and there's always that possibility. But what's he not seen? To your point earlier, Grant, about how open, if you go back to the All 22, look how he was. And it seems to me, because he's good at processing, but it seems he's missing things. I'm not sure why I don't know if we're going to get any answer made. It's just, hey, nobody's perfect and he's just starting out. But I'm not as worried about that yet, Kev, just because how young he is. And you also don't know if the coaching point that week for the sake of argument is against this too high look, you're supposed to be looking over here. Now, or if it's, dude, you got to see that. We don't know. It could be anything in between. Very true. He made a good point though, something I should have brought up. The accuracy is way better than, I mean, it seemed like a strength of his in college, frankly, but he was also throwing to open receivers a lot in college. Malik neighbors was awesome, Brian Thomas was awesome. Downfield, his accuracy was pretty special statistically. But just watching him even out it in practice at camp, it was pretty obvious like ball placement, being accurate, which is such a huge trait. That is absolutely impressed me and far exceeded my expectations, which is a big deal. Zach Charlottesville, listening on the Odyssey app. What's up? Hey, boys, thanks for taking my call. So through two games, I think better than I have expected through two games, he gets lumped in with that graphic with Caleb Williams and Bo Nix, where they have zero touchdown six picks. He, he, you, you take Jayden Deans out of that graphic, it looks the same. I would expect him to have maybe some inner interceptions early on in the year. Now, if you extrapolate this out throughout 17 games, yeah, it doesn't look great. But three, two games, I think he's been better than expected. And the caller before me said, you know, you got to think he went up against Todd Bowles in week one. So I think better than expected, you know, I think they're going to get Terry involved. I know that's a big talking point this week. So, yeah, that's my thought better than expected and I think the best you have to come. Thanks, buddy. I appreciate you. No doubt about that. He's going to hopefully just keep stacking pennies, you know, game by game week by week. And we'll see where it gets us in the nation's capital. Ben Standing asked him about Waffle Gate today at his press conference. I'm going to tell you what he had to say about all the waffle stuff that happened last week. Ben just sent us over some answers from Jayden on waffle gate. So that should be fun. Next, Frank Schwab is going to stop by the show from Yahoo! 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