Grant and Danny
Why is passing down this year in the NFL?
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There's going to be a lot of people wearing Chateau Chocinco jerseys around us. I would imagine as we root on the local 53. It's going to be cool, man. I like visiting other stadiums just to remind myself of what's possible. You know what I mean? When I was on the beat, I went to all but four NFL stadiums. Now a couple of open since then. So I probably have to add them to the list and do some recalibrating. Cincinnati was one of the four stadiums I never went to. So this is big action. Oh, this is big leafy. I will be checking one off of the list. I did not go to Foxboro. The way it worked out weirdly. That's so weird. You didn't go there. Didn't ever go to Houston where the Texans play at Reliant Stadium. And they've had a bunch of Super Bowls and events and stuff, but I've never been there. The Bengals was one. And I have not been to the new Atlanta Stadium. The new Minnesota Stadium. So it's at least five now, maybe one or two others, but I'm super excited. I'm actually closer to finishing the ring, so to speak, on the NFL stadiums than I am. Ballparks, right? I have like seven more ballparks to get to. That's going to be that's a quarter of the way done, right? With some of the old school ones. I guess if they keep making new stadiums, it would be harder for you, but yeah, that's pretty neat. So we'll be there Monday night. If you're going to the game, let us know. We want to try to do a little tweet up. We'll meet up with people before we go into the stadium out and about in Cincinnati, but should let you guys know we were just talking about the passing numbers being down around the NFL. Before we get into some of Washington's stars struggling. Here are some of the hard and fast numbers, Danny, through a couple of games that I think are most prevalent. Passing touchdowns through two weeks by year starting in 2019, 105 passing touchdowns through two weeks in 2020, 110, 2021, 110, 2022, 105, pretty much exactly the same for four years. Last year, 86, you go, huh, that's weird. What happened? This year, 66. That was prior to Monday night football, Kirk had a couple. I don't think Jalen hurts through for a while. No, Barkley got tackled at the one inch line and then he plunged it in the next play. So yeah, he had one that of Auntie Smith, he had one that of Auntie Smith. Okay. So 69. Yeah, there you go. Nice. So still though, the average for a four year span was a little over 105. The last two years, it's been 86 and 69. If you're looking at passing yards per game, per team, through two weeks of football, in 2020, 2015, it was 240, the next year, 258, 2017, 221. Then more recently here from 28, 18 on, 250, 249, 249, 249. By the way, the consistency there's crazy right around 250 yards, 2022 down to 228, 2023 down to 217, this year, passing yards per game per team for two weeks, 193.2. So we have gone from 250 consistently for years through about 2022 to now 193 this year. I mean, these numbers are just hard to ignore. So you've got your touchdown category, your yardage category. If you look at sack percentage, I think is interesting, 7.8 percent sack rate through two weeks, Danny, the highest for the start of the NFL season in the 2000 quarterbacks are getting sacked at a higher rate than they have in 25 years, but it's not leading to more production. You would think that usually correlates with, okay, there's more downfield shots. There's more big plays and there aren't. And also you would think that maybe after a sack, you're going to pass on the next down because now you need 18 or 20 yards. So at least you get some, some underneath stuff. It's not adding up. 20, 25.8 percent sacks, 20, 21, 6 percent of plays, 20, 22, 6.3 percent last year, 7 percent. This year, 8 percent of plays have been sacks. The highest again in a quarter century. What's going on here? There's a number of things. You go back a handful of years, not even, I'm not talking about 10 years, but like a few years and a third of the league, basically half the guys that started every game for their team and they're still, and they're all playing 16 games, by the way, through for at least 30 touchdowns. That was the normal. You look at league leaders, guys like Aaron Rodgers for 48, Pat Mahomes in the upper 40s, et cetera. Last year, four guys did it with an extra game through for 30 touchdowns. I'm not talking about something crazy, like a 50 touchdown season or something, but just for 30 passing is now, because it was so essential to be great at it. That's now what defenses are designed to stop. So I see tweets from really smart guys. I've been fascinated with this topic. So guys like Benjamin Solak, who have broken down a bunch of different film, have offered a few ideas to this. Have you seen anything yet on the percentage of passes as opposed to runs and whether that's changing? Because I get the sense watching the games that teams are running more than they're passing. It's not even not meaning over 50% of the time, but like even compared to three years ago, that teams are calling more run play. So obviously yards and touchdowns will be down throwing the ball if you're running it more. But I don't have numbers to back down. Yeah, just sort of abstract. It felt like it was 65 35 before. Now it's much closer to 50 50. It's not 50 50. It's closer. So I think you're hurt. Right. So the question then could be why. And I think it all comes back to how defenses are playing. This is the essential ingredient to me. So I think because 11 personnel three receiver looks became the norm, nickel quarterbacks became the norm. The base defense of three linebackers is gone. Now it's smaller players. So where's the weakness? Making that Mike, Mike, you sand were still making that 180 pound cornerback that's lined up not too far from line of scrimmage. Make him play in the run game. That's where your advantage is for years. The advantage was my tight end on your whatever, my third receiver is better than your third corner. I can line my number one receiver up in a stack formation and have him beat your second or third best corner now because of the prevalence of zone keeping everybody back, have everything be in front of you, passing yards or down for multiple reasons. One, there aren't as many deep shots or as many, you know, intermediate to deep shots. The reasons for that, one, defense are taken away, two, nobody wants to get the quarterback hit. Three, I don't know the offensive line play without all the preseason and cohesion and all the turnover is as good. So I think you just said preseason. I want to, I want to mention that in a little more detail. To me, the two major areas are how defenses are playing, which you were just referencing and we can continue to talk about. And also the lack of preseason. I don't think a lack of preseason makes it harder to get your running game going. I think a lack of preseason though, makes it harder for the timing in the passing game. This is not my own opinion. This is something coaches have told me. This is something players have told me. But what do you always hear about? You hear about timing, right? Especially in past pro, we were talking with Austin Eckler yesterday, getting on the same page with the guy next to you or everybody's assignment being known in the guard and the tackle and the center being on the same page. That comes with time and reps and game reps, frankly. So I think past protection is hindered by a lack of preseason. I think the passing game in general with the timing with your receiver, knowing how guys are going to break in, break out when they like to stem and cut things off and throttle it down and sit in a zone. All those types of things I think Danny are affected by the preseason player movement makes it necessary that you have these guys making plays in the preseason and teams have kind of opted against it. I think that's a big part of it, to be honest with you. And that part can be fixed in a month, in two months. Maybe not, if defenses are still playing you the same way, maybe it's not going to come all the way back. But that part of it is a right now problem, not a sustainable all year problem. So then, yeah, so you would see some growth as the season progresses, but it's not getting back to 2021 levels, for example. I think another contributing factor, central pass rush, it used to be where your pass rushes on the outside interior guys, defensive tackles are smart cars. They're Gilbert Brown. It occupies many blockers as possible. It's Lawrence Taylor. It's, you know, JJ Watt off the edge. Now that's not now the second, but Aaron Donald for so many years. And then, you know, the Dexter Lawrence is the Leonard Williams is the interior defensive lineman, sometimes in a 34, sometimes in a 43. The shortest distance to get to the quarterback to interrupt these passing games is straight ahead. That's true. Like 10 years ago, I'm not saying there were no great defensive tackles, but heck five years ago, I would say that when you thought defensive tackle, run stuffing, beefy, block attracting, you know, smart car, basically, right now guys are pass rushes. And if you're not, you're not getting drafted early. So like when Doron Payne was taken in the top 15, the big question was, is this guy going to be able to rush the quarterback or see more of a run stuffing type? I think a lot of guys at that position now are the best pass rushes on their team, to your point. Cause that was the weak link of the offensive line, the, the right, the left hackles make in 20 million bucks. Well, the left guard is fourth round Freddie, who's, you know, fits the scheme and is probably Corey Liechtenstiger, wherever, wherever Mike Shanahan goes. That's the weak link in terms of pass pro. So it's, it's a live chess match where defenses for years got tired of being on highlight reels and said, okay, fine. Here's what we're taking away. And I think it really would ushered in this new era quite frankly is Pat Mahomes. And that Kansas city offense. What teams realized was if you try to play them straight up, you can blitz them, you can do anything under the sun, they're going to kill you. They're going to be, you punch you in the gut until they get that big play. And then that's the game, then you lose. So they said never ever over the top. They are permanently to borrow baseball parlance in no doubles defense, which means nothing over your head. Everything is going to be in front and front and front and front and front. You combine that with lighter boxes, easier run looks and you're seeing prolific run totals through a couple of weeks from multiple teams, think of Green Bay. They threw 14 passes and one a football game, handing them off to Josh Jacobs 32 times. That's unheard of in our recent era, but that's the best way to do it because of the way the events are. So speaking of Green Bay, what about this? All right. Malik Willis started that game for the Packers. Malik Willis completed 12 passes in that win. I haven't looked at his spray chart, but I'd be willing to bet a lot of them were out of around the line of scrimmage, right? Yep. Something to what is an obvious philosoph, a philosophical shift in the NFL to the more athletic quarterback. I wouldn't call it the running quarterback because there's only a few guys that run a lot. But as an example, right now, there are two games. There are four quarterbacks in the NFL that have over 20 rushing attempts, like come on their way to 170 attempts. I don't think it's going to happen that way. Frankly, all four won't stay healthy, but Jayden Daniels, Jalen Hurts, Justin Fields, Mar Jackson have all run the ball more than some starting running backs through two games this season, but in the league, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, you just didn't see quarterbacks running as much. And what I think teams have figured out as you don't want to statue in the pocket. You don't want some flat footed dude who's just a thrower of the football. You want a dual threat. You want an athlete. Everybody's trying to find two time, you know, MVP Lamar Jackson or, or maybe even if it's more Josh Allen, let's say, but someone who you who can do both. Like I even after those guys that run all the time, Allen, Daniel Jones, Kyler Murray, Anthony Richardson, it seems to me like we were at a point as we've gone toward the athletic quarterback, a guy like Bo Nix or or Zach Wilson coming out. One of the reasons they get over, they get overdrafted a little bit or people like them more is because they can run. They can scramble. They can elude the pocket that it used to be like, who is that guy? Ryan Mallet. He's no longer with us, right? Am I right about that tragically? I hope I am. I don't know. I don't know. I'll look that up. But like that guy as an example, um, you know, those big like six foot seven inch, two hundred and seventy five, yeah, exactly. That's gone. I mean, you can't be drafted now if you just have like, remember, Zach Mettenberger, I was a big fan out of at LSU, yeah, immobile that that is a endangered species. But I think there's something to like if we, can you have your cake and eat it too? If we're going with the quarterbacks that are going to run more, doesn't that naturally mean passing numbers are going to come down to and a quarter of the league, if you think about it, if you're talking about Daniels Hertz fields, um, Alan, maybe is on that list or Daniel Jones, a little less design carry stuff for him. Tyler Murray, Anthony Richardson, or it's like that type of quarterback that is more of a playmaker with their feet too. Is there something to that? Do you think? A hundred percent. Again, this, this is not a one size fits all solution as to why it's happening. We know it's happened, right? The numbers, the numbers, as you said, although I will say, I'm just thinking about this now with young quarterbacks. We're saying you can't be a straight pocket passer. They're in a pocket passer really more so like by definition and CJ shroud right now. I mean, you know what I mean, he's an athlete, he can move around, but he basically, you know where he's going to be all the time. I think he's got four rushing attempts through two games. That's about where he's going to be. Yeah, he scrambles to throw and he is right now outside of Patrick Mahomes like the number two guy that you would started an organization with at the position. So maybe if you're special enough, it'll work, but I think largely everybody's looking for. It's the easy button. The guy who can run, right? Yeah, you look like a genius when you're still able to move the ball despite your offense not working. It's a fun for Washington, right? The offense did not work. And yet they were in the football game through three quarters because Jay Daniels had 80 some yard scrambling, right? So I think that's a contributing factor. I mean, to me, there's a whole bunch of trends that have kind of culminated in this where passing is down and doesn't mean that you've stopped passing altogether. It just means that we need to adjust to the idea that the league is different than it was just a couple of years ago. This trend is like a violent regression or pendulum swing in the opposite direction where as a handful of seasons ago, if you looked at, I can't remember, I'm just making up years, 2019 numbers versus 2010 numbers, you'd go, Oh my God. And then you go back to the 80s where I'm going, do Joe Montana is the best I ever saw. And you're like, in the 3600 yards and 24 touchdowns. Yeah. What's exceptional about that? It's just a different time. So it reminds me. Now in one, like people look at batting averages in baseball with this disdain. And they don't think about the fact that in this era, nobody hits for average. So CJ Abrams, let's just say, if he were to hit 244 at the end of the year, someone would look at that and go, Oh my God, Abrams, he can't hit yet 244. That's three points above league batting average. You see what I'm saying? That's an above average batting average because the league hits 241. Well, 30 years ago, the league probably hit 273. So yeah, that was 30 points below that. That's the equivalent now of 210. And so my point is you do have to calibrate for that. The problem I have a little bit is it's a chicken or the egg thing to some extent. Like some of the teams where passing is down are they're down by design. In other words, the commanders just as an example through two games while they've thrown it. Okay. I'm not suggesting they haven't done enough through the air in terms of yardage that they're doing it for top half the league production, believe it or not. But if you go into a game going, we're going to run the ball, we're going to design seven runs for Daniels. You scramble another four times or whatever, you're setting yourself up, not to go out and throw for 250 or 300. Like the dolphins last year didn't have much of a problem. They threw for 4,700 yards. The lions with Jared Goff and they don't have Tyree kill or Jalen waddle walking through that door. 4,600 passing yards last year, that threw for 4,500. The teams that major in it still have that club in the bag to is not leaving the pocket and running. Jared Goff anytime soon ain't beaten anybody with his feet. Like Prescott, it's kind of, you know, where he's going to be, he's standing there delivering the football. And I think that that's still, if you want to do it, there's still a way to do it. I just think more teams are going, doesn't have to be that way. There's another way to do it. And I would add one more data point for me and this again, it's harder to prove. But I think we've now where the latest innovations have happened and it's harder for us to see because it's, you know, not, you're not getting some of the passing yardage with it is the sophistication of some of these running games. For years, it was the Shanahan train. It was this great mysteries to how to do it. Well, then that kind of spread. You see a lot of these same stretch plays and zone looks and some of the blocking techniques and things that have translated to really, really good running backs used to be this urban legend. Like it was Ryan terrain or a Landis Gary or whoever Mike Shanahan's going to have a run for a thousand yards. Well, look what you mentioned. I mean, look what they do for got six. I mean, Devin Hian runs for nine yards a carry last year. And Raheem Mostard who nobody wanted was running for over a thousand yards. Wherever they plug and play runs into clear amounts of space, how sophisticated they are because of the threat of motion, the threat of, you know, some of those plaques and looks to Tyree kill or Jalen Waddell, Mike McDonald's an offensive genius, not because he gets his playmakers who are really fast, the ball in space, but because these running games are gouging people, we're better now at running the football, especially against these light boxes and looks that are designed to prevent passing. And you're seeing more of it. Well, look at the Chiefs, the Chiefs are the whole point. It's all started with the Chiefs, right, as we, as we referenced, but it was a few years ago when everyone decided, okay, Patrick Mahomes has thrown for 50 touchdowns and 41 touchdowns to lead the NFL over the last few years. He just threw for 50, 200 yards and it was a second 5,000 yard season. What are we going to do with this team? And basically they said, it's going to get a lot harder. You're not going to get 30, 40 and 50 at a time. You're going to have to go on these 10 to 12 play drives we talked about. So last year, Patrick Mahomes threw for 1067 fewer yards than one year earlier. Now he played in one fewer game. So if you take his game average of 220 yards, it was like an 800 yard difference for him from 2022 to 2023. His touchdowns went from 41 to 27. So basically again, with the average, you could say 11 fewer touchdowns for Patrick Mahomes last year to go along with 800 fewer yards. It was a lot more Isaiah Pacheco. It's a physical run the ball, kind of different looking Chiefs team. Now they also went from 14 wins to 10 wins, which is not lost on me, right? But they played a style that for them, they felt like they had to to move the ball and it worked pretty well for defenses for the record. Instead of giving up the home runs and the doubles and the triples, the singles with some penalties with the fumble with the pick, they did a better job to the tune of winning and more games against Kansas City and them being a little less prolific. So it's all part of it. There's no doubt in my mind, but at the risk of making too big about two weeks, I think it is last year and this year last year, not to this extent, but it's basically a year now in a couple of weeks of seeing traction in this regard. 11 of Mahomes is 18 completion, 61% were behind the line of scrimmage this past week in their game in week two, 11 of 18. You know, that's that's kind of what we're talking about with Daniel, 129 of 151 passing yards, 85% were from yards after the catch. I mean, they're doing kind of the same thing. Cliff Kingsbury's doing with Andy Reed in Kansas City right now. The question for you guys is, why do you think this is happening? And do you think this will sustain all year or is this just a couple of weeks start to the season that will forget about a couple months down the road with passing being so much harder to come by and the numbers being suppressed, 806361067 is the number on Grant and Danny here on the fan. 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 562-314-460-3 for details. I don't know what song this is. Clary, what do you got here? It's like very, um, yeah, this wasn't my best song choice. Oh, we're fine. What is? I just want to know what it is. Heathens. I was going to say chain smokers. It sounds like something that they do. Just one of the ones you've requested in the past. Never wants no. Okay. I would. That's not on my request list. You don't think so? Whatever this is, it's not for me. I do know Dares did add some music to, uh, to the page here. So I'm going to throw Dares in on the bus. This is a Dares. Why does it sound like a buses backing up on the guy that isn't here today? I know. Sorry, Dares. Great. And Danny, welcome you back on the fan coming up in a half hour at four. A clock. We are giving away those tickets. We told you about the HFS level, uh, there's going to be an awesome show at Nat's Park this weekend and you can go. We got those tickets for you. Also at six o'clock tonight, we're going to be giving away tickets to the caps 50 fest to celebrate 50 years of capitals. Hockey. A lot of players are there and a pretty cool performance as well from Third Eye Blind. So make sure you are listening at six. If you want those tickets here on Grant and Danny, we've been diving into the trend in the NFL through two weeks that passing yards and touchdowns are way, way down. Passing production is declining and it seems like rushing production is excelling here over these first couple of weeks. Here's a Warren Sharp stat. It's pretty amazing. This was from the summer that I was just sent by somebody on Twitter, uh, at Grant H Paulson for me had funny Danny for DR average length of Patrick Mahomes touchdown passes. 2019 17.3 ariards 2020 13.0 ariards 2021 8.5 ariards seems to be going down 2022 4.5 ariards and then he didn't give the number in 2023. But he said last year Mahomes through 41 touchdowns, only one traveled more than 19 yards. So it's kind of showing you that the league decided not anymore, man, not the way you like to do it. You're still going to do it, but it's going to be the unfun way. Do it your own way, maybe, uh, occasionally and you're going to turn the ball over a bunch or you can do it our way and still do it. It's just going to take a lot more work. And that seems to be, I mean, it's, it listen, you're still going to get beat at times. I mean, they won the damn Super Bowl. So it's not as if it was foolproof, but it is more effective. The point is you're going, you're going to get beaten. How would you like to do it? I'm not making it easy on you to be less fun of a watch around the league. To a degree. Yes. For me, it's way less fun. I don't think it's a mystery to people. Your boy likes throwing the football. That's kind of always been what I prefer, what I like and for a long time. That's how you won. We'll see if that's the case this year, not as the numbers kind of bear out, but it's not like I don't like watching a run in the football. It's fine. It can just lead to messy or regular games when everyone's got to go on these 13 to 15 play drives. Scoring's going to be down though, because as we found out this weekend for the one millionth time, points do not come from the running game. You can run for 200 plus yards if you want to Washington, Green Bay. Points come from the passing game and explosives in the big plays. That's why defenses are doing this. Let's go to Lance who's an Annapolis on GND. Hey, Lance, how are you? Well, guys, how are you? Good. So yeah, I think that the trend is going to continue just like everything else where, you know, you have your, you know, it was running game back in the day and then of course, you know, turn it to a passing game. I think that a lot of this too is the offensive coordinators trying to take advantage of the defenses that probably been drafted more or less like the speedy type of lighter type of linebackers. So I love like what the commanders are doing when they run that pistol and you got a bull dog like Brian Roberts and then you got the other threat with Jane Daniels, but you have the field spread out and it just seems like it gives those guys a lot of room to run. So I, I think the trend will continue. Plus it's the second week of the season. I think a lot of the offenses are trying to get their feet underneath of them. Appreciate you buddy. You sleep on a former Danny Rudy, a teammate opponent and Oreo, Brian Roberts also in Washington's backfield. I need to hear more about teammate. I've never heard about that. I just know you played him at South Carolina very, very briefly. He was there for a game in Waynesboro. Seriously. Yeah. The summer like it. What do you remember there? No, not at all. But you remember being on the Waynesboro team? No. I mean, played, played for like some real teams. I would think that it's like, hey, didn't you play on that team when you're in college? Oh, yeah. He might remember like Chad Tracy or some of the other like big leaguers. They're on that team. I was at his pro debut as big league debut. I should say with the Orioles, a multi hit game, one of my favorite second baseman. But yeah, I mean, look, it's the commanders are well built for this. There's no doubt. If this is the trend, when you, you've got a running based on having a quarterback that can run, they're going to be a really good running offense because you add his numbers to the equation, you see what the Ravens and the commanders with Griffin years ago and all these teams have done that all accounts for rushing. Now, even if you take that away with just their running backs, it's going to be really effective because you're going 11 on 11 hat on a hat stuff. They're well positioned. Now you got to hit on some of those Aldrich Robinson home runs if you can, if they're going to take that away, Zach Earth should feast and he should live in the middle of the field. Those throws should be there. Let's go to John who's on the beltway on G and D. What's up, buddy? All right, guys, I was just wondering whether anybody given any thought to the fact that we're down to three preseason games and most of the time, the number one players weren't playing and so now we come into the first two weeks of the season and it's almost like the first game was the extra exhibition game that normally we might have some first line players playing, but then it just, it seems to me that that's got to have some significant effect on how these offenses are working out. Oh, I'm sure of it. Yeah, and you may have jumped in kind of midway through our combo, but yeah, it was brought up last segment. I think the number one reason for what we're seeing to succinctly kind of recap what we had said is the way defenses are playing offenses and you're taking what's given to you and what is easier to you. That's number one. Number two, to me, is the lack of preseason, which I think is a mismanagement by these teams and it's a mistake that they are making. But the bangles, think about how much better they looked in week two than week one. They essentially took the preseason off as a team. You know, guys like Jamar Chase, T Higgins, they didn't show up. They didn't practice. And I'm talking about in camp period, but the preseason was a non starter. The Falcons basically said preseason, who needs that? They got beaten, looked terrible in week one week two. They looked way, way, way, way better and won the football game. They cost themselves a win probably against Pittsburgh. You think they might need that as a semi middling team in a division where there's two teams that are two and oh, I think that was a terrible decision by them to not play their quarterback or a lot of their best players in the preseason at all. Washington didn't play John Allen in the Ron Payne in the preseason for one snap or Wagner for that matter among others. I haven't noticed John Allen without having to go back to watch the all 22 once in real time in two games. Pain has had two nice rushes that have led to sacks, but John Allen's been library quiet. The Ron Payne's been pretty much whisper quiet. Would they have been better off with preseason action? I don't know, but I don't think it would be worse necessarily. I think they're probably still getting in a game shape in some way, kind of getting their bearings down their traction down. So yeah, I definitely think the preseason is a huge part of my theory. So it's less mine, but I do think it's a factor. I think, again, I think there's a million dish, uh, ingredients in this spot in any way. I mean, you're pro not playing in the preseason anyway. So in the same way, when I look at things like I'm looking through the lens of my prior, is that any part of it yours? So I'm obviously trying to be honest about that. I'm trying to figure that out. I mean, to me, this is more about paradigm and we're throwing it, we're running it more than we're throwing it, which is less about preseason activity or otherwise or being precise. I don't think imprecision or bad timing is contributing to water down passing. I think you don't think that passing offenses aren't as if like are just not as sharp. I think it's, again, that's, I think it's a factor, but I don't think it's in anywhere near as big as maybe 10 others, because I think defenses are going, you're not doing this. And no amount of practice is going to let you do it. Like three years ago, there were seven running backs that ran for a thousand yards. Last year, there were 14, the year before that there were 16, like that's the trend. We're running it now. Like we, like you and I are kind of, I don't want to speak for you, but I'm just sort of now waking up to this. I'm going, Hey, wait a minute. This is, this is a trend. This isn't just some mirage. This is real. Everybody took the, this is how we'll stop pat my home's defense and we're doing it for everybody. Right. We're not going to cross the board, not just in week one and two, because nobody plays in the preseason. But the chiefs play in the preseason and my home's plays in the preseason and they get off to the fast starts offensively throwing the football and you know that they are the team that seems to be still putting up really good numbers. The lions similarly with Jared Goff, like he doesn't have to play in the preseason. It's been with the same coordinator in the same offense year after year. It's interesting to me that some of those teams do the best jobs early. Let's go to Kevin who's in Arlington on GND. What's up, Kevin? Hey, guys, so wonderful discussion. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I do think the preseason inactivity, I'll just call it, is certainly a contributing factor. But if you were to ask me, well, and the thing is I think there's a multiplicity of factors, like not even just two or three. It's probably more like 10 or 12 and combined, you're seeing a sea change in how the game is being played. But let me, let me just side a couple that I spotted in some research I've been doing on this. Here's one I think that's really important. College isn't a good training ground for offensive lineman anymore. College offenses are spread happy, they're fast, they don't need the in-ground grit. You see, with running the ball, there's just all these offensive line deficiencies where pass blocking is so much harder than run blocking. It's not a sexy position. We're in an age of NIL and portal and athletic guys, because increasingly the linemen aren't as big as they were, they're much more mobile. It's almost like O-line is one of the last positions of resort. Some people say playing O-line is almost as difficult, but not as difficult, of course, as quarterback. I really think it's with what's happening in the O-line. The lack of practice, the lack of tackling, the inability to hold a line together, injury, I mean, go on and on. The O-line play just is not up to snuffing the point. I think the college observation you made, Kev, is really smart. O-line play in the NFL is not particularly good, but in college, you could say that to an even greater extent, and I would go back to the idea of how many traditional dropback passing games do you really see in college anymore. It's so rare to me. I guess you'd call Michigan that under Harbaugh, but it's like there's a handful where they go, "This is truly a pro style." Exactly. Everybody else is spread air rate sideways. It's mostly spread in '11, and Sunday games looking more like the Saturday game, but it's a lot of running the football at the quarterback position and all that, and I just, I don't think it can be possible that we could be majoring in all of that without losing anything in the passing. Does that make sense? You can't do both on one play. Totally. I think that's part of the factor as well. This was just sent to me again at Grand H. Paulson at Funny Danny. Brian Robinson had 17 runs against the Giants, 14 of them, 82% came against six or fewer defenders in the box. So the Giants, because Cliff Kingsbury's spreading you out with 11 personnel, at least, three receivers at times, they've got receivers all over the formation. Brian Robinson's getting these looks against six-man fronts where if Jayden Daniels is as smart as we know he is, and he did this a few times, RPOs, you can pull it and throw it out wide, but he's going to go, let me check to this run real quick, because I got this light box. And against men in the box, six or fewer, 14 for 88 for Brian Robinson. There you go. Now, interestingly, he had 45 yards on three carries with seven or more, but that was a 40 yard carry. Do you remember that when everyone's piled up and he, and he bounced? It was like two and a half a pop before the one he would have been tackled for a two-yard game for a first ounce. It would have been like, you know, three carries for six yards or whatever, but I think that's pretty telling and instructive specific to what we watched for Washington this week. It's a good conversation and something we'll keep revisiting as we go on this year. Double play is next. What's going on in our lives? Nothing to do with sports. And then we're blitzing at the top of the hour in about 15 minutes when we are giving away those tickets to the HFS level on Grant and Danny. Welcome back to Grant and Danny. We're live on the fan all over DC, 106-7, and in Richmond, AM-910, FM-1051. You can watch the show on our 106-7, the fan YouTube channel. We're streaming live each and every day. So what's up chat? Thank you for being a part of this program. However, you're checking us out on a C app, wherever you go, take it with you, make sure it is downloaded. A lot of ways to listen to the program. It's time for our double play. What's going on in our lives? Nothing to do with sports. Driveny by your local Washington area, Honda dealers, Danny, stopping for a great deal. On the rugged and capable Honda pilot, contact your local Washington area, Honda dealers, today. On the left yesterday, GP, you said, "What are you up to tonight?" Right? And I told you I was playing to pick up basketball and you said, "Predict the stat line." So I did. It was joking around and I kind of gave them a mock one. But actually thought to myself, "Why don't I try to remember this? Why don't I chronicle it?" So I did. In between, we put four games last night from eight to 10, which is a lot of running for-- Full court, half court. Full court. So it's an all elementary school, so it's not your big full distance, and it was four on four. You played to 11? Yeah. One of them things where it's like a full real high school court with like space between the three-point line and out of bounds line, there's some graceful out there. But four on four, and so it's not the full-- you know, as I said, it's not the full. I'm still exhausted though, sore, tired, et cetera. So I kept track if you want some of the numbers from last night. I would love them. So what I do in between the games is I'm getting water drying my face off with my microfiber towel. I put in my phone just to say, "I'm pretty sure I got these right, so I'm gonna do my best." First game was a scuffle. Okay. Two out of nine. Shoot me? From the field. Yeah. Zero three balls. All right. These are bricks. I was off. It was terrible. You know, after one, I missed badly. One of my teammates was like, "It's okay. Keep shooting." I'm like, "I don't know if I should do that at this point. It's not feeling good." I made two breakaway layups, like one off a steal, and one where a teammate found me. I missed another bunny. Like, not shooting well. I'm like, "All right. Let's get everyone else involved. Let's figure it out." So very bad shooting start. Really worried it was gonna be the entire night. Game two, for whatever reason. Saved the evening. Okay. I'm not kidding you. I'm not just saying this to hype myself up. All right. Yeah. So it's me and some other guys in our 40s and early 50s playing some pickup basketball. Whatever. Seven out of eight. Okay. Four threes. Okay. In this second game. I scored all 11 points for the team. So we win. We go to 11. I had 11. The other team had less than 11. All 11. I had all 11. How good was this team? We won the game. I mean, we won. We were pretty good. I got hot. We were pretty fortunate. So now one terrible game, one really, really good game. Obviously go seven for eight. That's pretty good. Game three got started to get a little tired. Four out of nine. Hit a couple twos. AKA threes. Three balls, right? And the third game ended up with the game winner but was five for 11 missed a couple chances to win it but ended up sinking one to knock it down overall in the night 18 out of 37 rough approximate decent shooting night 48 percent. We'll take it. But that first game was tough. Yeah. But the second game made up for it. That's what I did last night. You've got your own stats from your pickup basket. Yeah. No, I don't know. Like a sis. There's so many turnovers in there. Like passes. I'm like, ah, shoot man, I almost but like, you know, is there a website where we could track your numbers? No, I don't think we're posted it up. You're not doing that. No, week one, I was. When does 22 all the all 10 come out so I can watch it? I should do some video. I should like just put my phone up and like get a possession or two and then share it with the group. I'll do that next time. Make sure I have to ask all these guys if they consent to have a good chance to not want it. There's a lot of elbow pads and a lot of isn't it just sweaty old guys? Yeah. I mean, it's mostly. So this group and I'm joking. I'm one of the two or three oldest guys that are there mostly upper thirties and right around 40 for this group. But all all former wall players all pretty decent shooting close to 50 percent knocking down some threes having a game where you scored every point. Yeah. I feel really good about that night. I felt I honestly feel pretty good because that second game happened. I mean, that that was if I'm being honest, really impressive. Oh, no, I fired up kidding, but it was really impressive. Are you? No, I mean, it was really impressive. It was. I mean, I got hot and was it a beautiful one of the texts through my couldn't? You know what I mean? I was just bottoms. Sorry. Throwing them up there. Grant and Danny on the fan. A coming your way as the show continues top of the hour. We're giving away tickets to the H F festival head of the Beltway Blitz at five o'clock. Today we are tackling the NFC East. So make sure you're listening at that time for the latest in the Cowboys Giants Eagles. We'll look ahead to week three in the NFL and at six o'clock tonight, we got the caps 50 fast tickets for you. That's the third line show with all the current and former capital showing up to celebrate 50 years of capitals hockey. Everybody in town who likes hockey is going to try to get there. We've got tickets exclusively all week long on Grant and Danny will give two away at six o'clock tonight. You're listening to the fan 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 562-314-4603 for details. (upbeat music)