Grant and Danny
Full Show- Friday, September 6th, 2024
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Minimum of four lines for $25 per line per month without a paid discount using debit or bank account, $5 more per line without auto pay plus taxes and fees and $10 device connection charge. Phone to be a 24-monthly bill credits for well qualified customers. Contact us before canceling entire accounts to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on a required finance agreement to bill credits and if you pay off devices early, ctmobile.com. Hey Mike Vellini here, host a cash to ticket alongside my partner, Jim Costa. It's really simple. Are you tired of podcasts claiming they're a bunch of pro betters when they live in their mommy's basement? Are you tired of podcasts that claim they had 80% of the games? When really, they just lose like most of us. Think cash to tickets the spot for you. We're real, we're transparent, we're having a hell of a good time with it, and we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys. We're just trying to figure it out just like you. Follow and listen to cash the ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, football Friday. What's up and welcoming. It is time on Grant and Danny to get you ready for the first weekend in the National Football League. I don't even know what to do with my arms. I can't even control myself. I'm so excited. TJ Reeves, who works the sideline for bucks radio joins us to preview Sunday's game with Tampa and Michael Lombardi, who is both one of our favorite guests and the quickest anger upper number one in the history of Grant and Danny guests. So Ryan Good luck trying to get a thank you into Michael Lombardi. He stops by at 330 today on the fan. Ladies and gentlemen, on this football Friday, I present to you. Happy haircut. Danny Ruye. I thought that was a great start to the show. Unfortunately, illegal formation, you were about six inches to the right of where you're supposed to be. Let's run it back and do it all over again. Enough of that. Enough. Stop it. One time is fine. Maybe two. Let's not do this every 14 seconds. Stop it. NFL. You're too good. You're too good for that crap. Now that's my last complaint. The football. She's a good. Well, before we get to the good, can we complain a little more? Enough. Enough. Enough. Enough of this. The beginning of that game and the flags being thrown. A couple of the penalties, you're just sending a message. It's pretty clear the tackle is about a yard and a half in the line of scrimmage in the backfield, whatever. There was one. The last one they called, not a penalty, not in any way. The tackle is splitting the guard in half, essentially. You're just doing it to do it. All I can hope, Danny, is that they threw so many flags in the early going of the first standalone game with the world watching that that was there. Let's just send the message here and now moment and we're not going to get that on Sunday as we're watching all these other games because it did. Unwatchable is too strong. I watched every second. I watched it so injected every piece of it into my veins like it was an IV, but enough. Enough. There was a Rep Show and we were just, we didn't know what to do. When do I get to watch my homes? Where is Lamar Jackson? It's the Ravens and the Chiefs and the Hercules and who am I supposed to be rooting for? That was brutal last night in the early going with all the flags and it felt like they were going to, here's what it felt like to me. You never, you ever had that happen where you like you go into some sort of rural town as like a visitor playing a sport, like some sort of sport, whether it's baseball or football, otherwise, and the head coach and the ref are buds and the head coach is like, I want you to watch out from number 74. All right. What he's going to do is he's going to line up weird, he's going to line up wrong, or he's going to hold a bunch and they go, I got you coach, I'll see you at the diner after the game and it just throw it on him and it'll throw it on the, I did what there, no Chiefs guys were ever doing it. Nobody lined up a little bit weird to try to deal with David Ojabo. Nobody one time was an inch and a half further back than they should have been or something like that. It felt very Ravens. Well, by the way, I don't want to say the sole reason for the rule or the crackdown, but one of the biggest reasons was the habitual offender who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. Who regularly last year would line up a yard and a half off the ball and coaches would complain and routinely would start early, which you see with tackles all the time. Nobody more so than Lane Johnson with the Philadelphia Eagles. They didn't seem to care about that. No, it's not bothered. But yeah, it was strange. And again, I'm not going to sit here most weeks and just complain about officiating. It's not like I'm talking about, oh, they threw too many flags on a holding or off sides or, you know, I don't like that they call the pass interference. This was a procedural issue you had with the left tackle being six inches too far into the backfield. Relax football, man. I've been waiting for months for this, almost as long as a woman carries a human baby. We've been waiting for this game. Get out of my way and let me enjoy the thing that I love right now. It reminds me of the Trey Turner play in the World Series, where if something so egregious, like the guys running down the first baseline, but he's three or four steps onto the grass to the left of the foul line and the throw hits him in the shoulder and he'd have been out by 10 feet. Okay, let's call him out for running out of the baseline. Other than that, shut up and stop it. The adults are here to do the high level sport. If Ronnie Stanley is lining up like a fullback, you know what I mean? If he's like an offset wing tee, tight end that's gone in motion and he's, you know, he's a two yards behind and his head is not even even with the butt of the center. You got him. You got me totally fine. I've noticed that's bad. There were two, again, I think there were four total. There were two or three of those where I'm going, that was imperceptible compared to every other formation of the other play. Why, why, why, why, why, why, just bad, why, but now we're being negative. Okay, that's it. That's it. We had football last night. Yes. Now I'm good. We don't need to start the show with negativity. No, we shouldn't. I'm going to clean it up. I'm going to turn things positive to it because I'm in such a good mood. My son came to the door today, never, ever, ever says goodbye. I always say, hey, buddy, daddy's going to work. Can I have a hug? And he goes, no, he's like, I don't care. Can I have a kiss? And he's like, no. And then I walk out the door. Today, he ran to the door. He opened the door and he said, have a good day at work. Wow. And I was like, wow. And they said, dad, dad. And I turned around, he goes, make sure you have a good day at work. Oh, he doubled down. He's certain. So between that and the football being back, you're boys feeling good. So I'm going to go around the room here with compliments. Okay. Oh, just dudes given compliments. Danny. First compliment to you. You got a haircut today. I did. You're looking fresh. Thanks. You hate the sides of your head. Yes, I do. When there's like those feathery hairs. And so you tell them to take them all off. They're all gone. They're gone. They look good. Congratulations. Look, okay. Thank you. Daris, you're always so sweet. You're just a nice lad. I'm happy to see your smile and face today. Ryan, you brought us cookies yesterday. I mean, you're very handsome. You look like the guy in Twister's name, Glenn Powell. Men want to be you. Women want to be with you. Okay, that kind of in you. So there's the compliments for everybody in the room. Now let's get to the program. All right. Everyone is in a good mood. Yeah. That was nice. Wasn't that nice? Chiefs was nice. Raven's Danny. Got it was good. Why is the sport so popular? Why do people care so much? Why are these guys making such a big deal that it's coming back? It came down to a half of one inch last night. If a absolute beast, Isaiah likely, what a performance. Yeah, that was growing up. So what a coming out party it was for him. Nine grabs 111 yards and a touchdown. And some mauling I hop amount of pancake blocks from him last night. But if he wears a shoe size, one size smaller, the Ravens tie the game, you know, they were going for two to get away. You saw Harbaugh with the deuces. He put them right up. So let's go. You saw that one coming like four minutes out. Oh, sure. I'm sure everybody would have reacted the first Friday after the season opener. Very reasonably had the Ravens had gone for two in loss or based on Lamar's performance or whatever else everyone's going to be chewing up left and right today. But it came down to one inch as we remat ran back the rematch of the AFC championship game. Just perfect. Just perfect. So a couple things, just notes on the possession. I don't know when it became the paradigm, but I think it has. I'm the I'm the old dinosaur that's going spike it, spike it, spike it, spike it. And no one seems to have any interest in it. Mike to Rico and Chris Collinsworth on the broadcast. Rico asked Collinsworth. Wouldn't that have made sense to maybe ground the ball there and spike in Collinsworth had sort of muttered some sort of axiom or platitude of they got a score anyway or something. His point was so wrong. And frankly, just dumb. So to Rico asked him and you're talking about the Ravens get the ball down on the big catch. Huge player shot baby fingertip catch. Unbelievable stuff. The play ends with around 29 or 30 seconds left on the clock. Go inside the 10 yard line. And now the whole formation, including all the big boys that are out of breath that have been working hard all drive long have to jog down 30 yards, line up inside the 10, get a snap off and spike it. If you spike it, you save yourself. What would you guess 15 seconds? Well, it ended up, they finally snapped the ball after getting everybody organized with 19 seconds left. That play takes well, Jackson scrambles around a little bit moves, then throws an incompletion where likely comes down awkward and hurts himself. There's nine seconds left. Then there's only 10 seconds left. Right. But my point is there was 10 seconds of play that they ran. But if you're not getting organized, calling a play, lining guys up and you just run down and you're just using whatever your code word is for spike, apple, apple, apple, apple, and you get up to the line and you spike it, I think they would have saved themselves 15 seconds. Absolutely. I would say at least, but to Rico asks his analyst, who's very good, Chris Collinsworth, hey, should they have spiked it there? And Collinsworth, to your point said, oh, you got to score either way. So, you know, they still have a couple more plays. The clock is the most important thing there. His point was, well, they would have run one play with the spike and they ran one play. Anyway, so what's the difference? The difference is there's time left. After the incompletion to likely you now have a fourth downplay. So I thought his point was outrageously incorrect. Agreed. So you set up this amazing moment because, of course, it had to come down to that, right? The two minute drill, such as it was Baltimore wasted timeouts on defense earlier in the half. Again, that's another thing that I'll never understand that coach, how and why coaches do that. As good as John Harbaugh is, that's a bit of a Harbaugh state. Yeah. In a close game against a good opponent, I can't ever do that. There's got to be something egregious. Like they'll score if I don't do this. It's not worth five yards, it's not worth a delay a game to me. In the second half, that timeout in a close game, I'm going to need it on offense. And if I don't use it, fine, but I need to always save them for that. The drama was just so good. But the drama was perfect. Likely on a couple plays before that. So there was a three-place sequence at the end thrown to the end zone. Deep shot corner of the end zone to likely who was open. If Lamar makes a good throw, it's a touchdown. Overthrows it back at the end zone, tries to make a leaping catch. It's violently shoved to the ground. I thought he broke his hand. I thought it was a wrist. I mean, I mean, as a ribs sounded like he dislocated something and then popped it back in. Two plays later is right back on the field. Now the play in the middle there, the sandwich play with Zayflowers wide open in the back of the end zone. Lamar missing him by six feet behind him. A little bit of a miscommunication where he thought he'd throttle it down. Zay was just kind of running into space in the back of the paint. So they missed there. And then the final play was the throw to likely. Here's how it sounded last night on NBC on the National Telecast. Let's make sure. Oh, very close. Is there enough to overturn? That's wrong. That's on the line, isn't it? I think Terry McCauley's gonna have to make this call, but it looks like that toes on the line, Terry. I agree completely. The right toes on the line. It's out of bounds. This is going to be reversed to an incomplete pass. Oh, my goodness. So that's how it sounded last night on NBC. Few things there. Mike three goes the best. Yeah, just awesome. Second, I do like Collins worth a lot, but Terry McCauley does not have to make that call. My mom or your dad or anybody's nephew could have made that call. His cleat was clearly on the chalk. Jackson after the game, I don't know if you saw said he thought it was a touchdown and he still thinks it's a touchdown. And to that, I would say, no, it wasn't because his cleat landed on the paint on the white chalk out of bounds in the back of the end zone, but does not change what would have been an amazing play by quarterback and the tight end, an amazing drive in the end. Chiefs win 27 to 20. Just rapid fire thoughts on the game really quick. Some things that I jotted down. I want to know what you thought. Football's the best. That was the first thing. Lamar is not going to last 17 games running that much. That seemed like maybe a game plan thing, I guess. He ran the ball 16 times last night for 122 yards. That's not going to work over 17 games. He also lost 15 pounds so that he could be quicker and he was, I thought in the game. But there was a point where he's running out of bounds and he lowered his shoulder and went helmet to helmet with someone that was stupid. There were a couple of other just big, loud contact plays that I thought he could have avoided, but he's not going to have 17 of those in him. Now he might only need two or three of those, but it's the first game and that seems like the design is, is there going to use him a lot running the football and Derek Henry only had 13 carries, but I just don't think that's sustainable. Travis Kelsey was library quiet, and he was whisper quiet in this game. Kelsey ended up catching three balls for 34 yards. The number of Kelsey catches was like one third of the number of shots of his girlfriend Taylor Swift in the crowd. It's not a whole lot of Travis Kelsey last night for the Chiefs. Isaiah likely amazing. He was the best tight end on the field, nine for a buck 11 and a score coming into his own. My guess is he supplants Mark Andrews a little bit this year. Come on to agree. Yeah. Andrews will have a big season, but don't you think, I mean, that there's a role for likely. You cannot put that car back in the garage. Yeah. There there's a role for him because he's not as large as as Andrews, maybe not as physical and in line block, although he was pretty good last night, but he looks like an overgrown wide receiver. You know what I mean? Just kind of the way he moves around a little bit. And if attention is going to be paid to say flowers, who they featured heavily, and you would think Andrews, the same requisite attention for a guy that's been close to 1000 yard receiver in his own right as a tight end, there'll be some spots for him. I love how hard Isaiah Pacheco plays and runs. He just does everything pretty violently, angrily. He also is one of these guys. You know, some people move in a way where it doesn't look like there's any effort. James Wood does this. He is a glider with his limbs to the point where there was a piece written in the post about how like his coaches growing up at different levels didn't think he was hustling. And still, I'll get a tweet every now and then from Nat's fans like, why doesn't he run or why doesn't he do this? It's like, no, no, no. You didn't notice that he was the fastest guy on the field in that moment. It just looks different because he's so giant. It looks like Pacheco. Everything is like really whatever the opposite of James Wood is. It's Pacheco. It's choppy. I just got sugar. You know, like he's so yeah. Rishi Rice slanted the Ravens to death all night. Very much not suspended. If you're curious, he is down the field, seven for a bucko three last night. They're leading receiver facing eight felonies, I think, but nothing has come in terms of hearings yet. So the NFL is waiting on that. And he fell in a lot of fantasy drafts because people just didn't know who's getting yep suspended or not. Looks like he's in tune for a big season, perhaps. We'll see how much the offense changes when Hollywood Brown comes back. Two other things they debuted their rookie a rookie Xavier Worthy. How fast is that guy? He's expedient. That is quite literally the fastest 40 time in the history of the NFL was turned in by him. His first touch was a 21 yard touchdown last night. I want to give Clary credit because he was in here last night saying he put money down on a first touchdown for Worthy. Now he didn't win it because unfortunately the Ravens got the ball berth first and just walked down that field. But how about Worthy, dude? Yeah. And then he had the busted coverage 35 yard touchdown later in the game. So a couple things. My note, I have only have a few to add. Both those teams are excellent. Both those teams are going to be factors. Both those teams are going to be really, really good this year. I saw nothing to dissuade me of that. Kansas City's offense is going to look like we're used to it looking. Last year is the anomaly. Now they've got a few more toys. There's they're more versatile, right? Now that you don't have to force feed Travis Kelsey. They both were planned to me look like they wanted to take Kelsey away. Fine. Watch this. We'll spread you out with this super fast dude. We'll find a match up to exploit if you're going to bracket Travis Kelsey. Okay, you're going to leave Rishi Rice on a linebacker and you're going to lose that time after time after time after time. Yeah, and having Worthy, I don't know how great a football player he is. I know this is going to sound a little bit if you bear with me. I don't know if he's like, if he went somewhere else, he would be 80 for 100, you know, for, you know, 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns. I know that as a toy and Andy reads offense, he's terrifying. And that presence, I think, is what matters the most. I also think the discourse on him is going to get out of hand this week because he scored two touchdowns. One was on a really nicely designed, perfectly called play where he didn't get touched. Yeah, there are seven or eight mammoth dudes in front of him paving the road. The other was a busted coverage completely. And so it was two scores and hit a monster game, but I could very easily see that's, you know, one catch for four yards next week or something like that. Yeah, I think the threat of him is more important than him. That makes any sense. The Ravens need Lamar Jackson to make more throws though. He missed way too many throws. Yeah. And for Baltimore's perspective, it's, it's, it always sort of feels a little bit to me, like when they have a huge game like this, where everybody's got, they know the talking heads tomorrow, we're going to be saying something. It's almost like they're, it runs like a filmmaker who got criticized for his last movie going fine. I'll do what you guys want in this movie. Because remember, he just stood in the pocket against Kansas City, the AFC title game, and it didn't work well because they're not really built to do that. They're like, okay, fine. We'll run into death. See, that makes you happy. And it's, there's, there's a happy medium there. Even still, I was pretty impressed with the Ravens. Yeah, I was too. I do have questions about their O line, which after last night didn't get answered for me. I still have them. And I just think Jackson, you know, he averaged one yard average depth of target through almost three quarters. Quite literally was averaging, throwing the ball one yard from the line of scrimmage. And then they finally opened the offense up a little bit, but he missed throws time and time again late in that game. And against the Chiefs, whether it's in the regular season or the playoffs or other teams like the Bengals, he's just going to have to be sharper, but it's been in the football. Yep. As impressive as he was running for 120 yards last night. Also want to see more Derek Henry. I thought that worked early. And while the Chiefs did a pretty good job against him, three and a half of pop last night, I thought there was a little more meat on the bone that they didn't pick at a second half of that game from a play calling standpoint last evening. All right. Next on Grant and Danny on a football Friday, there is a standalone game tonight. We got a nationally televised international game between the Packers and the Eagles. And we'll give you our first feel on the commanders and the box. You are listening to the fan. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Hey Mike Vlinny here host a cash to ticket alongside my partner Jim Costa. It's really simple. Are you tired of podcast claiming there are a bunch of pro betters when they live in their mommy's basement? Are you tired of podcast that claim they hit 80% of the games when really they just lose like most of us? Think cash to tickets the spot for you. We're real, we're transparent, we're having a hell of a good time with it. And we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys. We're just trying to figure it out just like you. Follow and listen to cash the ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. After investing billions to light up our network T-Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus right now you can switch, keep your phone and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan verse for eyes and AT&T at t-mobile.com/keepandswitch. Two days away from Commander's Bucks, it's a football Friday on Grant and Danny. Coming up at 2.45 our top five NFL games of the weekend. We'll rank those for you. 3 o'clock TJ Reeves was on Bucks radio work in the sideline. I'll get us the latest as we scout the opponent and at 3.30 Michael Lombardi will join us to go around the NFL ahead of the first big batch of games this weekend. Two will have already been played because last night the Chiefs beat the Ravens 27 to 20 in a thriller and tonight the Packers and the Eagles are coming your way from Brazil on NBC for the second time in as many nights will have a nationally televised game under the lights to kick off the 2024 season. Danny this is the first Friday night game in the opening week of the year and 50 football seasons. First ever game played in Brazil since 1990 34 straight years at least four teams have made the playoffs that didn't one year earlier. Last year there were six such teams for these two teams tonight they're hoping that they are carryover playoff teams from one season ago the Packers the Eagles prime time. It's a good one man. There's a lot of subplots that obviously go into stuff like this, right? You mentioned the Friday night element of it. You mentioned the Brazil element of it. That's pretty unique. Some of the security concerns and sort of extra layers of things that these players have had to do and go through. I was reading that I think it was the Packers. Maybe it was the I can't remember which team so I apologize if I get this wrong. But just because of where they had to stay and why their commute to the to the stadium is almost two hours with some of the traffic that they're going to experience here during rush hour on a Friday evening. So it hasn't gone off without a hitch in terms of logistics but hopefully it all goes smoothie and you know everybody's able to get their safe and sound and you know no incidents or no problems and we get a good old fashioned football game on a Friday night here before things really kind of go and earnest in normal football seasons around these parts. But for Philadelphia, there's a lot of line here. I could see a scenario. I predicted them in the division. I could see a scenario where they don't where whatever happened last year, the poison is still there and they thought they got rid of it with a bunch of coordinators being exchanged and you know that a new personnel and kind of a reboot from a group that had been really, really good for you know the previous one and a half seasons and it doesn't go well. Their coach gets fired and everything has to be new again or I could see them getting over that kind of that nasty barrier or whatever the hell that was and exercised all the things. They cut off all the bad and now they're ready to roll again and are the best team in the division and a threat to do a lot of damage in the postseason. For Green Bay, that's a team on the rise. They had to be patient, had to get kicked in the teeth a little bit. No Devontae Adams or nobody like that. They've had great quarterback play and also a superstar receiver to go with it for a while. They didn't and now they're starting to develop those things with a nice time receiving core, you know, solid group. There is assembled and the ascending Jordan Love was as good as anybody in the second half last year. Yeah. Last year, Jordan Love ranked second in the NFL with 32 touchdown passes and he ranked seventh with 4159 passing yards and it was only his first season as a starter. He's now at nine games with multiple touchdowns and no interceptions, which is the most in the league this past season. He has a chance for a tenth tonight that would tie Patrick Mahomes, Brock Purdy and Justin Herbert for the most such games in your first 20 starts in NFL history. He is off to a very, very good start. It's a huge game for Jalen Hertz who was exceptional two years ago and regressed last season and is trying to prove that that step backwards was more a misstep, you know, just losing some footing and not the beginning of the rest of his career. I will have more on this game as we get closer to kickoff on a football Friday on Grant and Danny. But let's turn our attention to the commanders and the bucks for the first time here and take a peek at the matchup that'll get Washington's campaign underway. What is your first feel on the commanders in the box? We're going to open up the phones on this for you guys. We want to hear from our listening audience at 800-636-1067. We want to take your temperature on this Friday. I know people are fired up. I was texting with a buddy was on flight leaving today to go to Tampa. I said there was a lot of people wearing burgundy and gold. So we want to hear from you those of you that are still in the area or listening on the Odyssey app if you're down there getting ready for kickoff in Florida. What are your first feelings when you think about the game? Yeah, I think there's a huge section of this fan base that is kind of, I don't say looking past Tampa, but isn't taking Tampa maybe as seriously as they should. That's not a bad team. I don't think they're great. I don't think they're world beaters. I don't think they're a threat to win the Super Bowl, but they were playoff team last year. That's pretty much the same roster and they're decent. They're even even say they're pretty good. Would you put me in that group when I say there's no reason Washington can't beat them? Like, I don't think the Bucks are bad. I think they're aggressively okay. I think they are a seven to nine win team, probably. If you told me they won 10, that wouldn't surprise me. In fact, yesterday, I said them in Atlanta or probably about the same kind of club. Maybe Atlanta is a hair better, but I don't think the Bucks winning the division would would be a surprise at all. Having said that, I totally think the commanders can beat them on. I think it's a winnable game, but I also think that people, because of that, they're going, they'll win the game. Tampa's favored by a three and a half. Now, say what you want about what home field advantage means. Probably two points now being at home. That's, yeah, we're going to continue to update our file, by the way, as that number fluctuates. It's going to be hot as hell down there, by the way. So I don't know if that's a factor or good or bad, but it's just going to be a lot of times with those stadiums in week one, week two, and it's super hot in Florida or otherwise. They position the visitor sideline on the side of the stadium. It gets all the sun getting baked and it doesn't like change over the course of the year, but it is part of the home field advantage. Now, I don't know if Tampa to the same extent as Miami. This is like something that's known really well at the dolphins place is the way that stadium is positioned. You bake on the visitor sideline. So like their record when it's over 80 degrees and early September is unbelievable at home. I'm not sure if it's the same in Tampa, but I would imagine, you're worse off being there in the heat than you'd be say in Chicago or indoors or something like that. Yeah, that's a good point. I haven't thought of it, even that level of specificity, but Tampa's decent. They got good weapons. I know we're tired of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin because they've been around forever, but they're producers. Mike Evans just goes for 1200 yards and double digit touchdowns every year and and mosses people. How many is a tough match? Listen, he's not a burner anymore. He's not deep threat Dave, but he'll go up and get it. Like he's still a problem. You know what I mean? Like in fantasy, he always gets overlooked and because the new exciting thing like, Oh, I want Nico Collins, or I'm super excited about, you know, I don't know, to learn this younger wide receiver. I'm this guy's bounce back. And there he is. Just steady boring. Mike Evans, 80 catches, 1200 yards, 11 touchdowns. It's crazy to me. And his numbers were as good as they were last year. Like if you would have asked me sight unseen, 79 grabs for 12 55 and an NFL high 13 touch. Just what he does, man. Kind of a show. It's the third time, by the way, in four years, he's had 13 or more touchdowns. He's had 12 or more five times in his Hall of Fame career. Every year he has gone for 1000 yards. Nobody's ever done this as long as he has to start a career now for 10 straight seasons. I just view him though as the almost the consummate like, let's get him to 1000 guy. You know, in the last two weeks of the year, he's sitting at around 58 or 60 catches for like 850 yards. And the last couple games are just making sure they keep the streak alive. There was a runner. Remember where he had 1000 and six 1000 35 1000 and one yards. So yeah, he's had some big years sprinkled in. And I would put last year in there. Now he doesn't scare me as much. Although I will tell you, well, he's not a lethal weapon that's going to take a catch and go for a touchdown and break tackles or anything. He's more of a catch and fall guy at this point. The size is a problem for Washington. Because if you don't travel, Benjamin, St. Juice, Emmanuel Forbes is going to match up with Mike Evans. That is a center against a point guard. I mean, that just doesn't work. No, it does not. And so I like a lot of this, the personnel that they have in Tampa Bay. Now, I think they're limited because Baker Mayfield's fine. I think they've been lulled into the cult of fine. He had a great year last year. That's as good as it's going to get. And we'll get that good again. But offensively, I like Tristan Worf's a ton. He's one of the dudes I wanted to trade back out of the number two spot instead of trading chase young to acquire. If possible, guys like that, but that line, I think is pretty decent. We mentioned Mike Evans an awful lot. Chris Cobbin is again, always injured, always that little flag next to his name, but it's early season. He's as good, kind of a working underneath compliment to Evans and Rashad White's pretty versatile, good out of the backfield, not a great explosive runner, but punny, good enough. Offensively, that's a pretty good group. And defensively, beat of a as a badass in the middle. And they are going to blitz the instant the first whistle blows, and then maybe a little bit afterwards, like they are here to hunt and try to make the life difficult for rookie quarterback. So I'm a little nervous about this. They drafted a second round picket defensive and Logan Hall. They've got an edge rusher on the other side in try on Schoenka, who's done some decent things has not really turned into. I don't think the pass rusher that was kind of billed when he was taken in the first round a couple years ago. I bring this up because the tackle positions in a bit of flux for Washington. We found out today that the commanders are going to rotate Cornelius Lucas and Brandon Coleman at left tackle, it sounds like. Now, basically, Dan Quinn was talking. He was asked is Brandon Coleman going to start on Sunday? He said he's going to play. And then it came up the probability of a rotation that they both get reps. He said, quote, yes, it's very realistic. And yeah, we're planning on that. But Brandon's really done a remarkable job coming back. And I would say he was close to being ready for the third preseason game. We just made the decision. Hey, this is not the space and time to go push it into this spot, knowing we had time to cook to come, but he's absolutely ready to let it rip. I view a rotation, not as like they really like Lucas or they're afraid to just, you know, sit him or anything. I think they're not sure yet. Like you don't want to go from zero preseason games to just throwing Brandon Coleman into the deep end to go play 65 70 reps. So this is as much as anything else almost like putting him on a pitch count as your starter to get him built back up because he didn't play at all in August. And also an ease into what figures to be. This isn't just your, you know, Super Bowl, winning New York Giants defense or Carolina under round Rivera, where we're rushing for there's no mystery to it. That's what we're doing. This is going to be a whole bunch of crazy stunts and games. And you know, this guy looks like he's blitzing, but he's not, but it turns out he is later. And this guy's delayed. And this guy's looping around. I just think there's going to be a lot of complication. And for rookie, I'm worried about Daniel's handling it. I'd be worried about a rookie left tackle handling as well. Yeah, operation, keep Jaden Daniels upright. That's a pretty large development. A rotation in game one between Lucas and Coleman, my guess is drive by drive. And this is not completely unheard of to kick off a regime. And I covered the Shanahan group in 2010. They had a rotation at one point between Jamal Brown and Tyler Columbus. And they did it at left guard as well with, I believe it was Derrick Dockery and Corey Lichtenstiger in their first ever game in DC. So while rare, not completely uncommon. And the competition continues and my guess is they hope Coleman wins the thing. And by week two, week three is their full time left tackle. Next, let's take a look at the NFL week one slate and pick our favorite games. We'll rank our top five games of the weekend on Grant and Danny in 20 minutes. The bucks sideline reporter gives us all the details we need on Tampa Bay as an opponent this weekend, listening to the fan. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. 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We're real, we're transparent, we're having a hell of a good time with it and we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys. We're just trying to figure it out just like you. Follow and listen to Cash The Ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Now at T-Mobile get four 5G phones on us and four lines for $25 a line per month when you switch with the eligible trade-ins all on America's largest 5G network. Minimum of four lines for $25 per line per month without a paid discount using debit or bank account $5 more per line without auto pay plus taxes and fees and $10 device connection charge. Phones will be at 24 monthly bill credits for well qualified customers contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on a required finance agreement to bill credit to end if you pay off devices early ctmobile.com. Week one NFL football is here another game tonight and then the rest of the slate Sunday and Monday. We're Grant and Danny. This is the fan. Let's rank our top NFL games of the weekend. We will go one to five on our rankings. We'll count it down. Danny, get it started. Jets Niners. Oh my God. Bring it immediately. I want more of it. Could they play twice? I would watch it. Jets 49ers game of the weekend. Two teams that I think have a great chance of playing deep into the postseason. Maybe even meeting in the Super Bowl dare I say. Lot of expectations in New York rightfully sold out of expectations in San Fran. That is my game of the week. My favorite game this weekend is the Rams and the Lions. Rematch of an NFC playoff game. Storylines galore Matt Stafford back in Detroit, Jared Gough taking on the team that told him to kick rocks at one point in time with Sean McVay. I love it. Sunday night football, prime time, natty TV. I think it is the perfect week one game. Rams Lions is going to be excellent. Also two teams that have a chance to come out of the national football conference teams that I think going into the year view themselves as Super Bowl caliber. Now I'm not as high on the Rams as everybody else is, but I definitely think the Lions could and probably should be the one seed in the NFC. So that's my number one game Rams Lions. You covered it. That's my number two game. It's it would be one and almost any other week. The story lines are there. I think the Lions are poised to make an awful lot of noise. This is one of their 14 indoor games that they play this season and they're designed to do just that. Little bit of a hipster pick here that you're going to hate, but I am. I don't know what to tell. It's your list. I'm really excited about it. It's your list. Titans bears guy. Titans bears. Can you don't look at my paper? I am a hipster on this. I want to see Caleb Williams. By the way, Bill Belichick shredded Caleb Williams a little bit on the weird show that he does. It's not on HBO anymore or Showtime. It's like on the CW. Ryan Clark hosted for some reason. I don't know what the show is. It's like inside the NFL or something. But anyway, he was talking about how everyone went crazy about Caleb Williams pre-season. He's like, I just watched the tape and it was a 50% completion percentage and he made two great plays and missed a bunch of throws. Like he was not very happy. No, he's not pleased. I happened to really like what I saw because there were some incredible snaps on film from Caleb Williams, but I want to see him and you and Ryan have been doing a lot of talking about the Titans and the more I'm listening and watching and just seeing people around the league kind of come around on Tennessee, I'm intrigued. I'm not going to say I'm excited about them, but I believe in offense over defense. So getting rid of able going with Callahan, I think I like that kind of practice in general. I'm not a big Will Levis guy, but I don't think he's horrendous. I think if you surround him with enough talent and they've tried to Calvin Ridley, DeAndre Hopkins, the list goes on and on with the weapons. So I'm interested in this game. Titans bears. I don't think it's two great teams, but I think it's two interesting teams. It's on my list spoiler alert. Number three for me Colts Texans. This is for the division. That's that's how the last year and that it's fitting that it's here in week number one. The defending champion Houston Texans, a team that everybody's crowned understandably. Great season last year. Great rookie quarterback and C.J. Stroud back for sophomore year. More weapons on offense enters Tefan Diggs, Joe Mixon, more on defense enter Janelle Hunter. They look poised to take it. Here are the Colts whisper quiet waiting in the wings. Anthony Richardson, what is he going to be a promising start last year? Basically a Cam Newton 2.0 thump in the balls, a goal line back, big physical, fastest all hell, rocket fern arm, how good is he as a pastor? That's TBD. But that's my number three game of the week. My number three game was your top game, the Jets and the 49ers. Storylines write themselves. Yeah, Aaron Rogers back in California, where he grew up near San Francisco, the 49ers at one point flirting with Rogers didn't work out. Obviously for Kyle Shanahan, Rogers trying to play five snaps. If they could do that, he'll supplant last year's total with the Jets. They think they can get to a Super Bowl. I am dubious about New York based on the age of the quarterback coming back from a serious injury. Also, some questions about San Francisco, you know, as the year goes on, they're going to be a juggernaut. But Brandon, I you missed essentially the entire off season. So did Trent Williams. They both just showed back up ready to go this week. Brock Purdy was pretty rusty in the preseason with lesser talent around him. I'll be curious to see if they can hit the ground. Sprinting my guess is the Niners don't really look like the Niners in week one. And this ends up being a really close good football game. Game number four for me, Browns Cowboys. Not because I like anybody involved necessarily. But I'm intrigued, man. This Browns team on paper is so good. And the quarterback, a lot of dramatics there. And Dallas just stood pat while other people were getting cards to try to get themselves a blackjack. Dallas said, Nope, we're good, even though we've got a foreshowing. They just sat there. How good are they going to be? What's it going to look like fascinated by that one? It Texans Colts, which you mentioned is my number four game. And then Cowboys Browns is my fifth game. You know why though? It's just the Tom Brady effect. This game's actually going to be going on with Washington's playing Tampa Bay. So I'm going to have to go back to really sponge up as much Tom Brady as I can. But this will be his debut as a broadcaster. And I was just reading last night. He apparently did a couple dozen practice games like flying all over the country in jet setting with our guy, Kevin Burkhardt. He's putting in NFL quarterback level work to get ready for his first game. So color me intrigued. Also pretty good football teams in Dallas and Cleveland who both plan on making the playoffs and think they can make runs. Game five, you mentioned the Titans bears. I'm curious about the Titans. I'm intrigued. I think they're going to be okay. Not great. I think they'll be frisky. And I want to see Kayla Williams and all the weapons. Those are our favorite games of the NFL weekend that will be. Anything also receiving votes for you that neither of us mentioned that you think is fun. Cardinals bills. The Cardinals are revamped. You could see Colin Murray run back again and how good are the bills? I like that one. I actually think, you know, if we weren't talking so much about the bucks and the commanders in another market, that game might be worth it because of the Jayden Daniels effect. Just same as I was talking about with Kayla Williams. Like you want to see that guy Tampa was a playoff team last year. I also think it just could be interesting to see Steelers Falcons. Two new starting quarterbacks there and Russell Wilson, if he goes, if not still a new starting quarterback in Justin Fields, Kirk Cousins in Atlanta, a home game for the Falcons. Mike Tomlin's the most successful head coach as an underdog on the road over the last 20 years. Could be a really, really good football game. Let's start with TJ Reeves. Next, he works the sideline on bucks radio calls. We want to get as much intel as we can. On the opponent, TJ joins us next on Grant and Danny. After investing billions to light up our network, T-Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus right now, you can switch, keep your phone, and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus Verizon AT&T at tmobile.com/keepandswitch. Up to four lines via virtual prepaid card, a left 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit service ported 90 post days with device ineligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months. Hey, Mike Volennie here hosts a cash to ticket alongside my partner, Jim Costa. It's really simple. Are you tired of podcasts claiming there are a bunch of pro betters when they live in their mommy's basement? Are you tired of podcasts that claim they hit 80% of the games when really they just lose like most of us? Think has to tickets the spot for you. We're real, we're transparent, we're having a hell of a good time with it, and we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys. We're just trying to figure it out just like you. Follow and listen to Cash the Ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. We're granting Danny sponsored exclusively today and every day by the law firm Condori and Murad. They'll guide you and your family in the right direction, help you to draft a will, set up a trust, create a health care power of attorneys, schedule a free consultation with their state planning attorneys at km lawyers dot com. Be sure to tell them G and D sent you so you can get a discount. Km lawyers dot com, huge DC sports fans, local guys, good friends of the program. They will take great care of you. Let's go to the bet QL guest hotline. Bet smarter to beat the books. Download the bet QL app visit bet QL dot com. Our buddy TJ Reeves. I've known TJ for many, many years. He has been on the sideline for the bucks for a couple of decades almost at this point. TJ, it is great to have you on G and D here in the nation's capital as we scout Tampa Bay. How are you? Always great to be with you, my friend. And yes, I used to always call you the young Jedi back 20 years ago when we were working together. Sirius X right now. I can't call. I can't get away with that anymore. You're now. You're the full on Jedi now. There's gray in this beer. TJ, I can see it from right here. He's got the beard. He's got kids. The young thing doesn't work anymore for that. And yeah, you and I have been around each other for a while. And this is year 20 for me with the buck and ears on the sideline. And looky here. Washington commanders in the beginning of the Jaden Daniels era comes to Tampa Bay this weekend guys going to be fun. So let's start with this. The bucks last year were pretty good and made the playoffs and won the division and put up a decent fight in the playoffs. Why aren't people picking them to win the South again? Great question. And a year ago, everybody crapped on this team and thought they were going to have an awful season. salary cap help post Tom Brady, you know, Baker Mayfield's been passed around like the offering played at church. Nobody wants them. All these different subplots. And you know what they did? They put their head down. They won the opening game in Minnesota. They won the week three game in New Orleans that both turned out to be big and won some key games at the end of the year blowing out Jacksonville beating Green Bay at Green Bay. And what do you know, won the division when a lot of people on the record thought three wins, maybe four wins. They end up winning nine games and they end up winning a playoff game. So now we come back around to this year and I agree with you. I don't understand why there's more run being given to an Atlanta team that's got a first year coach. We love Raheem Morris. They've got some pieces. They've added Kirk cousins who you guys are familiar with, but what version of Kirk cousins are they getting at this point? I don't understand it either. Why they're getting more run than the team that's won the division each of the last three years and it has a lot of the same players back from all three of those teams, guys. TJ, I want to go deep dive on this defense here because obviously we're focused on Jay Daniels and the revamped offense. So I want to go to your defense first. There's a player at all three layers that I think is outstanding. Vida Vaya, one of the best at his position there at nose, DTAC, whatever you want to call it, uh, love out there. David is still a badass. And then Antoine Winfield's a star. Where is this group vulnerable? Where can they maybe be had and do you think Washington has what it takes to have it? That's a great point you make because in talking with Todd Bull this week, the, uh, the buccaneer head coach, we talked about that middle of the defense straight through the middle of the defense with Vaya, David, and Winfield may be one of the best defensive players. The NFL that gets no attention really because he plays in Tampa Bay and play for the Cowboys. He doesn't play for the Steelers, you know, the high marquee teams like in New York or in LA, but Antoine Winfield is a tremendous hitting safety, great ball skills in terms of interceptions, bumbles caused. So he'll be a disruptive force. The real key is what you alluded to. What about the outside? What about on the ends? Are they going to contain Jayden Daniels? If he goes to take off, are they going to be disciplined or not? The bucks are very aware that Daniels can burn you with his feet and he and he may elect on more than one occasion to do the safe thing, which is okay, I'm going to tuck it and go try to get five, 10 or more yards as opposed to stay in the pocket and take a big time hit, trying to deliver the ball. So the bucks better be ready for Daniel to get outside of those guys you were talking about and trying to make something happen. TJ, remind me just as a refresher from the off season. What have they lost in terms of key departures and then big additions? Who came in? So basically they refined the most prominent guys Mayfield at the top of that list signed a three year deal again. He played for basically quarterback minimum wage last year, four million. We'd all love to make four million, but in quarterback money, that's not very much. So he did get a significant raise keys back. You refined Mike Evans when a lot of people thought he would walk as an unrestricted free agent. He agreed to a new two year deal. The left tackle Tristan Worf's is due to be a free agent at the end of this year. They gave him a new massive deal. Winfield could have walked guys after a great year as a safety approval year. He refined. So even though the bunch didn't go outside the building, even though they didn't go outside the 813 area code, they had a really good year in free agency bringing those guys back. And I can't say there's a significant loss. Devon White, the linebacker, the former number one pick was really playing poorly for a lot of last year. He left to go to the Eagles, but he's not even playing for the Philadelphia Eagles right now. He's on the bench. They didn't even bring him to Brazil tonight. So I don't know that the Bucks have a significant loss off the team and they did bring back some guys that are going to be key. TJ Reeves with us here breaking down the Bucks at Bucks sideline guy joins us here on Grant and Danny. Let's go to the offense. He mentioned Baker Mayfield. I am not a Mayfield guy. I feel like you guys got that honeymoon Mayfield. That's just good. That's the best version of Mayfield. And I'm not sure it's going to get that good again. What's the vibe? I'm trying to put me in a bad mood on a Friday and just to boss the season that I'm not getting better Baker Mayfield a year later a little bit because we've been doing this for decades. Like you guys got like the casual Tom Brady Super Bowl and some other stuff. We've been starving in the desert for like a thousand years. And I'm just looking for a morsel. But what's the vibe on on Baker Mayfield? That sounds like you guys are more bullish. He has done all of the right things. He is fantastic to deal with on and off the air. And you're right. You could read into that. Okay. He's got to be on his best behavior. He was on his fourth team in three years after the Brown said no thanks and traded him to Carolina Carolina. Cut him and then and then the Rams picked him up and he and he didn't resign with the Rams. People are going, what's going on? But I think this guy realizes he's got a chance to put a stranglehold on this job and develop a legacy over the next two or three seasons beyond just last year. I love his moxie. He is a leader. They follow him. Evans, Chris Godwin, Tristan Worsfield, the left tackle is probably his best friend, his past protector. They love this guy. So for right now it is a honeymoon phase. And let's see what happens because certainly in Cleveland he did make the playoffs in Cleveland. But he didn't have near the talent on all fans that he has down here to be able to do it again. So let's see if he can do it again. A career high 28 touchdowns to go against 10 interceptions last year in his first 4000 yard passing season for Baker Mayfield got him paid in Tampa Bay. How about the guys he's throwing it to? I know Mike Evans is back. We were kind of kicking around how much he's got left today. He goes for 1000 every year. And last year his numbers were awesome. 79 for 1200 led the NFL with 13 touchdowns. Chris Godwin seems like the linch pit in that receiving room right now. Kind of more still in his prime. But what about Jalen McMillan who they drafted? Who else do we have to pay attention to from a weaponry standpoint? As for Evan, he had a tremendous second half of the season, a spectacular catch and run against Carolina, a couple of other huge catches for touchdowns in a couple of other games down the stretch of the season. So Mike is one of the premier receivers still in the NFL. Godwin is kind of an underneath guy and he was a little disappointed last year that he wasn't utilized as much as an outside receiver. He's going back to the slot and you mentioned the name Jalen McMillan. Rookie from the Washington Huskies. He's a guy that was catching a ton of passes and touchdowns from Michael Pennox at Washington as they got all the way to the national title game. And McMillan has turned heads here in Tampa Bay and is going to be on the field probably a lot in game number one as the third receiver. We believe that. So let's see if McMillan delivers really, I'm giving a little, I think everybody's pretty much done their draft by now because the season started last night. But Jalen McMillan may be available out there, a little sleeper fantasy advice with Grant and Danny on a Friday. Jalen McMillan, Buccaneers, third receiver. I like it TJ. By the way, Godwin 83 grabs, which sounds like a ton, but he had 104 the year before that, 98 before that. But he did go for over a thousand for a third straight year, fourth out of five seasons for Tampa Bay. Last campaign TJ Reeves here on the receiver, so no joke. My friend, you know that they are no joke. The commanders will have their hands full. That's an issue here. Washington's corners are a joke. So that's not a good exchange necessary. That's not a mix that you want right now. Yes. How about the one area? We talked about on the field. They didn't lose a lot player-wise. I do think Dave Kanalas is really good and he's now the head coach in Carolina. He was the play caller in the OC for people that don't know that. It kind of was a quarterback whisper with Baker who raved about him all year. Tell me about Liam Cohen, their new OC and whether or not you agree that the Kanalas loss could loom large. Well, it's significant because you got to start over and it's a different offense and different terminology. Now, interesting Mayfield was with Liam, Liam Cohen and Sean McVay in LA for the final four games of the season two years ago, 2022 season after Carolina. They mutually agreed. Baker said, I'm not going to resign here. You're not playing me. Can I go somewhere else because the Rams were in need of a quarterback and he spent time for about five weeks with Liam Cohen. Cohen then left and became the offensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky and they had a really good season last year, including being able to run the football. Now, this is the first opportunity for him to be the play caller for the for the Buccaneers after Sean McVay was the play caller, even though he was the coordinator out in LA and people are interested in this offense. They're interested in how much zone blocking and kind of bootlegs that you're going to see. You didn't see any of that a year ago. We saw a little taste of it in the preseason. It will be fascinating and it may be a work in progress for a little bit, but at least Mayfield and Cohen have an existing relationship, guys. TJ, how's this offensive line? I view them as good. I think some of the grading sites and people that do that sort of thing don't view maybe as kindly more middle of the pack, but I feel this is a good group here with the center draft in the first round and I'm a big Tristan Worfsky, but I guess he's going to be playing on the left more. Give me your thoughts on this old line and where they are coming into the season. They had to address center and the kid is Graham Barton out of Duke, who is a monster. He's won the starting job, not unexpectedly as the number one pick, and they love him for his run blocking. Interesting that Barton played left tackle his final year at Duke, but he had been a center the first couple of years at Duke. He was in all everything center out of Nashville, Tennessee, Brentwood, Tennessee, and unlike the three of us, he got into Duke, so there we go. And now is the number one pick and they've got big expectations on him. I think we're all fascinated down here against Dan Quinn's defense. Can they establish a ground game? One of the knocks on the Buccaneers is the ground game has basically been nonexistent. Even even in the Brady Super Bowl year, it was not great. It was only good at times with Leonard Fornett. So let's see if the Bucks can establish some things on the ground. And again, it may be a work in progress with the line and the new offense here, but they're very excited about Graham Barton, the number one pick at center. TJ, last one for me just brought brushed in the division. We started by asking why they aren't the favorites. How do you like their chances and what do you make of the other clubs in the South? What am I supposed to say on the show when I'm the buck sideline guy? I love the bucks chance. Of course I do. The Orleans is a threat. Derek Carr obviously is there now for a second year. That's a tough place to play. But again, I say the Buccaneers went in there and won in the Superdome early on in the year. There are going to be some Mark C. Games. There's a Thursday night game right away in October, early October, Buccaneers at Falcons. And Raheem Morris again is the former Buccaneers head coach, Raheem Morris was the defensive coordinator when they won the Super Bowl with the Rams. Now he's the Falcons head coach. That's going to be an interesting situation. Caroline has a mess. Dave Canales, good luck to you for year number one with a lack of talent, but it's still going to be knocked down, drag out Buccaneers, Saints Falcons. Write me a headline or two here. If it does go Washington's way, TJ, how did it happen? What's kind of the script, do you think? Buccaneers turn the ball over. Buccaneers make defensive mistakes and the commanders take advantage with big plays. Those are two things that give Washington a chance to win. If the Buccaneers take care of the football, if they don't allow, Jane Daniels to make plays with his feet, make the let the big play happen, it should be a good day in Tampa Bay for another opening win. By the way, Buccaneers have never ever, this is the 49th year of Buccaneers football. I've never won on opening day four years in a row. They're going for that Sunday, only one other time have they won three opening games in a row that was 79, 80, and 81 before the young Jedi was on the planet. That's right. That's right. Last time the Buccaneers did that. TJ, by the way, we got listeners headed to the airport going to Raymond James Stadium, which is one of my favorites in football. Love the place. Any tips, any pointers? Where should they be spending their time? Where should they be dying tips, tips, bring the sunblock and hydrate up because even for a four o'clock kick, it is going to be hot. It is going to be humid. The commanders will be in the dark jerseys. So let's see how they hold up physically. But look, what is their not to like down here? I mean, you got the beach, you got, you got the weather, you got great seafood. Come enjoy, come enjoy until you tee it up with the Buccaneers at four o'clock on Sunday and then we'll see what happens. TJ, I really appreciate the insight, man. Enjoy the weekend. Boys behave great to be with you and we're happy to have the NFL back. You and me, sir. Great to hear your voice again. There's TJ Reeves. Bucks sideline is where he'll be on Sunday during the game. Why do you think Tampa Bay is not getting more run as the potential division champion? I thought maybe he'd have some type of answer. Well, remember they lost this or they lacked that. They basically are bringing the same team back from a year ago. I know it was only nine and eight. It, to me, it's a referendum on Baker Mayfield. It's just that people really don't think he will replicate 4,000 yards, 28 touchdowns, 10 picks. And with that receiving room, I don't know why he couldn't do that again. Yeah, I think that's the best, best use case. The other is the year before they were terrible, right? And so maybe last year's viewed as a bit of a fluke with the division being very down, a very pedestrian AFC South where nobody was any good, excuse me, NFC South rather, nobody was any good. It's sort of unsexy, you know, that a nine and eight team that was just okay to repeat it. Everyone's always looking for the new and more exciting thing. You know, we go chalk all the time when a team like Kansas City or Buffalo and a division, they've been the king for a little while. But if somebody's just pedestrian, if someone's all right, we always look kind of the next thing to overlook and to a degree. Because I'm with you. I just think, I think Atlanta got a little bit better than Tampa, but it's not a reasonable that they could absolutely win that division. Because you already mentioned it. To me, it's mostly about Mayfield. The injury to Yaya Diabi, who I watched, don't ask why, but like halfway through the off season, I watched this like Buck's draft special and I talked about their group last year and this year and they had such high hopes for him. They kind of have fallen in love with his game. This is actually not a bad matchup for Washington's tackle position because there's not a beast. You know what I'm saying? Like next week, when you play the Giants, you've got to deal with Brian Burns and potentially two guys that can get home and really beat you because of Thibodeau. Logan Hall, a second round pick, was going to be making, you know, in his third year, basically. And Joe Trion-Shranke, those are the edge rushers. I'm not saying it's a bad tandem, but you heard TJ say it's a question. They don't really know what they're going to get out of the edges. They know that Kalaja Cansey was kind of Aaron Donald Light, in my opinion, when he peaks and then Vida Vaya, like they got Alan and Payne, essentially in the middle. But I'm glad that they get to open with a bit of a soft landing spot for Brandon Coleman, Cornelius Lucas, Andrew Wiley, a tackle. And that to me means this isn't a terrible matchup for Washington's offense. And I meant to ask TJ and I did and I'm kicking myself, but Logan Hall, the kid that they drafted to be their edge defensive and whatever you want to call it in the formation, I know I haven't been practicing. I know he's been beat up. He's got a foot thing. I don't know if he's playing or not in this game. So I haven't I haven't seen an updated practice list, but I know that as of Wednesday or Thursday, I think he was DNP. So that's something we watch as well. To me, this is more about what you're doing on the interior, right? I mean, Vida Vaya is just a grown up who is incredible, right? If he if you're not double teaming, he's going to affect the play in some way, unless you're going in a different direction. That's something that I think is sort of necessary and you're going to have to deal with it. So this sort of revamped interior, new center, obviously Cosby's the same on the right side, but you add an allegretti. How are they going to deal with Vaya? And if I'm Tampa Bay, I'm moving him around some I'm going to I'm going to be probing and prodding to see who can block Vida Vaya and how often and how well, but you've got to have him in mind, no matter what you're doing, if you're Cliff Kingsbrain company or even Biotish and to a degree, Jayden Daniels, because that guy is a not only a space theater, but he is an effector of plays and a disruptor. And they've got pretty good layers. I mentioned this to my question to TJ. Winfield might be the best safety in the NFL. If he's not, he's he's top three or four. You're pretty good up the middle. They're secondary, you know, probably 10 11 12 overall, depending on your grading side where there's pro football focus or otherwise. It's not terribly vulnerable. They gave up the seventh fewest points in the NFL last year. They pretty much have everybody back. This is not a bad group. Logan Hall wanted two bucks who did not practice yesterday to your point with a foot injury. As far as the commanders go, the update, Marcus Mariota, DNP with a chest after being limited on Wednesday. And then Johnny Newton yesterday didn't practice, but it was on the practice field, at least at the start of the session at the media got to see today. He's a wildcard who early in the year, it sounds like maybe we'll be pretty limited, but soon enough, ideally, we get a real look at him because we didn't see him at all in the preseason. Michael Lombardi joins us next when I go around the NFL with one of our favorite football guests on Gratton Danny in moments on the fan. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casual The Insurance Company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Hey, Mike Valenti here host a cash to ticket alongside my partner, Jim Costa. It's really simple. Are you tired of podcast claiming they're a bunch of pro betters when they live in their mommy's basement? Are you tired of podcast that claim they had 80% of the games when really they just lose like most of us? Think cash to tickets the spot for you. We're real, we're transparent, we're having a hell of a good time with it. And we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys. We're just trying to figure it out just like you. Follow and listen to Cash the ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You spent over here. AT&T customers switching to T-Mobile has never been easier. We'll pay off your existing phone and give you a new one free. All on America's largest 5G network. Visit T-Mobile.com/carrierfreedom to switch today. Pay off up to $650 for your virtual pre-made mastercard in 15 days. Free phone up to $830 for your 24 monthly bill credits plus tax, qualifying, porting, trade and service on go 5G next and credit required. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credit to credit, stop and balance and require finance agreements do. Good news, bad news on GND. Bad news first. Our guy Michael Lombardi texted me just a couple of minutes ago. Something just came up. He's not going to be able to join us. Oh, bummer. We do not love it, but it happens. Good news is it's a football Friday. You can't ruin our mood. Grant and Danny on the fan, steering you towards Sunday in Tampa Bay. The commanders at the box in tonight, more imminently, little Friday night football. Who knew? You could play football on Friday nights in America, all in international football league. So how are they getting around the Friday night rule this time? I believe because the game is international. This is viewed as like some type of very special situation. I also think maybe it's calendar related where while here we have mostly started high school football, like it gets going in the last week of August, I think there's a lot of places in the country where like this is the first week of the season or something like that. So maybe that's a factor. But I think that it's outside the states was the main obstacle that I heard it made clear. Yeah, this should be what the NFL does then, right? I mean, if you're adding another day to the calendar, just find their loophole. Find your international day then. I would do it that way. I've been trying to get this thing going here. Since frankly, I'm ripping off of something I saw a bar still sports was doing. Oh, they're having this big competition with like picking players to score touchdowns. And I thought it'd be fun to get all the shows to compete against each other one by one. So I just got JP Finley's text today on who the bemitch and Finley show is going to be going with for their part of our pool. I've got the junkies who texted in their picks as well. And then you me and the fellows behind the scenes will have to come up with our own. Oh, very nice. But here's the league I want to try to pull off. Everyone's doing these survivor leagues now. This is going to be touchdown scoring survivors. So we start with four picks each. We pick four players that are like strikes. When you guess a player that doesn't score a touchdown, you lose that strike, so to speak, until you're down to zero, may the last team win. So I think if there's four dudes on the show, because we always because the junks are four. Yeah. JP and bemitch are two dudes, but then you put in their producers so we get four and we've got a group of four. Look, let's say this week for the sake of argument, I pick somebody stupid. I pick K dot and who doesn't score touchdown. Am I I'm out from our team? It's it shows. So it's as a show. Okay. So they're just sending us four names. Right. Each of the shows, we're going to put four names into the pot. Okay. And then basically we'll play in the last team left, Grant and Danny, the junks be mentioned Finley, they'll get a point. And then we'll restart again. At the end of the year, we'll see who has the most points basically. So I'll just tell you who they sent in so far for bemitch and Finley, their touchdown scorers this week are Christian McCaffrey was minus 190. It's pretty good. It's kind of a cheat code, but you don't get to use them again. So I mean, at some point, everyone's going to use them. Jameer Gibbs, Brian Robinson, they're feeling the burgundy and gold a little bit. They're going with berobs and then Joe mixin, which I thought was interesting. Mullins contributed that for the Texans against the Colts. So they're looking at some running backs to bang home some like one and two yard runs. The junkies went with Christian McCaffrey for Bish. E.B. went B Rob. He's wearing that burgundy and gold, baby. Since the theme cakes went just in Jefferson and JP flames said Mike Evans. He does not quite trust the commander secondary. So that was going to be mine. That guy goes for double digit touchdowns every year. Pretty good matchup this week. That's not a terrible one. At some point, we should put our heads together on that here on Grant and Danny. But yeah, it's a big week, man. Hopefully everyone's got their fantasy league set. You got your survivor picks in at least start the season correctly. Don't be the guy that doesn't submit his lineup on week one. Like wait till week. Oh, I didn't know because that didn't Friday game. I messed up. No, no, no, I'm in a league true story last night. The guy I'm playing doesn't have his lineup set and it locks. And so I'm like, you got to be kidding me. I'm going to get such a nubby week one win, right? And so then he's like texting the commissioner. I'm on an email where he's saying, yeah, I didn't get my lineup in. I'm going to miss out on points tonight. I thought I sure it was like I thought I did, but it didn't take blah, blah, blah. So then they put his lineup in for him like eight minutes into the game last night. Oh, I apologize. He had this is not I'm not one thing I'm telling you is incorrect. He had Xavier Worthy. Sure. And he had was the other guy that scored that made me really mad. Pacheco. Likely. No, it was. Maybe it was Pacheco. He had two players in Kansas City. So angry. Yeah. I was like, well, we had all week. Let's figure this out together. A league that I'm no longer in because of this reason. I used to be in 13. I dropped it down to now seven. And one of the ones that got cut was this one. A guy claimed that he was at church. And so that was somehow a reason to not have submitted his lineup. And he then was able to get the commissioner retroactively after the fact to put in a different player after the games had all gone to which somehow beat me by a couple of points. Well, Dan, cost me a playoff spot and cost me money. You probably don't know this. Yeah. I mean, as the heathen that you are, church goes all the time now. It's a 24 seven thing. You're there all the time. You can't ever leave. There's never a moment where you're not in church and where you would be able to submit your lineup. I'm not I'm not belittling church. What I'm saying is submit your lineup. We're all subject to the same rules. I was at my child's soccer game. Line up got submitted. I was I drove to a birthday party. Line up was submitted. I was living my life. Got that lineup in. It cost me money and it cost them one fantasy player. Let's get some burning questions for week one as we get ready for the NFL season from our producer, Daris Dameron. What's up, Daris? Who will be the first NFL coach to be fired here in 2024? I'm on record with Dennis Allen of the New Orleans Saints. I think Dennis Allen is on a red hot seat already. In fact, I was talking to our buddy Christian who runs the delicious restaurant in the French quarter, Brennan's that you should all go to when you go down there. He'll take good care of you if you tell him written any sense. But he was telling me like people already want to bench their car and they want to fire Dennis Allen and they haven't even played a game yet this season. They get getting pretty odd around here already. They play the Panthers. If they don't beat the Panthers, pants off in the debut of Dave Canales. This Sunday, Dennis Allen is already walking dead as far as I'm concerned. Then they play Dallas. Then they play Philly and there's a very real possibility they get the chiefs after that the bucks, the Falcons. I mean, they could start like going 50 and six. So I'll say Dennis Allen. So the other guys at the top of the favorites list Robert Salah, Mike McCarthy, Matt, Abram Flus. So I'm a believer in the Jets this year. I don't think Salah is getting fired. Mike McCarthy, Jerry Jones doesn't really fire coaches during temper tantrums. He let Jason Garrett clap on the sideline while doing nothing for a decade. Abram Flus, I think Chicago is okay. Allen is probably my favorite, but for the sake of not just repeating. How about Brian Dable of the Giants? They internally, I think incorrectly, by the way, seem to think they're going to be pretty decent. And maybe if they're not, maybe Dable's the guy that pays the price. Who will be the first quarterback to be benched this season? Oh, I love there. I would have said Sam Darnold had JJ McCarthy not gotten hurt, but I'll say this is probably pretty boring. I think Jacoby Percet, I think he gets a few weeks and then in strike mainstream. Maybe that's a cop out because it's really about the rookie, it's the kid. So I'll go with that leaving a couple doors open for you. Gardner Minshew, let's say Aidan O'Connell gets the call in like week five or something like that. Raiders play the Chargers in week one. Minshew typically puts up okay numbers and his team is okay. Remember last year with Indianapolis, he was very fine. And the Colts actually played in week 18 in their 17th game for the division title against the Houston Texans. But I don't think the Raiders are very good. I think Antonio Pierce is an Aidan O'Connell guy. I think they honestly wanted him to win the job anyway. He was there as kind of a holdover previously. Minshew's the new hot noise. So they'll let him play a few weeks. They're going to lose a bunch and then it'll be a no-Connell's turn. I'll go with him. All right, let's go with who will be the most impressive rookie after week one. What do you think will be the most impressive rookie after week one? So you're thinking QBs Jaden against Tampa. Caleb Williams has Tennessee, which is somewhat favorable. Bonix question. He had a great preseason name. The starter is taken on Seattle. Malik neighbors of the Giants is one of my sneaky and they put up huge number rookies this year against the Viking secondary. I think that's sexy. Who's Marvin Harrison Jr. Got the bill secondary? I'm going to say let's say the Bears hang 30 on the Titans win a game by seven, 10, something like that. Caleb Williams throws for 300 yards and a couple touchdowns and everybody's praising him after the opener. I think we forgot. We forgot that Marvin Harrison Jr. special with all the not running for you or jogging for you or jumping for you or doing anything at any point in time. Are we allowed to say his name or do we get sued? Actually, I don't know. I think you could just say it. We're allowed to. And is he going to play this week? Because it is a football activity. It is very cool. He hates doing it. I'd like it. All he's been is the number one receiver in the draft pain in the ass for years, right? And what happens when you're up the top? Everybody's just finding reasons why you shouldn't be there. We forgot that dude's awesome. He people are going to be doing that. Oh my good type reaction to what he does starting week number one. He is going to have a ridiculous year. He's really good. He better be because man, is he a pain in the tuckus? That guy, but he's good football player. No doubt about that. And we're talking about football. So it's football stuff. Yay. Just don't try to buy his jersey. Whoa. Oh man. We've done overrated and underrated teams. Give me your overrated and underrated player here going into 2024. That is tough. Overrated, underrated player. All right. Underrated player, Colin Murray. Again, I don't think he's a world bidder. I don't think he's a top five quarterback or anything, but people forgotten how effective they were at times with maybe mediocre personnel there in Arizona. I think it's been sort of make a chicken salad out of, you know what? But when that guy's healthy and around, he's dangerous. People remember that playoff performance where I think was the Rams dared him to stay in the pocket on their way to a Super Bowl. They beat the brakes off of him in Arizona. People think, oh, he stinks. That can be a pretty good weapon and a lot of regular season. So I'm going to say he's underrated. In terms of overrated, how does it harden for an individual player? I'll give you an underrated one. I think Trevor Lawrence of the Jags got paid this off season, led to the discourse on how terrible he is and overrated he is and not good. He is a very, very solid quarterback. Somewhere between generally going to be in the 10 to 15 range in the NFL. I think when we ranked it out, we had him in the 14 to 16 range or whatever. But like as an example, the Jaguars are playing the dolphins, a favorite to make the playoffs again in Miami. Do I like him less than two at Tonga Violoa who just got more money than him and is a franchise QB who's going to put up 4,500 yards again? No, absolutely not. I do not. So I'll say Trevor Lawrence is underrated. So overrated. We were just talking to T.J. Reeves about it. I think you got the best you're ever going to see from Baker Mayfield. I don't think that's who he is. I think we got a much bigger sample that says it's a much lower completion percentage. It's a highly less effective. It's more turnover prone. It's more sacks. It's more, you know, saying weird cryptic barking things at teammates and running guys who would like to get paid under the bus and all sorts of other stuff that has led to be on 900 teams in about five minutes, numbers approximate. They got the best Baker Mayfield's ever going to be last year and they got fooled and lulled into it. I don't think you're going to see what he did again. Overrated Tard, right? I'm tempted. It's got to be a player though, yeah. Like I'm tempted to go Jim Harbaugh year one because I just think that there's this a lot of thought that the Chargers are going to have the Harbaugh pixie dust and be better than everyone thinks. And I don't see it in the first year. I don't think they have the talent, but I'll stick with a player. This is going to sound like I don't like this guy and people that listen for a long time know that I actually love the player. Aaron Rodgers, I guess. Same reason. Everyone thinks he's just going to show up and the Jets are going to go to the Super Bowl. That's not really how football works typically. I know that getting a ton better at quarterback does make a big, big difference in their built around him very, very well, but it's he's old. He's coming off a really serious injury. I just have my questions. I'll apologize in advance for that, but I got some questions. Speaking of questions, those were good questions there. Thank you around the NFL. We go ahead of week one. We got to dive in deeper on the commanders. We'll take out a shovel next hour. Win if lose if what will we be saying if they win? What will we be saying if they lose? We'll get to all those things in the four o'clock hour. It's Friday and it's a football Friday. So let's win off the field next. Tell us what little thing has gone well in your day. You're a little mini moral victory. Nobody else would care about at 800-636-1067 on GND. [BLANK_AUDIO] Finally, a chance for the commanders to start winning on the field again with the kickoff of a brand new season on Sunday. Welcome back to GND. It is time for our double play at 345, driven you by your local Washington area, Honda dealers. Stopping for a great deal on the rugged and capable Honda pilot contact your local Washington area, Honda dealers today on Fridays. Our double play is winning off the field. This is something cool that happened that made you smile that nobody else would care about, but the key is it's got to be pretty insignificant fun, awesome moral victory, but insignificant. So I'm going to try to help guys understand a little bit. I'm going to offer two if that's okay. Is that crazy? Is that something we could do this? Sometimes you are two and oh off the field. There you go. I played pickleball this morning on my home pickleball court. Jeff Karen and Brian came over and I wore my weighted vest and I played pickleball this morning, therefore I was. Winning off the field. Secondly, I had a lunch meeting today with somebody and they suggested, why don't we go to the Chipotle right by that's kind of in between our two places of residence? I'm like, I haven't been at Chipotle in a minute and I love Chipotle. So as I'm in line trying to figure out, what am I going to order? What am I? What am I feeling in that moment? They had just finished doing their slow roast of the barbacoa, which is that pulled beef, slow roasted marinated, et cetera. And it was as hot as it was going to possibly be, not sitting in that like steaming container for a while. Now there's nothing wrong with that, but there was more right with the fresh hot right off of the whatever, the clunk or the girl, I don't know, barbacoa. So I got myself a barbacoa burrito. Therefore, I am winning off the field. It's a pretty good day for you. What I did. Yeah. I came into the office today feeling a little bit hungry, but not wanting to go get food. I didn't want to spend money, had packed anything, didn't want to wait till dinner time. But I said at some point inevitably, I'm going to have to just break down and go get something eat. And then Chris Russell opened the door and told me, hey, bud, I cooked up some pasta and snausage. And there's a big bowl of it over here if anybody wants to eat it. Now he has claimed that it has nothing to do with any kind of guilt he was feeling about taking crab pasta out of the refrigerator yesterday. Some could find correlation there if they were looking. He said it was unrelated. I'm going to take his word for it. He occasionally does just cook for everyone on some Fridays. Yeah, he likes to cook. He's good at it, especially the Italian dishes. And I got to tell you, I had a bowl of it. It was fantastic. It was really, really good. I think you had some as well. I love it too. It was delicious. Really scrumptious. So because a pallet work provided us with a meal out of the goodness of his heart, certainly not to get out of the dog house with anybody after yesterday's transgression. Therefore, I am winning off the field. Let's go to Jason, who is in Richmond on GND. Hello, Jason. Hi, Jason. How are you, pal? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Now this one might make a role slightly. It is insignificant to everybody else but me. Okay. But I have just done my 120th out of 120 payments on my federal student loan forgiveness. My student loans are done. That is why I am winning off the field. I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to give it to you. Now, some would claim that's an on field win. That's tricky. That's a pretty big deal. But I'm in a good mood. I think Danny's in a good mood. But Evelyn today, we're going to give it to you. Also, what a great field. How about that feeling, by the way? What a feeling, 120 payments. Can you imagine? Yeah, I can, by the way. Yes, I can. Can we clap it up for him? We can. That's a pretty good day. That one honks. Way to go. Let's go to Herb, who's in ward off on GND. Hello, Herb. What's going on, fellas? They're about to be hanging out. So the other day I went over to Crumble Cookie. It was getting ready to close down. I was looking for one specific cookie that they didn't have. So they said, you know what? We're going to give you some more anyway. So therefore, I am winning off the field. Can I ask you, first of all, it's always good. That's a perfect one. It's easy. What cookie were you looking for? Okay. So they had the, I can't remember the name of it, because they had this banana bread that they just had. They just made my wife wanted to try it out. So they were short on it. So they only had one though. And I was like, we both got to have this. I got to have my own. She had it. She got to have it wrong. Yeah. So can't be sharing. When they didn't have it, they just had one. And there's no way I'm sharing with her. And she's not, it's going to be a battle. Like you're not going to touch my cookies. I'm not going to touch yours. Reason. Have your own. So they say, you know what? We're going to compensate you. Just give you like three, three more. So I was like, wow. Okay. I'll take that. So nice. It worked really well. That's the way the game is played. I like that he's dug into. There is no, we'll just work this out together, me and my wife. He gets it. Yes. We're not, we're not doing that. I'm not having, I'm not going to be putting, not putting myself in that situation. I don't want to be in that situation. We're going to avoid it at all costs. That's the right way. You're not the right person to ask. Okay. Because you are, how do I want to say this? Psychotic. Insane. Yeah. Clary was on a first date at one point. Okay. And ordered chicken wings. And the young lady that he was on a date with, assumed, because there was a plate of chicken wings on the table. Hey, maybe I'll be able to get one of these wings. Clary on a first date. This is like, let's, you know, maybe we'll show her that I'm a good guy. Maybe I'll send a message that I can be trusted. Slapped her hand away and said, ah, tonight, not up in here. But Tumboldt. Clary, it was the second day that we'll say my apologies. It was the second day. Now, were you recorded without your knowledge on that second day? I was not. I was not. Say again what you think about Grant and Danny, like lean inches. Like, can you say it louder? You're employers and their listeners. What do you think of them? You say Danny and Grant are really, really hard to work with. Yeah, I did. She asked for a wing and I said, I'm sorry. I don't really like to share. Oh man, that's so great. Now, it was that, was that a mane for you? Was it an appetizer? No, it was a mane. Like, that was my meal. So not a Massachusetts or Vermont. Main. I think I obviously, I obviously cosign that. But if it's planned, sharing is an appetizer. We can talk about it. But you can't just come over and start annexing. It's not outrageous on both. It's not yours. We are putting our what foot forward on a second date, assuming we're not recording a person to try to get them fired and ruin their life. Mm hmm. What else might we be doing on a second date? We let's not waste each other's time. Nope. This is who I am. Best. This is what I'm looking for. Oh, damn it. Best foot forward. Oh. Two options. Yeah. Record someone, ask them this to give their opinion on things in private and then post it so that everyone gets angry and gets them fired and ruins their life. Uh huh. Or you could just put your best foot forward. Oh yeah. I feel like there's a range in there, but that's, I guess those are the two ends. Colin and Fredericksburg. How are you? Hey, Colin. You mean Bill? Yeah, sure. Are you? Totally. Yeah. Can you say you understand the mistake? Can you just be Colin? Bill and Colin, they sound very sick. I'm Colin. Colin from Fredericksburg. Yeah. I know a guy named Bill Collins. Could just do the talk to you. There we go. Can you say, say Colin, but make it sound like Bill, because clearly you had to have done that for Ryan to have written Colin. Well, thank you. So I'm a special education teacher and I work in a behavior support classroom and two of my toughest kids were not here today on a Friday. Therefore, I am winning off the field. It's an easy day at the office. Boom, bam. Yeah. I mean, I don't play favorites, but I was going to say. Appreciate the calls. Very good. Go win off the field, people. Do it. Let's have a Friday together. It's football season. There was a game last night. There's a game tonight. There's game Sundays. Therefore, we all are winning off the field. Winning off the field. Thank you, Bruce. That way, Blitz is next on G&D. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] As the exclusive sponsor of our show, the Law Firm Condorian Murad will guide you and your family in the right direction, help you to draft a will, set up a trust or create a healthcare power of attorney. Schedule a free consultation with our guys, Condorian Murad, and they're a state planning attorneys at kmloyers.com. Be sure to tell them G&D sent you to get a discount, kmloyers.com. We've got a jam-packed Beltway Blitz. It's going to move. We're talking college football, the nationals, the NFL, and the commanders all jammed into one segment. So let's get it started right now on the Gridiron. The voice of the Virginia Tech Oakies is our buddy, Bill Roth. And I got to say, Bill, man was I bummed this past weekend. I had him at 5 and 0 to start the season. I was one of these people sipping the Kool-Aid thinking playoffs, and I guess with the new format, nothing's done just yet, but that was a brutal loss at Vanderbilt in overtime, 34, 27. It just couldn't make any stops as that game went on. No, it was really interesting. The Kool-Aid turned into a big Gulf of sour milk for all of us. But tomorrow, it's Marshall. And hopefully, we've got a sellout crowd here at Lane State, even Blacksburg. And we're looking forward to the game and see what they can do and bounce back. And they got to get off to a good start. They were down 17, nothing at Vanderbilt. They really dominated the third quarter. They went ahead in the game, 27 to 20, but then they couldn't get stops at the end. And disappointing loss, very frustrating for the players. They've got some injuries, but hopefully, they'll be able to bounce back tomorrow. And they've got four non-conference games to start the season, and they need, man, they need to bounce back tomorrow afternoon. Yeah, preview this one for us against Marshall's team that comes in 1-0. Marshall's got a new offense. We don't even know who their quarterback is. They're playing an air raid offense. They had three QBs last week, each of them through a touchdown pass. But I think for Tech, I visited with Coach Pry about an hour and a half ago in his office. He says, "We just got to get off to a good start." They talked about that a lot this week, come out, throw the first punch, be ready to go from the beginning of the game. And I think that's going to be the key to Virginia Tech. Maybe not only just tomorrow, guys, but the rest of the season, they've got to get over this slow start thing. It bugged them a bit last year. They need to get off to a good start tomorrow. They're the better team. They want a three touchdown favor. They just got to play like it. It's so hard as a fan, you know, as I was saying, to kind of move on. But to your point, it's a game, right? They've got a schedule ahead now with Marshall, old Dominion Rutgers before they play Miami. Now they got a chance to put some hay in the barn here. Talk big picture, if you would, just about what lies ahead in the fact that because of the new format, they still have plenty of time here to get this thing back on track. You know, the ACC is going to get a team in the playoff. And here we are a couple weeks in. I'm not sure who the best team in our league is. I mean, Florida State was the preseason pick to win the league. Now they're 0 and 2. Both are in conference losses. Clemson was picked second. They are 0 and 1. And so the league is certainly wide open. If you asked me today, what's the best team in the ACC football wise? I don't know. It might be Georgia Tech. And it may be Clemson by the end of the season. I don't. But right now, I think the jury is still out on our league. And it wouldn't surprise me at the end of the year, there's more than one ACC team in the playoff. So I think the Hokies, they can't be thinking about that yet. They need to get their ship right. They need a better performance from Kyra and drones at quarterback who last week he did throw for a career high 320 something yards passing. But all of it in the second half, I think they've got to be good early. And drones is kind of the key. You know, like any team, it's how your quarterback plays. He needs to be efficient. He needs to make the right reads. He had an interception and two near picks in the first half last week. He needs to be sharp against Marshall on this field here tomorrow. So Bill, quick one, it seems like not quite to the NFL levels, but week one was a little bit, I don't want to say flooky, but a little bit odd kind of around the country, right? I'm wondering with if it's got to do with transfer portal and a lot of rosters turning over and things been a little bit different, maybe than they have been before. Do you feel like that maybe contributed to, I don't want to say Virginia Tech, not being ready to play out the gate, but maybe that sort of played into that slow start a little bit. You know, it's really interesting. It's a great question because, you know, you've got Duke's quarterback starting for Notre Dame against Duke's former coach, now a Texas A&M. I mean, you really do need a roster. And the, you know, the whole Riley Leonard for the Irish against his former coach, now in college station, Texas was one of the real unique storylines of the opening week. LSU is 0 and 1, Florida State is 0 and 2. So yeah, it is kind of like the NFL. You just don't want to be, if you're the Hokies, you know, you don't want to be, I don't know, the Cincinnati Bengals that go 1 and 3 every year before they rip off nine wins in a row. You know, you, the season isn't that long. We don't have 17 games. I, I think that who can get this thing figured out with it, whatever coach you are, you all have transfer portal guys on your team. And so how you figured this thing out in September is really, really critical. Bill, the broadcast is always fantastic. We'll be checking out right here on one of six, seven, the fan and on the network. We two 30 pregame tomorrow, correct? Two 30 pregame. We're getting set to go at four 30. You know what I'm most excited about? This is the 25th anniversary of Virginia Tech's undefeated season, 1999. All those dudes are back. Michael Vick, we're all going to dinner tonight here in Blacksburg. It's going to be so fun. You know who our scoreboard anchor was in 1999, guys? Who's that? Dave Jaggler. No way. We're going to hear from Jags, right? We are right now, actually. You can ask him about that. 1999 Jags. Everyone gives Vic credit. It was really Jags. Jags, is this true? I'm going to bring you on before you're actually supposed to come out of the curtain. Is this true? Yeah, Bill, Bill got his years wrong. I was there in 1993. I was, I was in, I was in Boston in 1999. So you're giving me improper credit. I was actually in Morgantown, West Virginia for their undefeated season when they went to the Sugar Bowl. So I was in Morgantown for their undefeated season, but I watched from afar and admired your calls of the Hokies undefeated season. Honestly, Grant, I texted Bill because I'm trying to go, you know, I've got a game to prepare for. I'm listening to him just, just throwing on about the Hokies. I'm trying to get on and get out with my life. Bill, Bill is one of my good friends and he was very instrumental early in my career, you know, working with him on the Hokie Network. I also worked in Morgantown. He helped get me a job and Charlotte would launch my career. So I'm forever indebted to Bill. So I will wait on hold for 20 minutes if I have to listen to Bill talk. I had no idea, by the way, that you guys had, honestly, like, these are two of my all time favorite play-by-play guys. I'm marking out. It's the Syracuse connection. How about that? So Bill, you and Dave go back. I had no idea. We go way back and we tied together. You know, Zach Brixie made his big league debut for the Nats this week. He's a Hokie. We're excited about Zach. I hope, you know, everybody in Virginia in the Hokie Nation is pulling for Zach in the Nats. Well, we appreciate you, Bill. Thank you, buddy. Thank you, Bill. And let's get this thing back on track tomorrow. Sounds good. Thanks, guys. Good luck, Jags. All right, see you, Bill. All right. Now let's talk baseball to the real wagler in the Nationals. And let's start with Zach Brixie, who's my guy who was dominant in the minor leagues at a really bad debut, but bounced back in his second outing and got back on track. Jags, what have you made of him so far? I think there's a chance he ends up helping them for a long time in the pen. Well, yeah, I mean, he's going to get some, you know, middle to low leverage appearances now just to get his feet wet. I mean, this is really rehab year. And he missed all of last year with Tommy John Sergers for him to be in the big leagues as a tremendous win for the organization starting the year in the complex league. And, you know, he was, he was really a long shot. I mean, Charlie interviewed him for the pregame show the other day. You know, he was not highly recruited out of high school. He ends up at Virginia Tech. And, you know, that's the COVID year. So he's not drafted. So you're not really highly recruited. You're not drafted. And so, you know, he was just so excited to be in the big leagues. I think you kind of have to throw out the first appearance, you know, some jitters and the bright lights and all that. And so, you know, he was very good last night. He had a scoreless inning and kind of a pop up situation. So, hopefully he'll just he'll finish the year healthy. That's his goal. And then you go into spring training off a full healthy season, you know, competing for a spot, you know, mid to high leverage. Next season, Jags, Jake Irvin, I'm bummed that he's had a couple of these huge crooked numbers in recent starts. It's kind of putting a cloud over what I think is still a really successful and really excellent year. The overall numbers are going to look that way maybe unless he, you know, kind of writes the ship over his last few starts. But what have you seen to kind of give me your thoughts on Irvin? Yeah, I'm worried maybe that he's kind of fatiguing at this point. I mean, you know, he has he has been top five in the league and innings pitched in the national league at least here for the most most of the season. So he he's had a workload that he's never been before. So, you know, they're going to have to have him finish the season on his feet. And if if the numbers are spoiled a little bit, so be it. But I'll take this to the bank, Danny. You look at the seven runs he gave up against the Cubs in the second and the other day and the five innings that he gave up in the second and last night. But how did he finish those out? I mean, here's a go. Normally, you get it, you know, he threw 46 pitches in one inning last night in the second and he was able to pitch three more innings, you know, giving up one run where there was an error involved. He retired the final eight batters that he faced. The game on Sunday gives up a touchdown yet he gets eight more outs after that. So he even when things go poorly, there's still something positive you can hang your hat on. So, you know, hopefully he'll take this whole six month season as a learning experience. He trains maniacally between starts. So he'll have to make that adjustment to not maybe, you know, run out of steam in September to get to the finish line, you know, to the end of September and hopefully someday into October. So even when things don't go well, there's still something at the end of the day. They're like, man, he did this well. And that's happened in the last two games, even though it's really hurt as a RA. Dave's got pregame with Charlie at six 10 about two hours from now. And then first pitch tonight from Pittsburgh at beautiful PNC Park at 640. Hey, before we let you go really quick, Dylan Cruz has cooled off, expected after he got off to that start with a couple homers in his first four games. What have you made of him overall so far? Yeah, I think right now struggling to catch up to the fastball a little bit, but you know, still giving you some decent at bats. I mean, he drew a walk last night through two walks the night before. So, you know, it's not like he's totally overmatched. You know, I think last night, he'll be frustrated about the ball that he dropped in the gap and right center would have been a nice running catch. The ball hit off the heel of his glove, really hurt Jake Irvin in that five run inning. And speaking of the pregame show on Dylan Cruz, we've got a special treat tonight. Paul Skeens did a media availability. So, we got to ask him a bunch of questions about, you know, Dylan Cruz and not facing Cruz and Dylan taking him deep when when the schemes was at Air Force. So, kind of a special something a little different on our pregame show tonight to hear from the other side. You know, obviously Paul Skeens could have been a national if, you know, if the pirates had taken Cruz or if the NASA had the number one pick. So, that will hopefully be enjoyable for folks tonight. Jax, thank you so much. We'd have a great call. All right. See you boys. Hit that NFL sounder, please, Dares. Our buddy, Zach Krueger joins us to break down week one of the National Football League. Zach, first, what did you make of last night, that game and those two teams? Oh, what's up, guys? Long time no see. Happy to be on. The opening game, but I think everything we kind of hope for is football fans. You had two offenses, both, you know, making the way down the field. The star quarterbacks between the homes and Lamar kind of, you know, did what we expect to see them right out of the gate. I thought for everything Lamar dealt with from just an offensive blind perspective and really conservative play calling. I thought I did a nice job of overcoming some of those things even just to keep the game close. Late in that one, obviously the out of bounds past Isaiah likely was an unfortunate turnout, but it was an exciting first start. I'm really looking forward to the start of the season, obviously, and I'm happy to be on here and chop it up with you guys a little bit. So let's go around the horn on some injuries that I know you're tracking for what you do normally on the fantasy side of things. Colts Texans, no Josh Downs is going to be out with an ankle. What else are you monitoring on an injury front? Yeah, so for Josh Downs, he's officially been rolled out for the Colts. The guy I'm monitoring in that game just to see how the the Colts are going to look to replace him is rookie Adenai Mitchell. He's the second round receiver out of Texas. He totaled 55 catches for 845 yards and 11 touchdowns. Last year he has 434 speed. It was reported after down suffered the injury in camp that Mitchell was possibly going to work out the slot. In his final preseason game, he ran 12 out of 15 routes from the slot for PFF. So Mitchell is a guy I'm kind of looking to see how they're going to work him into the passing game. Obviously, we know what Michael Pittman Jr. can provide, but there's going to be have to be someone else can catch the ball, you know, work in the short and intermediate areas, maybe stretch the field a bit out of nine Mitchell, the guy who I think could maybe the plant downs with him being rolled out week one. We'll see if you can make it a return in week two for next week. How are you viewing bingles Patriots with Jamartje showing up to work like an hour before they played their first game? I know T Higgins has been on a hamstring too. Yeah, it's a tough one. The T Higgins one was not expected. He popped up on the injury report yesterday. He actually said afterwards on practice yesterday, he said, I feel amazing. And that quote didn't exactly align with Friday. Today he did not practice. He was officially listed as doubtful. So T Higgins is probably a long shot to play. And then for Jamartje, he's ruled himself as a game time decision. Head coach Zach Taylor said we'll see. We, you know, he's been pretty vague about everything regarding Jamartje. I expect that Jamartje is going to play especially with Higgins likely to be out. But again, another set of receivers to watch with Higgins probably set to miss is Trent Irwin who filled in on the outside in games where T Higgins missed last year. He also dealt with the hamstring injury. And then second year wide receiver, Andrei Yosovac is a player to watch. He won the slot receiver role this year for the bingles thumb. May forget Tyler Boyd, the former slot man, is now at the Titan. So Andrei Yosovac, he's six foot three. He's another speed throughout a Princeton who really impressed last year and has now earned a starting slot role. So with Higgins likely to miss those are two wide receivers I'm watching. In addition to Chase who also said earlier today with the media that he's probably going to be on the snaps count. I would still, you know, obviously be bullish on Chase producing in this one, but he could, he may not be on the field for his normal assortment of snaps. Zach Kruger is with us here on G and D. All right. How about any breakout players you're looking at this weekend? Anybody to keep an eye on that's got a good matchup and then also localize it for us and give us a commander that you like in their matchup with Tampa Bay. Yeah, so let's actually stick with Tampa Bay real quick. Tampa Bay and commanders. One rookie I'm watching it specifically against this commander secondary. We'll see how they do is Galen McMillan. He's a third round pick out of Washington. He impressed in the preseason as well as in camp and actually earned the second outside receiver role opposite Mike Evans. I'm curious to see how McMillan could perform against this commander secondary. He's a player I'll be keeping an eye on and the other one is James and Williams. We know him. We have a former first round pick. Adam Alabama for the Lions, a rough start between the ACL and suspension over the last two years, but he's been getting a lot of high grades. I'm very interested to see what he can do against the Rams secondary that's already banged up. And then for the local 53, Terry McLaurin is a guy. I like it's kind of a easy one to mention here, but last season the Buccaneers third most passing yards well per game eight ties YPA and 11th highest quarterback rating. I think McLaurin's going to be fun with a lot of targets and a game that could end up being either a shootout or perhaps even a negative game script where Washington maybe has to throw a little bit more than they were planning. So Zach, thank you as always, buddy. Talk soon. Thanks a lot guys. Take it easy. Sounds good, my friend. Hit that local 53 dares. Our guy, Michael Phillips, you hear him on the radio and in let me see today's the six and it's the seventh and anything in three days you can read him in the rich render joins this year to break down the local Washington 53 whose names should change immediately. Miguel, are people looking past this Tampa game? Tampa's not bad. Oh, I hope not. I mean, I think they're underdogs in this game. I think you you've got a couple factors here. One, the unknown, right? If you want to sell the win, hey, these guys haven't shown what they can do yet. We haven't seen a cliff Kingsbury off at Jane Daniels. We haven't really seen him run, right? There's a lot of unknowns. Tampa's got a plan for you'll play it the other way. There's a team that knows what they're doing. Tampa was a good respectable outfit last year. They hit the run it back button. Everybody's there. They don't have to waste time and training camp by wearing name tags and getting to know each other and figuring out systems. They know what they're doing. I think there's there's a compelling argument both ways. I think you got to consider Tampa the favorite though coming in. How much of a chance along those lines do you give Washington, though? Yes. This is the NFL. So predicting a one score game is not exactly. I'm not exactly giving you a hot take here. NFL games are one score games. And I think this will be a one score game to me your key matchup. Can the corners contain these Tampa receivers, right? You got two really great receivers. Do you have two corners who are up to the task? Is Benjamin St. Jude's going to rise to the occasion? Bscb1 Disrupt Pass is a manual for in a spot where he can assist or is somebody else one of these other guys or maybe even a Mike Stan Ritz to label the rotate forward and do it. If you cannot contain these Tampa receivers, come be a long day. I don't think they can. So anyway, I was just thinking of the rest of this matchup though. To me, this is about what Jay Daniels does doesn't do and everything in between. I'm terrified. I'll be terrified kind of throughout this rookie season of him getting hit and unnecessary hits and maybe lack of production at times. Your prescription a week one. What kind of day do you see him having and how do they attack? I know it's such a every leave of playoff contender in week one. You like to win. Winning is good. There are things that are more important than winning. I think the kids development is one of I was cringing watching Lamar last night. I mean, dude took the team on his back and just got hit and he got hit. He's lower in his shoulder to try to get a first down like, no, you lost weight, but don't do that anymore. That's not your body type. You know, if he does that every game this year, he's not making it 17. Everybody sees that. You know, I don't want Jay Daniels running the ball double digit times. I love it. I love the idea. I love what it's going to bring to the table. I want him playing games this year. And I don't know that that's the recipe to do that. Phillips, I'm going to go off the beaten path. So I apologize if I'm putting you on the spot here, but I love it. We were talking to Bill Roth about the Hokies right off the top. You and I were talking a lot at the event. You and I did with AWAD down in Richmond and with Danny and the crew about Virginia Tech getting off to a good start. Obviously, that didn't happen. What college games, low of the locals, whether it's Maryland, Virginia, whatever, are interesting to you this weekend? Well, I hope the tech game is not interesting. They need to win. That was a coaching loss on Saturday. Brent Pride knows that in year three, they've got to be better than that. He's got to handle his business. 25th anniversary of the 99 national championship game team, they'll all be their sellout crowd. You got to bring the fans back on board. I'll love Virginia Wake Forest. Anthony Colandry is the quarterback of Virginia. Second year player, he's exciting. He can run. He keeps his eyes down field as he scrambles. He's not afraid to make any throw. Problem is great. He's not afraid to make any throw. Last three played six game had 14 turnovers. He actually can't do that in college football and win. He looked a lot better in the opener. If he can get his head on straight and not turn the ball over, that might be a sneaky team to watch an ACC play. Call your shot Tampa Washington on Sunday. Who wins? What's score? I got Tampa by seven. I do think it's a shootout. I know that's probably the way everybody else is going here too. Give me maybe a 31 to 24 something in that ballpark. I think the kick and score points. I love Cliff James Berry in an opener. I think there's a lot to like about the offense. Two left tackles. That's clearly better than one left tackle. Obviously, that's just simple math. So I do like the offense, but I go back to what you said, Danny. I think you put it very succinctly after I said a lot of words. How could you possibly think these corners are going to be able to contain the Tampa receivers based on what we've seen? Miguel, thank you, buddy. Take care guys. See, but enjoy your weekend. That is a juicy, chock full. Beltway blitz, little, little four way there. By the way, were you guys scoring at home? Did you notice that? That was wild. That's, I mean, head on a swivel right there. I mean, that's going quickly. That got real Ryan through a trident. Danny killed a guy probably wanted for murder. I mean, meaning to tell you, you should probably lay low. Commanders beat the bucks. If they lose to Tampa Bay. If and how are we going to feel with a win or with a loss? That's next on G and D. With Danny, I'm Grant. This is the fan. It's week one. The commanders play the box in two days. We'll open up the MGM National Harbor listener lines for you guys. If you want to hop in on the commanders now, the commanders beat the bucks. If let's fill in that blank and then we'll talk about a loss and what would lead to that. But the commanders will beat Tampa Bay. If you get some really big explosive plays on offense and you would think that comes through the passing game. I don't know how that's going to happen, but this again, this is a good secondary. Maybe the best, you know, free safety center field around Toronto wind field, junior and football. But if you can hit a couple of home runs here, maybe one easy button, long touchdown catch and run or, you know, catch them on a wares or sucker of the defense up with enough of the gut punch read option and downhill thumping to Brian Robinson, block something up and play action and get something deep and hit a home run. I think if you get a couple of huge plays on offense, you got a legit chance to beat Tampa Bay. Jaden Daniels balls out. They beat Tampa Bay of Daniels has a day. I don't see Griffin against New Orleans and his debut in 2012 at the super dome in the cards when he threw for 300 and they went for 400 on offense and 40 points. But something where we leave the game going, we got him. You know, Daniels is just that dude where the headlines on the blogs are he's him and all that kind of stuff because he just ran for a hundred and threw for 225 and he just had a field day. If he comes out and lights it up, he makes good decisions. That means protecting the football, not turning it over. Jaden Daniels plays a great game. I think you win. Other side of the ball defensively, if I'm going to look for an answer there, I would say they generate a legit pass rush and they force Baker Mayfield into bad decisions. They get takeaways, a couple of picks maybe. Who knows? Emmanuel Forbes, for goodness sake, gets his hands on a football for the first time in his career or maybe a linebacker, Lou Voo or Wagner jumps in a passing lane at some point because Mayfield has to force something. But you know, Valin or Payne pushed the pocket or maybe it's, you know, Fowler or Jamie Davis or somebody off the edge. If they're able to generate pass rush more than we're expecting in this first game to the point where they're hitting the quarterback, sack fumbles, interception, something like that happens a couple times. I think all of a sudden in a one possession type game, which is what most of us are expecting, that swings the pendulum. It's hard to properly quantify just how truly bad in all facets Washington was last year, defensively against the pass on an average pass play. If you receive the snap from your center, whether shotgun or under center and you drop back to pass, you gain seven yards. That's your average pass play. That's what happens. So if you check it down for five, you hurt your average. It's the, it was the most, it was the easiest thing to do in football last year was to pass against Washington. If you played Washington as a quarterback 17 times, you would have been the MVP full stop. That's got to change. That's got to get better. They win this game. Two things. One for me on offense is you get something explosive down the field against Tampa, because I think if you line up and try to thump them and play them, they'll say, thank you very much and end up winning that game. If you get a couple home runs, that's great. To me, this is really boiled down to the area that needed to improve the most on defense, which was the secondary coverage, all things in between. It's not an enormous set of personnel upgrades, right? I mean, camcrows gone, Jeremy chins in. I think that's maybe a mild upgrade there. You need everybody covered. So everybody that's not rushing the passer, linebackers have to be better in that regard, safeties have to be better, corners have to be better. You've got as good a set of secondary coaches, trainers, guys to assist with development that you're going to have. So get tested first week, man. Two different kinds of guys, shifty underneath in Chris Godwin, Rashad White's really good out of the backfield for the linebackers to do with. And you know about Mike Evans, it's it's boring and he doesn't run as fast as maybe used to, but he's gone for a thousand. He's gone for double digit touchdowns. And if you're Tampa Bay, a Tampa fan, you're probably licking your chops for the week one matchup. Commanders beat the box. If lose to Tampa Bay, if filling those blanks for us, phone lines wide open 800 636 1067 is how you can join us on Grant and Danny here on the fan. Washington's defense last year finished 31st in yards per play 26th against the run and 31st passing wise in yards per play, 7.45 per pop. What you were referencing, Danny, they also gave up 262.2 yards per game, two quarterbacks on average, which was dead last in the NFL. How about Washington loses to Tampa Bay F? This to me is as simple as the outside corners are getting beat. They're getting man handled. Again, last year, just to quantify, Washington gave up 39 touchdowns through the air, only intercept that eight passes. Their opponent quarterback grading was 105.7. Again, that's the MVP of the league last year. If that's different, if that's better, if it's diff, look, honestly, Tampa's not great at running the football. They've struggled with that for a few years now. And it's not as if for Shard whites are a great bell cow. He's more of a versatile scat-back kind of a guy. If you, you know, sort of force them into running type moments, right? If you're taking away some things, maybe some late boxes, maybe your whole game plan is to not let them beat you through the air. And everything about that turns into a, let's have a slugfest. I'll take my chances in that regard with Washington versus Tampa in a mucky AFC North kind of a game. But if you let them sling it against you, it's over. I think we're seeing it similarly, by the way, I think both of us view the fear of the game the exact same way, which is to say, I look at their biggest problem, their issue being if Evans and God, when get going, if those guys are running free, getting open, making plays, that curtains, it's over right then and there. And I'm starting with pass rush. That was why I said they got to do that to win. You're talking about more just being able to have some coverage that works out. But if Evans goes seven for a hundred, Godwin goes six for nine year, whatever, those guys are combining and both having big days and they're moving the chains. Tampa Bay sustaining drive, staying on the field. You know, Michael Phillips as an example came under in the blitz and said he thinks it's a 31 24 Tampa Bay win, something like that. Well, that is a script where Tampa Bay through the football success. Yes. They were effective and efficient through the air. Evans and Godwin probably get their numbers. Maybe McMillan is a contributor as well. But to me, the path to a win is to your point, taking at least one of those guys out of the game and just making sure that Mayfield's not comfortable and not dropping back throwing for two 75 and three scores. That's the way you beat Tampa Bay. Make them one dimensional and let them pound the football because points aren't coming from the running game. Yeah, if you want to pound the rock, you're doing us a favor. And that's the way I do it. I mean, last year, that was the case. It's not as if they were good against the run for the most part. I think it was 4.5 a pop middle of the pack in the league. But you were doing Washington's defense a favor every time you didn't throw it. And that's not hyperbolic. That was what the stats said. So barring, not not just an improvement, because an improvement, you're still regular, terrible. Boring a cat is not a catastrophic, a profound turnaround. That's still the weakness of the of the team, in my opinion. So, I mean, that's the, at least on that side of the football. So that to me is one of the most worried. And again, I don't think Baker Mayfield's gonna have a great season. I think we'll have a great game though. Updated commander's injury report for the record. Marcus Marioda again today, did not practice and was ruled out. So your backup quarterback, the big picture plan, the whole Marioda is the guy if Jaden Daniels comes off the field, not in week one. That'll be Jeff Driscoll in the first game of the season for Washington. Johnny Newton did practice. He went from being unable to take the field on Thursday to limited, but he is doubtful for the game. So don't expect him to make his debut. Doubtful now also means essentially out. It's like a 25% chance it is going to go weird that they wouldn't just completely rule them out to be honest with you after a DNP and was limited today. But for whatever reason, they listed him as doubtful. And then the rest of the way, everybody was full go and isn't even on the injury report in terms of game status. Brandon Coleman with a shoulder full practice. Cleveland Farrell with the knee, full go. He was actually named the captain of the defense for this game. Dante Fowler, junior dealing with the knee, full practice all week. Doron Payne started the week limited with a back. He was full go and Trent Scott with the knee limited on the start of the week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, full go as a swing tackle. So they come into this game for what it's worth extremely healthy as good as you can hope for you. Only Newton, their third detackle, their second round pick, but a guy that didn't play all preseason anyway and was pretty sparsely involved in training camp. He's the only guy that's dealing with anything really going into the first game. The only guy you were counting on who's who's not going to be himself and a guy probably won't play. But that's sort of, that's not one of those what happened in preseason or it happened in training camp. This is like a lingering thing from the springtime or the late winter, you know, where it was like rehabbing and coming back from that. Just looking at the Buck's injury report too, I hate to say it's good news. But Kalaji Kancy, who's their detackle next to Vida Vida, who's good. I mean, that guy went to pit because of that and also his quickness and size. He gets some like young Aaron Donald comps, limited today after not being on the injury report with a calf problem and now listed questionable. Normally, if you go from full practice for a couple of days to limited on Friday, there's a good chance you don't play. That would be a godsend. If they didn't have to deal with him and Vida Vaya, they also ruled out their starting defensive and Logan whole who didn't practice all week with the foot. So at least from an injury standpoint, Washington has the early shape there. Yeah, going into the game. Next on GND. If the commanders get off to a one and O start, what are we going to be saying around here next week? And if they lose in their own one, what's the conversation going to be? You could join us next on the MGM National Harvard listener lines at 800 636 1067 on GND. First football Friday of the season. We'll hit the phones in just a moment. 100 636 1067. You want to line up to talk commanders bucks? Danny, how are you going to feel if they win? Let's say Washington starts one and O Daniels plays well. The conversation around town is going to be very positive, very optimistic next week as it should be. Not much downside. There's only one scenario to me where I'll be upset or hurt or sad or whatever. And that's an injury to Jay Daniels. And I'm not being hyperbolic. I mean to me, patience is the name of the game. I know a lot of fans don't want to hear that. A lot of fans are sick of waiting. I get it. I'm in here too. It's been decades for me also. But now there's a real way out. There's a real chance that game is meaningful. It's not meaningful in Carson Wentz as your quarterback or Ryan Fitzpatrick or Casey Keenan or any of the other Jags that have come through here has leftovers from somewhere else with a real GM real ownership and a quarterback that's got a shot. Patience is the name of the game. So slip up. You lose week one. He doesn't look great. Whatever gets sacked a bunch. No problem. If they win, it means that he did something pretty special. That's my guess. I don't think you can, you can do the spoon feed, the rookie Ben Rothosberger in Pittsburgh or Russell Wilson in Seattle as part of like a good team that he's taking over. This is not a good team that he's taken over. He's got to kind of be the savior. And if he does that in week number one and does something pretty special, it'll be hard to contain my excitement. Yeah, it's not a great team for sure. I don't think it's a terrible team though. It's certainly not like the the worst second worst team in the NFL, which is what they finished last year because they signed 25 new guys and 70% of new roster. And there's a lot of veterans and decent football players on one year deals that they brought in here to elevate the personnel group. So I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle where yeah, it's not a great team. It's definitely not a terrible team, but I'm with you. He's got to play some hero ball if they're going to really overachieve, which maybe doesn't happen and doesn't have to. I just hope that he starts fast this season. I don't necessarily mean in this game, but overall, I think it would be really important and really good because you and I have been around these blocks since 2014 doing this show for 10 years. And at least our perception on the outside looking in, I'd say is that despite a new owner and a new front office and a new head coach and a new quarterback, I don't remember like this little juice going into a week one game for us. Yeah, interacting with our listening audience. And I really do hope that Daniel's having a huge game or Washington getting somehow a win this weekend and then they're off to a two and O start against the Giants. You know, maybe it's a snowball rolling downhill starts building on itself. But regardless of the wins or the losses, I just hope he plays well enough because really that's what he'll get people to start being excited and buying it. Let's go to Kevin and Arlington on Grant and Danny. What's up, Jeff? Hey, boys. Happy Friday. Yeah, I get grants that the buzz isn't, you know, what it's been. But I think I think part of it is it's such a new team with over 50% new players. We've never seen play together. It's on the road. You know, I just think there's so many unknowns. And I think that's why we're being cautious. Plus, you know, we've all been snake bitten before, but I'm envisioning it to be a ball security game because of the bad weather and that if we can come out on top, both of which are protecting the football and then taking away the football in a Joe with DQ type of defensive performance, it's going to be, let's go leading into week two. I really do think that. I think it'll be a lot like the buzz after the New Orleans game and Griffin came out and just surprised. Remember, we really weren't sure what we were going to see there, either, and that it was thrilling. Obviously the difference being and appreciate the guys always kept the difference being that going into that game, everyone's chanting his name at every practice, and I mean, he's already been crowned tonight show for goodness sake, you know, as like as a celebrity that's not even a quarterback, you know what I mean? Boxing because of the highs men and he's on every commercial and whatever else. It was a whole different world. I also think it was just a different organization and a different fan base. The fan base was bigger. It was more passionate. They were still called the Redskins. A lot of people that don't care about them anymore still did people that currently care about them a little bit cared about them a lot more at that time. There was a lot of differences, but the point is the same, which is we didn't really know what it was going to look like. And in one fell swoop in four quarters with that new offense that was so dynamic and Griffin playing the way he did and then hitting some of those explosive plays to Garcon and others that they were able to. I think that the expectations changed massively in three hours. And everybody really, really got excited. In the end, they would obviously win the division. Let's go to Alex and college park on G&D. What's up? Hey, thank you guys for taking my call. So I think, you know, from my time on social media as a Washington fan, I think we're a fan base that's quick to make decisions pretty impulsive. And with the new ownership, I think that if we win week one, I think a lot of people are going to be praising Peters and Harris in the new ownership. And if we lose, it's going to be the complete opposite. Just like you guys were saying, it's like a new roster and everything. So I think if we win, they're going to be like, wow, they turned it around. And if we lose, I think they're going to be like, look what they did. They took away all of our good players. So I just think, however, week one goes, there's going to be how a lot of the fans judge the new ownership. Interesting. When we've been so starved for a sample, so starved for something, the little we get is how we make judgments. I mean, think back, you actually used to do a great bit about this. Remember, I don't remember how long ago it was like two years ago, the Mets started out like red hot. They were the best team in baseball in April. And it was like, oh my God, no, it's going to be the Mets. It's like, bet you somebody does, bet you they come back down to earth. And then of course they did. And that was that. But everyone's reacting to the early sample because we've all been so starved. So if they go one and O, you know, you're going to get the same cadre of fans that are going, this is probably the 17 and O team. This is probably the team that that supersedes the dolphins. This will be better than the Patriots group that's at the points record. We're going to the Super Bowl this year. You're one of Dan Quinn. Everything is perfect. We're great. You know, if they lose, they'll go O and 17, everyone should be fired. That normal reactionary fandom type stuff is there when you've got no other sample to compare it to. I don't know about you though, GP. I get the sense that we're still very much in the honeymoon phase for this ownership. If there's, you know, for three, four years from now, there's a bunch of missteps and and things that they said, we're going to be better, aren't better. And, you know, the over promised and under deliver sort of hallmark of the Snyder regime. I'm not talking about scandals. We're never going to approach that crap again. But you know what I mean? Like, if it if it doesn't go well for a while, I think that's going to wear off. But I still feel like we're very much in that honeymoon phase. Totally agree. Yeah. Yeah. I think for most people, they're just happy. Dan Snyder's not the owner. And maybe that's where some of the lack of like energy about a week one game against Tampa is maybe the excitement isn't there to see Bobby Wagner play linebacker. But they're happy that there's a general manager. They're happy that they fired Ron Rivera. You know, there's still kind of in 2023 mode in that way, possibly. Let's do this next on GND. Let's extrapolate the conversation out to the national NFL, going into week one and the rest of the matchups. And let's predict the headlines after the games for each of the contests in week one. We'll go through all of the matchups next at 525. We'll get back into the commanders. We'll jump on some overs unders against Tampa Bay, project some of the stat lines for Washington's key players. You're listening to the fan. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] Granton Danny taking you up to 610 and that's pregame tonight. Our first installment of our confidence points picks at 545. We'll get you a preview in that space ball before we get out of here, but it's going to be a football heavy football Friday on GND the rest of the way. The exclusive sponsor of this shows the law firm Condorian Murad will guide you and your family in the right direction by helping you to draft a will set up a trust or create a health care power of attorney schedule a free consultation with their estate planning attorneys at kmlawyers.com and be sure to tell them we sent you so that you can get a discount. That's kmlawyers.com. Let's go around the NFL, get you ready for every single game this weekend and try to predict some headlines on the other side of these tilts. Got the Packers and the Eagles in the first ever game in Brazil. First time we're playing a Friday night opener in week one in 50 years, 8 15 kickoff tonight. Green Bay just about made the NFC championship game last year came up a bit short. The Eagles completely ran out of steam, lost seven straight games to end their season after an amazing start. The Eagles are big back. They will look excellent tonight. They will look awesome. They will look like one of the teams that's a legit contender for the NFC and maybe even the whole damn thing. Doesn't mean the Packers won't look good as well. I think the Packers are for real. I think they're going to be a threat. But to me, this is the Eagles are big back. Headline for me. Jordan love the real deal. I think love in Green Bay look very sharp tonight. I remember love got paid this offseason and it's just the beginning for him. He turned into being one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL last year. Top three in touchdowns, top seven in passing yards and even really get it going until the back nine was the second half the season where he really started to feel comfortable. Let's go to game number two. The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Atlanta Falcons. This opens up the one o'clock window on Sunday, Danny. In this game, they're playing in Atlanta. The broadcast crew. Let's see who's calling this one. I got him in all listed in front of me. Joe Davis, Greg Olson, Pam Oliver. This is the B team for five. That's the really good squad and they get stuck with that one. Davis and all over that. That might end up being their best team, depending on how Tom Brady does on Fox this year. Yeah. On paper right now, they're best team to me. This is for the Steelers perspective, you offense ain't fixed. It's still bad. I don't know what they're going to do. The win this game with, you know, the win games with guts and hope and Mike Tom on toughness. And for the Falcons, it's have they found an answer? Do they finally have something that's a steadying presence in Kirk Cousins, potentially, with some of their dormant weapons who have been sitting there watching Tyler Algier get too many carries. Is it a cow pits renaissance? Is it Drake London as good as everybody's ever has has thought potentially with a quarterback that can throw it a little bit. Do the Falcons have an answer? I'll say the headline is don't sleep on Tomlin. The Steelers on the road as an underdog have the best record under Mike Tomlin of any team in that time period. He has made people more money as an underdog against the spread than any coach over the last 20 years. He gets points. You normally want to roll with Mike Tomlin Kirk Cousins and the Falcons trying to start wanting to know at home. Yes, Zach hit us with that number. He said, how many reps do you think we got during training camp? I said, I don't know over a thousand. He said about 2000. And then he said, OTA is about 2,500. So almost 5,000 reps. And I mean, to me, that was comforting, you know, comforting. No, just how much we've been through. You can forget easily how much work we've put in. And we have done a lot to build. And now it now accounts. Now it's the real thing. And we've got to turn that into a production, you know, in the real thing. And that's what we've been saying. I've been standing here for weeks, months talking about how it's just talk right now. And that's all it can be in May and July. But Cardinals, Bills, one o'clock kick in Orchard Park in Buffalo. This game on CBS, Tom McCarthy, Jay Fealy, Ross Tucker on the call. What's wrong with the bills? They're going to win the game, but they're not going to look as good doing it. They got to go through a little bit of a growing pain right now where they welcome in a new wide receiver. They got to find the production that has gone down to find digs. They're going to make it up by committee, whether it's Curtis Samuel, Colleen Shakir at Keon Coleman to that mix. Defensively, they've gotten a little bit worse. I think Arizona is frisky in this one. But it's going to be, are we sure the bills are good? They are, by the way, but they're going to go through it a little bit in the beginning of the season. Josh Allen still got it. Allen's going to play a big game. They're going to roll, get their first win. Headline will be that Allen delivered the goods. But we do get a debut in this game from one of the highest, most talented rookies drafted this past year. And that's Marvin Harrison Jr. who's been compared to his Hall of Fame father and Larry Fitzgerald because of the Cardinals ties. I think I said before, Jay G told me when I first got here, it should just be you. They kind of felt all the expectations and the comparisons that I may have from that Larry. So if we want the, he told me it's just being used to try to do a good job going. Titans are at the Bears for a one o'clock kick in Chicago at Soldier Field. Adam Amine, Mark Sanchez, Christina Pink, Roman, the sidelines for this contest. Headline. Congrats on your rookie of the year award, Caleb Williams. He's going to sew it up. Week one. I'm being hyperbolic to a degree, but he's going to have an incredible debut. He's going to sling it hundreds of yards, so many touchdowns, few wow plays. He is going to be the talking point Monday morning. Chicago found their quarterback. They have never had a QB throw for 4,000 yards ever. Can you imagine that by the way? It's going to happen this year for the first time. I also, you know, I know you and Ryan have talked about the Titans as a frisky playoff type team. I don't see it that way, but I am very interested to see what Will Levis looks like in this game as he tries to solidify himself as the quarterback of the future in Tennessee. This year is kind of make or break for him. Yeah, if he throws the ball really well and he looks like the future, then he'll get more time. If not, they're going to be in the quarterback market with Brian Callahan, not having taken him and coming in this off season as soon as maybe this coming draft. Here's Caleb Williams this week on looking for a dub. As long as we get a win, because last time I remembered, you know, the wins are the most important thing. And so as long as we get that win at the end of the day, 100 yards, 400, you know, it's, it all becomes the same going to locker room. You celebrate each year. Got your 24 hour period to enjoy the win. And then from there, you move on and get ready for the next team. I've been impressed by how he's handled himself. Now him at the podium, he says all the right things Jaden Daniels like in that regard. He's acquitted himself very well. Now it's time to play football. Let's go to the AFC and the Patriots and the Bengals from Cincinnati. One o'clock kickoff for New England and the Bengals. This game is on CBS Paramount plus iron Eagle Charles Davis, Evan Washburn on the sideline. He is back. He is back. We have gotten burrow back the reunited triumvirate, the T Higgins. I'm not sure if he's going to play with this hamstring, but you're more chase with his weird hold out in, you know, no resolution. It's going to be about Joe burrow. And it's an underrated story, I think, coming back from this wrist injury that he had, there's not a lot of precedent for guys coming back and being the same. If he is, he won't skip a beat and he'll be back to being the MVP candidate that he's been when he's healthy, the Bengals are a threat to win the whole damn thing. And I think we're going to get a nice soft landing spot here in week one for burrow and the Bengals. He played 10 games last year. First few games. Remember it was that ankle. Mm hmm. They weren't right. No, but he also wasn't. It was the worst football he's played in his career is fine. 15 touchdown, six picks, 66% complete, but it was some of the worst numbers. He's posted as a guy who's a former, you know, all pro CPOY, come back player of the year and all the things that he's done in his career, having been to a Super Bowl. Here's burrow getting ready to try to start one and all against a bad Patriots team. Hi, just like every year, you know, whenever you're coming back from injury, you feel like you got to come back and show that not only you can do what you did prior to the injury, but also that I've gotten better. So I'm excited to go out and show the work that I've put in over the last, you know, eight months. I know the other guys are too. It's been a long time coming. So we're ready to go. Dateline Indianapolis for the Texans and the Colts CBS Paramount plus 1 p.m. kick Andrew Catalan calling the game with Tiki Barber providing analysis. Three man booth, actually, Jason McCordy also on the call in this one. The battle for the AFC South is on whoever wins this game. And I imagine it'll be close. I mean, the line is Texans favored on the road by two and a half points depends on where your book is. But these are the two teams in my view that have the best shot to win the AFC South with Jacksonville kind of lurking, maybe a half tier below. But Indianapolis probably disrespected by a lot of folks because everybody's crowned Houston, who on paper is the best team in the division. But there's a lot of topsy turviness if that's even a term in that in that particular division. I expect more of the same. No sophomore slump for Stroud. There's your headline. Shroud plays. Well, Texans are who we thought they were. Maybe another headline. They play big. They beat the Colts. They get to 1 and 0 in Indianapolis on the road. Steichen going back to the drawing board. Let's stay in the AFC with the Jaguars and the dolphins in Miami. Jacksonville a one o'clock kick at the dolphins in the heat. Some notes on this game. This is interesting to me. I look this up. So when it's 80 plus degrees in Miami, okay, it's going to be for this game. The dolphins are 29 and 14 straight up since 2016, 2017. That visitor sideline as we talked about earlier is on in the sun in the heat during the toa era. They're 15 and three straight up when the weather is over 80 degrees in Miami. Let's go say that sample includes some terrible Miami teams where the owner was trying to pay the coach to lose. Exactly. You know, even still Mike McDaniel as the head coach of the team in hot games early in the season, nine and one. This is when they put hay in the barn. I'm all over Miami taking on Jacksonville in this game. I guess we should keep with the trend and tell you on the call for this contest. You've got our boy, Kevin Harlan with green and Melanie Collins. There's a track meet and you're all invited. Miami rolls in this one. I think they're going to look dominant. It's about what happens from November on to with the leader like the hit factor. I've had the effect. No, I've I've I've had the effector since I was in high school then going into college and then coming to here. That's that's how I've always like viewed myself as going out and competing. Yeah, very, very nice, very cool, calm collective, but like inside just, you know, just very competitive. And so, you know, a lot of the guys know know how I am and whatnot, but I guess it's just only now showing that I'm becoming a little more vocal. So that's it. Panthers and Saints at one o'clock in Nollins. They're playing at the Superdome NFC South football. Chris Myers, Mark Schlerith on the call Jen Hale working the sideline. The Panthers are still terrible. The Panthers are still terrible. I think they picked first in the draft and this is a great start to that this week. So good. So car. Oh, yeah. I'm gonna say it again. So car. So good. How about that? There it is. There it is. Derek Carr, who retains his starting job and everyone backs off for a week because he plays okay in a Saints win. Everybody wants to see Spencer Rattler. It's not going to happen early in the season. And especially that could happen next week. Although Dave Canales in Carolina could play spoiler. I'm excited to see if Price Young looks any different. Let's go to the big apple Dateline New York still in the one o'clock window on Sunday. The Minnesota Vikings game one post Kirk cousins. Sam Darnold at quarterback against Daniel Jones and the New York football giants. Our guy Kenny Albert with John Vilma on the call Megan Olevi on the sideline turn on the jets. Justin Jefferson goes for a buck 48 in a Vikings win. The Giants offense remains anemic. Kevin O'Connell is dealing with a Jordan Addison issue this week. Yeah, he's, he's doing, he's doing better and he was limited really on Monday and moved around quite well. We'll do a little more today. And then we'd like to kind of progress him, hopefully to full to full by the end of the week. But I think Jordan's in a good spot and feels, I feel pretty good about him making the game. We are on to the four o'clock game starting with the Vegas Raiders and the LA Chargers in the AFC West. I'm not sure why this is getting the 18 treatment in the AFC Jim Nance, Tony Romo, Tracy Wolfson on the call. I guess they won in on the Jim Harbaugh best. He has a chance to get off to one and O start against the bad Raiders team. The Harbaugh era is off to a rowing start. Ground and pound. This is going to be a wrestling match Greco Roman style. If they could not have receivers, I think they would get my line up with 11 offensive lineman just to see just to push you around. That's how it's going to go. This is going to be a low scoring affair. But I think the Chargers get off to one and O start my headline for this game Danny. No preseason. No problem for Justin Herbert. As the Chargers get a win, this was Herbert who has been dealing with that foot problem. I think it's a great opportunity. You know, it's what's so fun about football is to go out there and make something happen. And we know how last year went and we're well aware of where we went and you know how we got here. But we've got to learn from it. You got to move on and you got to attack this next year and you got to know that you got the confidence you put in the work and you do everything you can during the week. So you go out there on Sunday and you play fast. You play free. And you know, I think Coach Harbaugh has done a great job of communicating that with everyone and just going out to practice and seeing that seeing guys fly around has definitely been a lot of fun. That might be the most words I've ever heard Justin Herbert say, by the way, calm down, Justin. I mean, what are you doing there, buddy? And the energy's overwhelming. Relax. Just a little bit of Broncos Seahawks. Let's go to Seattle. It's radio. We could do that Denver at 405 is taking on a Seattle on the road. I don't know if you've heard this. This is a loud stadium. Is it supposedly in Seattle, the stadium can get loud? Something about 12s. Oh, 12s. Yeah, not to be confused with 11s or 13s. I'm at 12. I I'm also a 12. Spiroditus, Adam Archuleta. You don't say his name twice around these parts without getting anything thrown at personal protector for Spiroditus on the sideline. Aditi Kinkla Bala, not syllables there. Yeah, but that's we know her. Yeah, she hasn't been on in a long time. She got mad at you about she did. I was going to say name the sideline reporter that hates my guts. I don't think she I'm not trying to be a jerk. I don't think she would know you. Well, that's fair. That's actually fair. Because I mean, yeah, it's been say she hates you is like someone's actively Danny really. She's like, I hate that guy. Yeah, but if you were like, he's a guy to do this, this, this, this, and then she's like, Oh, that guy. Yeah, I don't like him. I don't like him. It's just pre-grant and Danny. This is holding in Danny. What happened again? So there was a story that the NFL was doing this like, hey, we're going to have a woman kicker that had this big tryout with like several women that were going to go try out to kick. I can't remember who it was, but there was like, it was like after the Katie, Anita, Anita, whatever it was kicking in Colorado for a minute or something. They were doing this big tryout, right? They organized it and they did this big, they wanted publicity for it or whatever. So Aditi Kinkla Bala, working front of a network, did a story about it and was like, yeah, this is a little bit of a farce. This isn't particularly great or something to that effect. Okay. And I'm going, help me understand this. The NFL does it. The NFL network then reports on it and says, this isn't great. But how are we, what are we as fans supposed to be doing? Like, how do we take it seriously? And she took it as as if I was insulting her reporting, as if I was like saying that she's on the take or that she's unduly influenced by Goodell and the NFL or some kind of nonsense, which I didn't mean at all. I was just simply saying, me as a consumer, just tell me what I was supposed to be doing. I just, I want to be on the right side where no one's mad at me. I like football. It's probably a misunderstanding. It was, but she took it very personally. I met her. She's very nice. She seems wonderful. I read her when she was the Wall Street Journal. I told her so, but she was really upset. Basically, I don't call us again. I know she didn't. 100% she dropped it. Don't call me. Thank you very much. The time basically was very rough. And I, after the show, felt terrible about it. I tried to reach out and say, hey, listen, this, I did not mean to, you know, the little you or puny reporting or anything like that. I was simply trying to say something and I came out badly. I'm so super sorry. And she was like dying of fire. Wow. Not exactly. I mean, that was way more than I thought we were getting. I know. I thought it was, I did not know that was the full story. Yeah. That's a lot. She's very nice. Just say nice. Yeah. From the little experience I have. Sure. I think I'm nice. Bronco Seahawks. My headline here, I will say Seattle, Nick's is Denver Seahawks are going to start one and O. I think Bo Nix will be okay this year, but that's a tough environment to make your debut in because I don't know if you guys have heard this, but it's allowed headline. Can we go to McDonald's? Mike McDonald gets off to a one and O start there in Seattle Cowboys Browns in Cleveland. You might have heard of the guy on the call of this one, Kevin Burke art working with Tom Brady. Here we go. And it's not just one, but two sign line reporters on that eight crew. Aaron Andrews and Tom Rinaldi on the field. Cleveland still has a quarterback problem. There's your headline Cowboys want to know. GM Andrew Barry is excited for the fans to see the new stadium. All right. Now, admit it. Honey and Bank field has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Right? Right. I'll tell you what, I cannot wait till our fans fill up the stadium full capacity and we're rocking this Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys because it's such a competitive and home field advantage for us. And I just can't wait to see what it looks like in these prime time atmosphere. So again, I just want to congratulate everyone in terms of this new and hopefully long and enduring partnership. I'm a big Andrew Barry guy. I will say that he's the guy that traded for Deshaun Watson, though, just so we're all in the same page. Couple things in there. He said a phrase, new stud stud stud stadium. What is that? I don't know what that means. What's that? I don't know. Okay. I didn't even pick up. Do we have to dump it? Was that a curse word? Is that real? Oh, we're allowed to. I think people are allowed to say it. We just can't. New stadium. We just aren't allowed to do it. I see. I see. It's one of those things like you've heard adults talking about it. Like your parents probably do it, but you can't do it. You can't do it, right? Not only mommy, daddy speak that way. Yeah. And then he said, another phrase, I'm like, that's okay. I'm sure that's a thing. Home field advantage. Like, okay, buddy, right? Whatever you say. That's not real Sunday night football, the Rams and the lions in Detroit rematch of playoff football last year. This is your Sunday night crew on national TV. Mike Toreko, Chris Collinsworth. It's Matt Stafford back in Detroit against the lions. Jared Goff taking on his former team, the L.A. Rams game of the weekend. This is going to be a fast and furious shootout. There are going to be so many points scored. It's the second highest over under the week at 49 and a half, I believe. I cannot wait for this game. The lions triumph in a close one. I'm going to say my headline is when Matt Stafford plays, the Rams are a Super Bowl contender. Dan Campbell and the lions ready to go. Really, we kind of went back to what we do. I told the guys, man, we are identities, the most important thing. And we have to reestablish our identity. And really to get back to where we were at and then surpass that, we got to go back to work. And it's got to be all the little things, the details of resiliency. I think more than anything, it's been about that. And then these new guys, the rookies that we've drafted, the free agents, them acclimating to what we do and what we're about. And so look, it's a step in the right direction so far. What's the manager at that Applebee's know about getting the lions ready for football? That's what I want to know. There you go. Grant and Danny with you on the fan. That is your full slate. Every game predicted in the headlines come Monday. Speaking of predictions, let's go through some props on commanders players against the box and go over under projected totals. We'll do that next on the fan. [BLANK_AUDIO] We're taking you up to six, 10 on Grant and Danny on the fan. We'll get you a full preview of the gnats and the pirates before we get out of here right at the end of the show. If you've missed any part of G and D today, including a chock full beltway blitz or TJ Reeves, the bucks sideline reporter who up the scout, the opponent, you'll be able to podcast everything when we're done at the fan DC dot com or grant and Danny dot com slash audio. We'll make our picks going into the weekend. Our confidence points picks coming up in 15 minutes at 5 45. But right now, let's look at the projected totals, individual player props via Fandil, because I'm a Fandil guy for the commanders in the box this weekend, play a little over under. So Daris, let's run through some of the prop totals and see how we're viewing this game script. Our friends at Fandil have Jayden Daniels passing yard total set at 2 18 and a half over under. So this could be an over for one of two reasons. If this becomes a shootout like everybody's predicting, then he goes over to 18. But if the game script suggests that Washington's chasing and they're throwing a lot because they're behind, they get pretty easily get over to 18. I actually think they're going to be in this game. They're going to be able to run the ball and stay balanced. I think it's going to be pretty close. So for that reason, I'll say slight under. I'm going to say like 210 maybe through the air. I also will see if I'm loud wrong about this. I've been talking about this for weeks. I think it's going to run a lot. Maybe it's not Lamar Jackson week one last night going 16 for a bill 20 or something. But I do think it could be like seven, eight carries for 70 to 90 yards tomorrow. So add that to the 210. It's kind of a 300 yard all purpose day. But I'll say under that number under. I think Tampa Bay's defense is good. I think their secondary is good. I think the game plan is to limit throwing and they're going to try to muck this up and and do a little more grounded pound. You said you think Jayden's going to run a lot. Got Jayden Daniels at 39 and a half rushing yards over or under. I like the over on that in the first half. They I think it's too much. But I know grants all in favor of it. I think they're going to run Jayden Daniels a ton. And I think he goes way over that. I don't know if it's quite Lamar Jackson buck 22 on 16 carries. But I think we're going to see it early and often. Have you changed your prediction of how much he'll run based on the preseason? Or if you always said that you just don't want him to run. Not that you don't think he's going to run more of the second one. So I'm looking at the lack of weaponry, especially on the outside. They don't really seem interested in changing that looked at the preseason and kind of the way their personnel is lining up when I'm going, they're going to run that dude a lot. I think that's my my paradigm going going to go into the season over loud over. It's going to be over a lot in this category until the betting market catches up with kind of what they want to do. In fact, if it's under that, I'll be shocked. Like if he just stands in the pocket with time and makes throws and doesn't leave, I think he's going to look to leave the pocket at times. If there's early pressure, he's going to try to avoid sex that way. That's what he did a lot of time, collegiate Lee, which isn't to say he can't throw the ball well or that he isn't going to be a throw first quarterback eventually. But I just think early in his career, this is the answer key for him. You know, this is his the cape for Superman. He'll go over that. Jaden has some options in the backfield. Let's start with the first one. Brian Robinson, they haven't at 42 and a half rushing yards over that. As I said, they'll be balanced. They'll be in the game. They're going to be able to run it a lot. I think they're going to run more this year in general than people think. Everyone talks about Kingsbury with the air raid. I call it the horizontal raid, but they ran the ball more with Patrick Connor. James Connor James Connor, who's Patrick Connor? Was that the full back from the from the Jets? Whether they call him the tournament, no, it's John Connor. That's John. I don't know who Patrick Connor is. Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. I don't know. James Connor, for the Cardinals, ran it a lot more than people think when you look back at like when he was healthy and rolling, B-Rob's going to be a thumper all season long. I think he could go for 75 or more in this game if he runs it the 16 to 18 times that I think he's going to. So give me the over on B-Rob. Over on and I'm a little bit annoyed about it. I want more Echler. I want I want B-Rob to be the change of pace, but I'm not going to get it that way. They're going to go to wait too often. They're going to try to run the dang football. Chris also will be pleased. The rest of us that like points and wins and offense will not be. Danny, you want more Echler? You're going to get more Echler. 27 and a half rushing yards for Austin Echler over under under unfortunately. And I think that's going to change the season goes. They're going to realize no, this actually is still a weapon, but I think early he's going to be a it's third down. Now he should trot onto the field and be in there for passing downs. I don't think they're going to use him right early. I think that'll grow as the season progresses. He ran a good bit in the preseason. Remember when they would come out with those early drives and they ran at like nine out of 12 plays on the one long drive and he had three of them, I think. I'll say over that not by a lot. I think he gets six carries for, you know, 28 yards or something like that. I'll say over minimally. Well, let's get to the receiving props wide receiver one. And everybody's heart around here. Terry McLaurin, 60 and a half receiving yards. That is in over for Terry. He's the only guy they got. Now Tampa Bay is going to do as much as they can to keep him from getting going and getting off and having a ham sandwich. But I think it's going to be like seven for 70. This is the new Terry McLaurin in a sense. Last year where it was a lot of catches, not a lot of yards, seven for 63, you know, that kind of thing. I think it's going to be like a 10 11 target six or seven catch 65 to 80 yard kind of day for him. So I'll say over he's in the 70s, low 80s, but it's not going to be a big explosive 100 yard game in my opinion. You said it and that's why I'm going in a different direction. He's the only guy they got. That's why it's under Tampa knows that too. Tampa is very aware of where 17 is and is going to be. It's going to be a six for 55 kind of a day. We're going to be frustrated. There's not going to be enough air in the air raid here early on for my taste. Zach hurts. They have him at 24 and a half on fan delivery, saving yards. This is one of my favorite props of the weekend in real life. I have actually bet on this prop. Zach hurts is going over that a healthy Zach hurts is going to be heavily featured and heavily involved as the year goes on. He will not be healthy and he will probably do less. But in this game, I think there's a chance he leads them and catches leads them in receiving yards. If you told me right now, he goes like seven for 76. Okay, there's there's an 18 yard catch down the seam at some point. I believe that. So that is a very, very firm over for me. I have a hammer in my hand and there's a nail and it is the nail of the overage. I am slamming the over on this. I think he's, you know, like six for 38. I think he is their most second, maybe first or second most targeted guy. I grew with everything granted said early in the season, Zach hurts will be available. And as the season progresses less so this one seems a little low, Austin Eckler at 18 and a half receiving yards. Again, hammering the over. This is where the offense is going through. It's going to be less of a corn, less nor brown, less Xiaomi Brown, maybe some is the case around the line of scrimmage. Think about will Lamar Jackson was doing last night flicking the ball as a flowers or things like that. But I think the passing game will run through hurts and Eckler. So I think Eckler goes over that total. I'll say over as well. Same reason I felt that way about Zach hurts. I just think that we're going to get to a point where there's some pass rush. Jaden Daniels is ball out. First that that's kind of the mindset they're going to get in his ear and say, Hey, let's not take hits. Let's not take sacks. You saw the quick game in the preseason. His time to throw was quicker in the preseason than any quarterbacks in the NFL last year. So not a whole lot to add other than the security valve that the checkdown option, the blanket. Sorry. I mean, it's going to be a lot of Austin Eckler and I'm happy about it. This one seems low too, but I guess it's a little tricky. Brian Robinson, eight and a half receiving yards over on that one as well. He can catch the ball. And I think that's all going to take one screen or, you know, a couple of receptions. I do think he's involved. Maybe not to the degree of not, let me rephrase that, not to the degree that Eckler is going to be involved in the past game. But there'll be just enough Brian Robbins, where I think he goes over that total. That's one catch that, you know, with a good block in front of you. Yeah. So I'll go over that for sure. One catch, 15 yards, two catches, 12 yards, something like that. Yeah, give me a be Rob over. Again, I think it's a lot of short, safe, quick passes. Let's get a quick feel for how you guys feel about the commander's defense going in this game. Baker Mayfield's passing prop is set at 245 and a half over. I think we'll do that middle of the second quarter. That's a bad bit. I'm doing a bad. It's over though. I'll say 245 and a half. I kind of want to go under, honestly. Yeah, I'll go under. I'll say he throws for like 235 240 and that they have enough success running the football as well, that they're able to be balanced. You know, maybe it's a you're leading rusher has 75 or something and you're able to keep it on the ground too. But I don't think he needs to come out and throw for three bills for them to win. Speaking of running the ball, they have Rashad White. They're starting running back at 57 and a half rushing yards over for a shot white. He will be right around, like I said, mid 70s, low 80s, perhaps they'll also get him some touches second half. If they're ahead, trying to salt the game away that there's a game script that works for his favor. But remember last year, and I know it's a different defense and different coaching and all that, but they were good for kind of one back breaking long run. It felt like that they would give up games. I mean, it's the same group, essentially, in the interior of Johnny Newton's not playing. So I'll say over that under. I think they sling it and they're not a very good running team. So I think white goes under total yards will be pretty significant for white because he catches passes, but I don't think they run it effectively and they'll have too much success to the air. I'm going to assume you guys are both going to take the over on Mike Evans. So I'm going to skip him. Let's go to Chris Godwin. They have set it 57 and a half over. I think he goes off. I think it's in the 70s. Yeah, you can't name a bucks receiver who I wouldn't go over with because I think they're going to throw it to three or four guys. All of them are going to be, you know, able to put up those two 50 or so for Baker Mayfield on the outside against Washington's corners. All right. Next, our first installment of 2024 confidence point picks in week one. It's not about finishing first. It's about not finishing last. This is the fan. [silence] Confidence points picks a annual NFL season staple on GND over the years. We've had championships won. Ryan is a two time defending champion. I've won the first year. Nobody would know or remember who cares. Winning doesn't get you anything. I want it. Nothing. Just don't want to lose. That's the whole name of the game. So as we get ready for our fourth year of confidence points picks here on Grant and Danny and Ryan tries to go for a three-peat. It is time to give you our five, four, three, two, and one point plays. The way this works is we got to pick five NFL games full slate to choose from. We can pick the same games. That's okay. You've got to assign points to each game based on how sure you are. This is, of course, against the spread. Now, we don't yet know our punishment. So I think at some point we got to get together on that the next week or two, try to figure out what the punishment is. This year, last year's loser was Daris. He's got to go take a photo shoot that we have scheduled coming up here in the early fall where he's going to be in a towel with a Speedo and all kinds of weird pictures that are going to be absolutely terrible at a local mall that we've set him up at. And those pictures will be available for you guys. Don't worry. In the very near future. With that said, the only Daris account. What were you saying Daris? You look so salty back then. I just, I just can't have photos of me bare chested on the Internet. I just can't. There's just no way. They won't be on the Internet. Where else would they be? Just on Twitter. Just online. Twitter. Instagram. Oh God. Online. That's just online. Not on the Internet. Just online. All right. So we will go in the order of last year's standings, which I believe would be you, Ryan, then me, then Danny, then Daris. Five point play. Five point play. I have the Miami Dolphins, minus three and a half GP. We talked about this a lot earlier today before the show. But even then, I just think the dolphins are a lot better football team. It's in me hot down in Miami. I got the dolphins winning big. Yeah. I love the dolphins in this spot. They're my five point play as well. Again, to a 15 and three straight up, McDaniel, nine and one straight up in their era's 80 plus degrees early season. Miami hasn't finished a season below 500 against the spread at home since 2015 or 39 23 and three since 2016. So give me the dolphins laying three and a half. The Carolina Panthers stink New Orleans will cover the three and a half. That's my five point play. I have the New England Patriots stinking. So I have the big number of minus eight for Cincinnati. You guys are going with the heavy hitters against the bad teams. I like that strategy. Four point play. My four point plan. The Detroit lines minus four and a half going up against the Rams. Kind of cool nugget here. Matt Stafford's got a losing record at Ford Field and then is with a Hall of Fame wide receiver. I, he does not have that Hall of Fame wide receiver anymore. I'm taking Jared golf in the points at home on Sunday night football. Steelers plus three and a half. Is Mike Tomlin an underdog? Uh huh. Is he catching points then? Yes. Oh, then I bet on the Steelers plus three and a half. They're taking on the Falcons in Atlanta, new quarterback, new coach, a lot of new faces, a lot. They're trying to figure out Kyle Pitts is banged up. I'm not crowning Atlanta just yet. There's going to cover it. The Patriots also suck Cincinnati minus eight. I don't think the Broncos are quite ready for the 12s or Lumen Field or whatever you want to call that loud stadium up there. So yeah, Seattle minus five and a half over Broncos. Three point place. Step back behind the arc. Corey Kispert. Let it rain. My three point play is the Denver Broncos plus five and a half. You guys sleep on this little bit. Oregon is one of the loudest stadiums in college football. So Bo Nix, he has played in tough environments before. He's played in big time games. I think Bo Nix is going to be very good this season. I've got the Broncos winning on the road that he played for Oregon. Yeah, I know he played for Oregon. So now he's going to the loudest stadium where they're going to be yelling at him. I mean, yeah, he played in plenty of loud. A lot of guys did play a lot of horses. Of course. I've seen plenty of quarterbacks in Seattle and win. Don't try to change his mind. All right. That's fine. Dallas plus two and a half. The Cowboys and the Browns. Two and a half points to the team that I think is better anyway. I think they have the number wrong and then the Cowboys should win straight up plus two and a half for Dallas. Dolphins minus three and a half at home. This is not a November cold weather game. It's a warm weather game. This one's a little bit funky to me. I'm not sure why the line is in a little bit bigger. Maybe the people are hiring Jacksonville than I am. I think Jacksonville is aggressive with mediocre. And I think Miami will roll. Yeah. I got the same pick. I'm not even going to elaborate. Same pick. Miami minus three and a half. Bonnie's at the rim. Two point play. My two point play at Dallas plus two and a half for the same reasons as Grant said. And I mean, I like this. I think Dallas wins outright. So it was a pretty easy pick. Got to say. Me and Claire, a couple of guys who were gunning for a title last year, seeing things eye to eye. Meanwhile, Daris and Danny, couple of guys who were gunning to not have a photo shoot, seeing things eye to eye. All right. Two point play. I'm seeing it with the, uh, the photo shooters Cincinnati minus eight here. You got to go with the good team playing the terrible team. I don't have a lot of confidence in a huge cover because T Higgins might miss the game. He's now questionable. We still don't know if Jamar Chase is going to play. I don't know if they light it up, but I do know the Patriots are an abysmal outfit. So let's go Cincinnati to lay eight. Tampa minus three and a half, talking about a good team playing a team and ain't ready yet. This is one. The matchup is, I don't look very good for Washington. I think Tampa wins by a touchdown. Statement game for CJ Stroud and the boys. I got Houston covering that minus two and a half winning outright and Indianapolis on the road. Got to hit your free throws, boys. These one pointers will add up at the end of the year. Claire. My one point play of Carolina plus three and a half on the road in New Orleans. I don't think the Panthers will be as bad as people think. And I think the Saints will be a lot worse than people think. I've got the Panthers covering, not sure if they would in four weeks. I wouldn't feel this way, but with San Francisco playing a game, I you Trent Williams having missed the entire preseason, pretty edit terrible. Couple of preseason games as well. The Jets plus four and a half on the road. Even if they lose by a field goal, your boy is a winner. I'll take the Jets plus four and a half. I don't trust the Falcons to not be fully unfalcony and it's Pittsburgh and it's Tomlin, road dog, et cetera, et cetera. Pittsburgh was three and a half. I think we get our first signs of the Buffalo regression this weekend. I don't, I think Buffalo will still win, but I got Arizona covering that plus six and a half in Buffalo. Confidence points picks. Darris makes a graphic for you. We posted so you could track throughout Sunday, add a little spice and fun to the weekend. And again, the punishments are always terrible. So that's really the whole point. It's really the point. Ryan's gotten nothing for winning the last couple of years. I got nothing for winning three seasons ago, but as we go into year four here, you just don't finish last. That's the whole goal, boys, so that you don't have to do that photo shoot. What, what picture do you want Darris to do? The, the super sexy one, like the, the boo, boo, do our one. Oh, you want them in like, doesn't he have to do that? Like some kind of sexy, like there's leopard, there's lion stuff. Grant and Danny on the fan are predictions for commander's bucks next. After investing billions to light up our network, T-Mobile is America's largest 5G network, plus right now you can switch, keep your phone and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan verse for eyes and AT&T at t-mobile.com/keepandswitch. Up to four lines via virtual prepaid card, a left 15 days qualifying unlocked device, credit, service, ported, 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months. Hey, Mike Felenny here, host a cash to ticket alongside my partner, Jim Costa. It's really simple. Are you tired of podcast claiming there are a bunch of pro betters when they live in their mommy's basement? Are you tired of podcast that claim they hit 80% of the games when really they just lose like most of us? Think cash to tickets the spot for you. We're real, we're transparent, we're having a hell of a good time with it and we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys. We're just trying to figure it out just like you. Follow and listen to Cash the Ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. 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