Grant and Danny
Booger McFarland On Jayden Daniels, O/U 6.5 Wins For Washington
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Actually, there's a ton of different places we can go to start here, but I want to begin with locally Washington, Jaden Daniels and the commanders and your expectations for them this year, Booger. Well, obviously, anytime you start a rookie quarterback, they're going to be ups and downs. I think of all the rookie quarterbacks, I think he is in not maybe not the best position, but I think he'll play the best. I think his demeanor, his poise, his maturity, he's got some decent weapons up there as you guys know, led by Terry McClure. But overall, I think he's going to bring a different dynamic to that team and from everything that I can hear, the leadership, how guys are already following him. I truly think the commanders are going to be pretty good. I want to see how those defensive tackles play though. That's my position. You've got Allen and Payne and Johnny Newton. Those three guys have got to be dominant because of where they were picked and how much money they're making. Like those three guys have got to be dominant for that defense. But overall, I think there's a reason for optimism in DC. What's your view on the Cliff Kingsbury and Jaden Daniels kind of marriage? Is that a good fit in your opinion? Well, the fit is really simple. If you're an officer coordinator, your job is to find out what your guy does best and put him in positions to do it. And if that's what Cliff does, then the marriage will be fine. It's no different than any relationship. I don't know if you guys are married or not, but it's the same thing. When you go home and your wife wants to eat sushi and you bring home Popeyes, things not going to work too good. You know what I'm saying? Things is not going to be right. So you've got to find out what she wants and then you've got to cater to it. It's no different with Kingsbury and Jaden Daniels and based on what I saw in the preseason, I think they're going to do that. The key for me will be when Jaden goes through a little bit of a growing spell, what does Cliff do to kind of get him out of it quickly? Like what's going to be their go-to bread and butter? Like every team develops an identity. What's going to be the identity? I think they got a major in empty formation or spread because Jaden needs to be able to see the feel and it's easier to see the feel when it's spread out. And also that gives them running lanes, whatever he needs to get out of the pocket. Now there's a difference because you still got to be able to run the football and be physical. So how does Cliff marry the two, being able to be physical while also having the feel open enough where his young quarterback can see the feel and get out and use his legs. I think that'll be key. Speaker McFarland with us on Grant and Danny, like Jaden Daniels, Baton Rouge LSU guy with ties to that program. I'm curious, I mean you must know Jaden a little bit I would think or have crossed paths with him at some point. If not, I'm sure you watched him closer than just about anybody. How much do you think he should and will run early on in his career? Well, here's a little fun fact, like he doesn't really look to run, his eyes are always down the field. He's looking through the football. It just so happens that he probably runs four or three when he takes off. And so, you know, he's got to be smart because this is not college football and he doesn't want to get hit and you got to play this game for the next 10, 12 years at a high level. So he's got to be smart, but he's also got to use what guy gave him. I think there's a fine line between running and making plays and being reckless. He's got to learn the difference. And yeah, I've followed him closely and I'll tell you this guys. This first game at LSU was against Florida State. That was what, three years ago, two years ago, however, my mouth is working. And when I saw him play, I was like, I don't know, but to see where he went from that game until the end of his career was as much improvement as I've seen from anybody. And I think this guy's a limit because he's starting to understand how to play the position. That position has really little to do with how fast you are or how far you can throw a ball. That position is all about the guy that controls the football. His demeanor, his decision making, his accuracy, that's what that position is about. Like I can name 10 guys that have been bigger, faster, can throw it 90 yards, but they all fail because that position is not about that. It's good to have it, but that's not what that position is about. Follow our guest at ESPN booger, Bergen McFarland joins us here on G and D. Let's stay in the division with the Eagles. That swoon last year was something, we all saw it, right? That collapsed. I think there were 11 and one or so to start, maybe 10 and one to start the season and they just fell apart. A lot of turnover, a lot of change in now. How are you viewing the Eagles this year? I think it's the most important opener of any team in the National Football League based on what you guys have said. They were 10 and one. They lost six out of our last seven. The offensive coordinator is gone. The defensive coordinator is gone. There's a rift allegedly between the head coach and the quarterback. Now you bring in new personnel. You bring in Saquon Barkley, new offensive coordinator, new defensive coordinator, and you open up in Sao Paulo, Brazil against a team that a lot of people think is up and coming. They're the youngest football team, maybe in the National Football League, the Green Bay Packers. They got a quarterback that just got the bag and here come the Eagles with all the questions that they have. I think it's the most important opener of the weekend because they could go one or two ways. If they don't start two and one, three and old, then we're going to start back and we're going to talk about last year. And I think if you're an Eagle fan, you want to forget about last year as quick as you can. Booker, on the flip side of that matchup, you mentioned Jordan love getting paid for Green Bay. Can they push Detroit in the North? Do you think the Bears ultimately have anything to say about that with Caleb Williams and his debut season? How do you see Green Bay figuring into a division? Everybody seems to be handing to the Lions. Well, I think it's going to be Detroit and Green Bay. I think it would be unfair to Caleb Williams to put him in a position to do something that not a lot of people have done in the history of the game and that's a rookie quarterback leading a team to the playoffs. Like it just doesn't happen a lot. So I think it'd be really unfair to ask that of him. And so I think we turn our attention into Detroit, Green Bay. And I think those two teams based on how they finished, based on their trajectory, based on their roster. I think those two teams are going to be looked at as as probably the favorites in that division, I would lean toward Detroit just because I just like their makeup. But if you told me at the end of the season that Green Bay won the division and was the number one seed, I wouldn't say that I would be really shocked. I think they're young. I think but they're really, really close to being ready. I know you spent a lot of time in that NFC South as a player. How do you see that division going this year? I talked to myself into a different team pretty much every day. Well, it's a two team division. This Tampa and Atlanta, I think in the end, I don't know if New Orleans will have enough. They're offensive line. I don't know if it's good enough. And so I think it's ultimately going to come down to Tampa and Atlanta and does Atlanta have enough defense? I don't know. They got to show me, I would lean toward Tampa based on the makeup of their team. Baker Mayfield had a really good season last year. The defense led by Todd Bose is really, really good year and a year out. And if you just look at kind of where they've been, like for Baker to come in and follow Tom Brady and for that team to go to the postseason, I think this I think this guy's the limit for them from the standpoint of winning the winning the division, getting into the postseason, hosting a playoff game. And once you get into the dance, Dennis about matchups. Wilker McFarland of ESPN with us on Grant and Danny love talking ball with one of the great football analysts in the country. But what about tomorrow's game? We kick off the season with a classic rematch of the AFC Championship game with the Chiefs and the Ravens Kansas City's trying to do something unprecedented and three Pete in fact, only two other teams ever three, I guess it is. I have ever been to three straight Super Bowls and none of the other ones, one all three. And then you got Baltimore with a two time MVP and Lamar Jackson, who are one of the top teams in the AFC, otherwise, how do you like their chances this year, both of those two teams in that conference? Yeah, regardless of what happens tomorrow night, I think these are two of their best teams, not only in the AFC, but in the entire league. I think both of them are going to be right there when it ends tomorrow night is not going to be I don't think a microcosm of where they're going to be when the season is over. I think it's a good matchup. I think, you know, this matchup tomorrow night could draw, you know, 30 to 40 million viewers because of everything that's going to be going on. You got the Kansas City side, Mahomes and Kelsey and Xavier Worthy also Taylor Swift and what she's going to bring. You got Baltimore, Derek Handy's going to be there like tomorrow's going to be a star studded affair. And so it wouldn't surprise me if it breaks records for an opening game in National Football League. It's a standalone game. It's the only game on. It's what it's what you get when when the championship is in your building and you raise the banner. It's going to be a fun night. And with that being said, I think the pressure is on Kansas City because do they really want to lose two openers at home two years, two years in a row? I don't think they want to do that. And so I think the pressure is on them because if you're Baltimore, you got to look at it this way. Baltimore had a death on the coaching staff. They got a new new defensive coordinator. They got some change that front incorporate Derek Henry into the offense. It's going to take some time for those things to take effect. If you're Kansas City, same team, except if you added Xavier Worthy, okay, you got your Juice Smith Schuster, you got Travis Kelsey, you got that big offensive line. You got Chris Jones and you got McDuffie and you've got all the things that they have. So Kansas City really brings in more answers to the questions tomorrow night than Baltimore does, but it still should be a really good game. So if we agree that Kansas City's and they should be the favorite in the AFC West, who finishes second in that division, bug? Second in the West, while talent wise, you would say the charges, but I'm not really sure the Raiders, if you don't have a quarterback, eventually that's going to catch up with you. Denver is intriguing. I'm not a boating expand. I got to see it on this level, Sean Payton loves him, but we'll see probably the charges. Alright, hit on college with you, just the transition of that level. We've talked about Jaden Daniels and Caleb Williams. You just mentioned maybe not being as high on Nick's. I don't know where you're at on Drake May, you might play this year as well. What's your take on what we should expect from this rookie quarterback class in general? Well, I think Drake May is, he's probably got the farthest to go. Caleb is going to start, seems like he's ready to go, but he's still going to go through growing pains. Drake May is just not ready yet, nor is the offensive line, so there's really no need to put him out there. JJ McCarthy, he's going to miss the entire season with the knee, Michael Pinnix. If we see Michael Pinnix, that probably means something is drastically wrong with either the Falcons' offense or Kirk Cousins, because they gave him 100 million to play, and I don't think they're going to set a guy that's making 100 million guaranteed on the bench. Those are the guys that you're probably looking forward to seeing. So next, again, the jury's still out. I know everybody says he's a bigger version of Drew Brees, but I'm not going to disrespect Drew Brees and compare him to a guy who spent five years in college and through the ball, you know, zero to 15 yards down the field a lot. I'm not going to compare Drew Brees to that just yet. A bug, before we let you go, I want to hop down to college for a second because you do a great job covering that level for ESPN as well. You tweeted something while I was watching that Florida State Shabingus the other night. That was so good. You asked about a quarterback at Florida State, DJ Uyonggelele. You said, if you were a head coach and you hand pick a portal quarterback and he struggles this bad, what do you do? And your point was, you don't really have equity with your team or what teammates know of his to just let him keep playing. But then also that it's complicated because you just paid a guy a lot of money. What's the answer to that question? Because I view it almost like Florida State gave a contract out in free agency and it's already a terrible contract. You were just referencing like what you paid cousins, you got to play them. This is kind of what we're talking about with NIL and a guy like DJU, isn't it? Yeah, it's very similar, man. And if you're, if you're Mike Novel, you got to figure it out, man, because to the point about equity, you know, when you've been through the fire with teammates, those teammates who know like, they know you're going to bounce out of it, they know you got their bag, they got your bag. But when you have a guy who just showed up on campus six months ago, like you don't really know him. Like he's a hard hand and he's proven through the first couple of games that he's not it right now. And he may get better, but I think DJU is who he is and who he is, it's not very good. And I think if you're Florida State, you got to figure out what's next. I think Mike owes it to the team and it's no different than the NFL. Sometimes you, you know, pass out a bad contract. Remember Seattle gave Matt Flynn three years and 45 million, but they started Russell Wilson. Sometimes you sometimes it happens in those rare cases, you got to bite the bullet and tell the GM I made a mistake. In this case, if you're a Florida state, you got to go to the collective and say, hey, I know we're paying DJU whatever the number is five, six hundred thousand, but I'm going to put him on the bench and we made a mistake. And that's where we are in college football, but it's a tough predicament to be in, especially when you bring the money. Because the GM going to look at you like, well, you told me he was X. And that's kind of where Mike Norville and Florida state are. Is Cam Ward, the quarterback at Miami as good as he played this weekend? He blew me away and or there any other college quarterbacks on a short list that you would say also had kind of elite outings this weekend. Cam Ward is as good. Nico Iamabiyala at Tennessee is the real deal. Those two really stood out to me because they not only put up big numbers, but they played the game at a high level. Cam Ward went in the swamp amongst 90,000 and played like he was over there outside of the old FedEx stadium in the parking lot just going around. He just really looked cool, calm and collected and Nico, you know, Nico is handpicked by Josh Hypert. They paid him a lot of money and so far so good. So those were the two that really stood out to me. Just wanted to get your thoughts in general though, a book real quick about the Lansing up to college football. He referenced it a little bit. I'm happy for individual players, obviously, and get what you can get. I mean, the market says, get it, go get it, no, no, you know, quibble there. But with all the conference realignment, it was sort of the death maybe of some of these rivalries and kind of this wild, wild West, you know, no CBA, you know, just sort of, I don't recall crazy this, but I don't have a better word for it. Where is college football at right now to you and how can it get better if it needs to? I think college football is more and more like the NFL from the standpoint of money and general managers and rosters and performance and the length of the season where, you know, what kind of get better? I think the one thing that you got to do right now is there are two transfer windows, one in the spring. I think there only needs to be one and most likely it probably needs to be at the end of the spring, you know, don't let a guy transfer as soon as the season is over and he's super emotional. I think, you know, there's got to be one window and if you say that one window's in the fall, okay, then fine, I just think there's only needs to be one. Right now having two windows to transfer is not very good. Booker, tell me you're doing a prime time again with Berman. Yes. Sunday night, baby. Oh, I'm telling you, you know, this is not an exaggeration. I got ESPN plus a few years ago, a couple of years back for that show. I grew up watching TJ and boom, do that and I still think it's just as good a football show as there is you and him are so good and I would tell all of our listeners to check it out. So you're going to do it every Sunday night? Sunday night, every, only ESPN plus, baby. Love it. So good. Well, we appreciate you, man. It's awesome having you on the show. Always thrilled to talk to you and we'll catch up soon. All right. Later. Have a good one fellow. Thanks, bug got it. There's Booker McFarland of ESPN on Grant and Danny talks about both the pro and the college game. You know what show I'm talking about. Primetime. Oh, yeah. So it was right. The old show with him and TJ Tom Jackson, obviously Jackson's down his mid 70s, but he doesn't do it anymore, but him and Booker do it and they go around every single game and it's the Berman delivery of in Buffalo, the bells and da da da da da da, and it's caught at the five, you know, and it's just, it's the, there it is, but that breakdown was my entire child fandom of football. You guys, you took a point at Grant Paulson, you, Daris Dameron, and you if Ryan was sitting in the room, he's not all sleep on the fact that you didn't know who won the earlier games until you saw that on NFL prime time. You're sitting there and Mr. Did the cold ticker, did the, that really what that, I'm telling you, that score bug became more uniform later. You had to wait for the most part. You saw a highlighter too. You got a feel for how the, how that Cardinals, uh, Oilers game was going. You didn't know. Let me get a little bit of that, Daris. So it's like chiefs, Ravens, breakdown, they're like here comes Baltimore, Lamar Jackson from Baltimore. Yeah, he's got a yellow, blah, blah, finds this man. It's Dennis Pina. I don't know why he's back. Isn't Dennis better? I don't know why he's back. Downfield, rambling, stumbling, tumbling, he could go. Oh, I love prime time. The best. And now booger right there with my guy, Berman. Let's go. That show was perfect. It was perfect. It is. The highlight is by the way. Yeah, tell me it's ESPN. I know. It's a staple for me on Sunday night. So now it's, it's, especially because it's that window between the final four o'clock game whistle and then the actual, yeah, you know, last Sunday night game post Sunday night. That's one of my first stops before I jump on game pass and start watching some condensed games. I'm going to watch boom and booger break it down. Very, very fun. All right. Six and a half wins is the projected total for the odds makers on the commanders. Are we going over or under that's next on Grant and Danny? No. No. No, no. No. CBS just put out a quarterback power ranking. Coming into week one of the top 10 QBs and football, they have Brock Purdy, sixth. I'm not mad about that. I don't agree with it, but I also think Brock Purdy is one of the most complicated quarterbacks to talk about, to discuss and to rank in my time as someone covering the NFL because he's got so much help, his job is made so much easier in every situation by every level of support for a quarterback from coaching to play, calling to offensive line and tackle play to weaponry at receiver and at tight end and the running game and your past catching running back, he's got it easier than any quarterback in league history probably has ever had it. But yet he also makes the occasional incredible off schedule play. He does things better than some of the guys that they've had there like Jimmy Garoppolo have done. But the fact that Garoppolo got to a Super Bowl got to a couple NFC Championship games, I think tells you all you need to know Brock Purdy is eventually going to get paid. We know that he's going to make $60 million a year and it's going to feel insane and it's just how it works. When you win to the extent that San Francisco has with him under center and you put up some of the gaudy, ostentatious type numbers that he's been able to. But having him sixth in the top 10, that's just tough for me. But there is a wide open conversation really after the big four notes. It always feels like we've got like that Mount Rushmore. It used to be Manning Breeze, Brady, Rogers. Now it's Mahomes, Alan Burrow. I think most people would throw Lamar in there as a two time MVP. But after that, it kind of opens wide up, doesn't it? It does. You know, that week or you know, that season, good fortune, bad, everything is on a heater who isn't. Yeah. So just to your, your, um, pretty point, everybody wants, it reminds you of the middle of light commercials, the taste, great, less filling type deal here's, I like those commercials as a young boy. Yeah. And they brought him back with Luke Wilson. Now yelling at everybody that it's both. Here's the thing. Brock Purdy is a system quarterback and everybody gets very upset one way or the other. But here's my point. Nick Mullen's also ran that system. Nick Mullen stinks. Put up terrible numbers. Jimmy Garoppolo ran that system nowhere near as effective as Brock Purdy. It can be both things. He fits that thing really well. A lot of guys would thrive there. A lot of guys who've been there and played there, it's not like Sam Donald at the world on fire. It's not like, again, I mentioned Nick Mullen, Jimmy Garoppolo 2012, his way to, to Super Bowls and NFC title games, right? Checking it down, handed it off, doing nothing spectacular and how great that front office is, the personnel carried them an awful long way and he got to ride the coattails by not turning it over, but not really doing anything spectacular. Purdy has put up better numbers than any of those guys in Kyle Shanahan system. So that man, that matters to me. It's also, if you dropped him on the name that pedestrian offense, I don't know, wherever you think the most middle of the pack, middling, boring offenses, what do you do? 38 touchdowns and seven picks again? Probably not. That's not who he is. So to me, both can be true. Would you rather have him or Jordan love him? I'd rather have Jordan love. Would you rather have him or Jalen hurts hurts? That one's closer because hurts last year was so bad. And I wonder a little bit about how good hurts is now. But I'll say hurts, I guess, by a hair. Would you rather have him or Matt Stafford, not Matt in Stafford, the caller? Oh, thank you. Cause I love that in staff. I should say this. Matthew Stafford. Matthew Stafford. Uh, pretty because of health, I feel like Stafford stays hurt. When he's healthy, he's really, really good him or Dak Prescott. Purdy. Man, I guess my point is like that group that tier of six through 12 or whatever is jumbled up a little bit. So I'm not going to spend any time being upset. It's just whenever I see Purdy rank that high, it's just a reminder. Man, he's fascinating. Yeah. It's polarized right there for the internet to break because he's going to get 60 mil. Probably this coming off. And people are going to lose their minds. The projected total for the commanders is a six and a half wind season from odds makers. The future bet you can make on the commanders is to either go over or under that total. Let's proverbially walk up to the window here, Danny. I want you to pick a side and we'll open up the phones for you guys right now. It should be fun. I want to take the temperature of our listening audience on this via you guys at 800-636-1067-800-636-1067. Would you bet on the commanders to go over or under six and a half wins? It's over but slight for me. I, I've got them right at seven. I think this is probably the range they should be in, which again, is why as our buddy Chris Russell says, the boys in Vegas, just it's a group of three or four people in Vegas. Just these boys getting around and deciding these types of odds. I was sitting next to Russell at Josh Harris's press conference last weekend over at the X and Harris said at one point like, you know, I remember he goes, I'll leave that to the guys in Vegas. Exactly. He's like, I'll leave that to the folks out in Vegas or whatever. And I literally, as Josh Harris is talking in the second row, turn around to Russell who's right behind me and I go, the boys in Vegas. The boys in Vegas. Anyway. Yeah. But that's what, that's right where they belong, I think. Both in terms of turning over the roster in terms of new regime, new quarterback, all these types of things, there is not a ton of precedent for a team that just jump up and win nine or 10 games. Our outline is ruined because of what CJ Stroud, the remarkable turnaround that Houston endured last year, but what's far more typical is incremental improvement. Plus, I forget the exact number. I don't have it in front of me. I was trying to look it up real quick from more in sharp. They have one of the more difficult schedules in the NFL. And as you start to, you know, tally it up here, you're not in terms of the gimmes and terms of how dominant they're going to be. I think they'll be competitive in every game, but it feels like that six or seven win plateau to me. So I'd probably say seven. The other nugget I would offer is from the folks at the SPN who did that very like nerdy statistical breakdown, Mike Clane company, they have a win probability of north of 50% and only one game. And that's a team that they haven't beat very much at all over the last handful of seasons in the Giants. So doesn't mean that you, you lose every one of those games where you're a 34% favored or a 48% favored, et cetera, but it just means just on paper. So when you add it all up, I don't see the banner season, a lot of folks you're talking about in terms of nine or 10 wins. I'm okay with that, by the way, I've got them right in that seven win range. So I would take the over with some hesitation. Twelfth easiest schedule in the NFL via sharp analytics. Obviously there are other metrics you can find. Most places have them somewhere between fifth and sixth easiest to about 10th, I think sharp actually is one of the least favorable toward Washington schedule and he's got them still top 12. So schedule should not be an issue at all. You know how I do my strength of schedule bit. I don't do it the way a lot of people do where they look at the teams based on last year. The way I look at strength of schedule is quarterbacks that are on your schedule. You know, what QBs do you actually play? That's what I care about now that can change too with injuries and generally it only gets easier. It doesn't get a lot harder because it's not like teams are going out and adding at the quarterback position. But if you look at their early season schedule, I think they've got to start pretty quickly. You know, they play the bucks and the Giants in weeks one and two. I think both of those games are winnable and I could actually see them being to an O going to Cincinnati for Monday night football, but I know that if they're going to be over six and a half, they probably have to have one of those two. I don't like the idea of Owen to go into the Bengals for a prime time game on the road. That's going to be a difficult place to play. You then play the Cardinals through four games you should be two and two. You know, if you were not at least one in three, you're in big, big trouble, but the Giants and Cardinals games are going to be toss up type games. I know the Cardinals is on the road, but you could very easily be 500 through four games. Then you've got the Panthers, the Bears and the Giants in a stretch right around Halloween. You get one of those at least maybe two of those, but if you just run through it, I mean, it's the quarterback schedule includes Will Levis, Derek Carr, Daniel Jones twice hurts. The way he played last year is, is no insurmountable task. They almost be Philly twice. Deshawn Watson has not been good. They have Kyler Murray of Arizona, Baker Mayfield of Tampa Bay, so it's just, it's not a arduous schedule in that regard. So I'm going over as well, Danny. I'm a little more bullish maybe in the over than you are too, but seven sounds about right, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're able to win eight or if Jayden Daniels is really, really good if they got to nine, but we're in lock step in saying over six and a half, which is a little scary. Yeah, I mean, they're in the range among the bottom five or six, maybe even seven teams in the NFL in terms of win totals, right? Like there's a couple that are four and a half, I think there's a couple that are five and a half and a couple other that around six, six and a half depends on your sports book and depends on where you're looking. But so the world isn't, isn't terribly bullish. And I totally get your, your quarterback approach like looking at it that way. That's as good a way to do it as any because as you said, I don't know any. Well, as Joseph said, rightly, we're basing a lot of it in the last year. I'm trying to also put in what I think a team is going to be. But again, that's the beauty of this league is you think you've got somebody figured out and then they're totally different. How many people thought Houston 10 and seven, 10 and seven last year with rookie of the year division winner? How many people, you know, we're, we're 100% sure that, you know, Detroit would be within a point or two away of one of the NFC title or, you know, the green baby will go on the run that they did. There's a million different things that we try to predict and we can't. Philadelphia would start 10 and one and fall apart, but you don't know when you play a team, the old Chan had axiom, but to me on paper, if they're explosive and high ceiling enough to win some of these games that, you know, just, if it got high scoring at times in the last couple of seasons, they had no chance for the most part, right? Except maybe with the exception of one of those Philly games or the Broncos going back and forth. But if you're like playing in one of those high level NFL games, it was like, okay, you're going to leave this team in, in, in a, in a distant review. If they've got the wherewithal, maybe to win a couple of those games, because to your point, Daniels is doing something explosive and you steal one against, uh, I don't know, Philadelphia on the road there, then you can kind of start to creep up that total a little bit to me. I mean, I just, you don't have to play my homes, you know, that they do have to deal with Jackson and Burrow, but no, Alan Herbert Stafford, you know, last year you played the Jets didn't have to deal with Rogers, but would have, uh, it's probably a middle of the pack quarterback schedule if you do it that way. Uh, let's get to the calls next 800 636 10067, we want to hear from you guys, the MGM National Harbor Listener lines are wide open, six and a half wins is the projection in Vegas. Odds makers say that's how good the commanders are. You going over under that total next on Grant and Danny. [silence] It's kind of just, you know, go out there and just playing football, obviously, um, you know, I'm embraced the moment, take it in, um, you know, that I'm officially in my first NFL game. Um, but once that ball kicked out, none of that matters. So, uh, you know, got to focus on, you know, try to execute at a high level, um, and go out there and try to help the team win four days from Jaden Daniels making his NFL debut. That was Daniels with the media today. Welcome back GND on the fan, six and a half wins is the over under projection for the commanders. Are you going over or under that total? Let's go to Andrew and Damascus who's been waiting. What's up, buddy? Hey guys, uh, cough twice if you're under duress or, I don't know where all your confidence is coming from. Uh, I mean, I got him at six wins and I'm crossing my fingers. I just don't know who's going to score, I don't think the receiving core. I don't know who's going to get that many touchdowns. Same with running back. Unless Jaden Daniels scores like 25 touchdowns, I don't think we're going to score enough points. And I'm not sure the defense is strong enough to really start winning his games. I don't see a huge improvement on my mom, but, uh, yeah, um, I'm happy for you guys. I said seven wins. It's not like I'm doing like a 10 11 win bit. Let's have a parade. Good thing. And by the way, I get the cynicism on some of the position groups that you highlighted. I'll just kind of answer some of your questions though. You said basically, how could you be so confident in the offense? Well, number one, I think there's a chance Jaden Daniels has a spectacular rookie season. All signs are pointing to him being very comfortable and I think if Cliff Kingsbury is worth his weight, Jaden Daniels will operate an offense that's designed to make him look really good. Now people will say, wait a second, you, you weren't huge on him coming out. And that's true. I think the initial production is not the same as a career. And initially with a lot of these guys, dual threat types were great with their arm and their feet. I watched it in 2012 to an unbelievable extent with Kyle Shanahan. You can hit the ground sprinting and then the league adjusts and you've got to adjust. So that part's going to be the question for me. But I think if Cliff Kingsbury is good, then their offense is actually going to be pretty explosive because to that point in 2012, you could have called up and said, well, who's going to be catching balls? Pierre Garçon got hurt. It was like Josh Morgan and 33 year old sent in a moss or something. They didn't have weapons on that offense. They had a sixth round running back who went for 1600 yards. And the reason was teams had to go out 11 and 11 and defend them, which makes Brian Robinson good, which makes Austin Echler better. McClorne is legit weapon. You need one other guy kind of to step forward at receiver, whether it's Noah Brown or Luke McCaffery or Deami or Alameda Zacchaeus, but I do think a healthy Zach Earth is a decent player at tight end. I like Senate a little bit as a secondary tight end Benson. It's a decent player and as a rookie, it will be better than that long term. And I think they're passing in is going to go kind of through the tight end and running back room with McClorne leading the way. So the lack of receivers while problematic doesn't scare me to the same extent because I think it's going to be a quick game offense to get the ball out fast. Yeah, I'm, I'm with you in the sense that I don't think it's a high ceiling offense. I think they've done that to themselves. I think it's kind of an unforced error to your point about the, um, uh, of the personnel special on the outside. I think you've lowered the ceiling there, uh, precipitously. And you, you're going to have some low hanging fruit where the, uh, Daniels will be able to run and you might have some games where it works. But if you go back to 2012, there's a lot of 12 points against the Steelers and, you know, 10 points here, the explosion games were unbelievable and so awesome and Joyfield like a Thanksgiving, they could open your doors in the NFL in yards per play, which is kind of what I'm talking about. No, I understand. There's going to be games where the points maybe aren't there, but I think they're going to move the football. And that's, well, what I would say is I think sometimes they won't, right? With when you do it with a rookie quarterback and, well, yeah, but also when your offense is if it's got, we got to do it that way. If you don't have that incredible quarterback to lift you every week or you've got offensive diversity, I think they've taken that away by not doing more at the receiver spot. So I don't think this is going to be a top five offense or number one in yards per play or anything. And that kind of stuff. I think it would be better than it's been, which is a dubious honor. Yeah, I don't think it'll be top five either. I wasn't suggesting that that's the case at all. I'm just saying in 2012 where you were saying, look at all these games where they didn't score, they were the best offense in the league lining up and running plays. Nobody got more yards per play attempt than they did. They were number one in the national football league. This group won't be that, but I mean, Lamar Jackson in his first season in the league ran for 700 yards. I think Jayden Daniels could do something like that. To me, that that's the great equalizers. I'm not rolling out the possibility that he runs for like 650 700 yards, something like that as a rookie. Let's go to Alex and Aspen Hill on GND. What's up, Alex? Alex, you there? Alex, Alex, you think that seriously, Alex, that's you kiss your mother with that mouth gross, disrespectful, call up here and say something like that, unbelievable, the nerve of Alex on a Wednesday. There's football games tomorrow, dude. You're going to bring that noise? A family program. Hmm. Alex, what's up? Hey, Alex. Hello. Hey, Ben. Yeah. So I think Vegas has a number kind of close, you know, just over, hopefully just over so we can build for the future, not good for the 10 and 11 and six predictors, but I do have another prop that's very relevant going back to what you were saying about Terry earlier, Grant. Yeah. Under 900 yards in his career, Vegas has them at 900 point five for the over under. That number scares me, to be honest. I agree with you. And we actually talked about this when I saw that a couple of weeks back. Appreciate the call, ominous in some way. I could see this being a tough year for MacLaurin. If number one, last year's lack of explosiveness wasn't just dealing with the footed problem that lingered, but rather maybe a sign of something else, but also they don't have other guys that wide receivers, we were just talking about to take the pressure off of him. Yeah. I know how I defend this group. If you're defensive coordinator, where's my secondary attention going? Make sure Terry MacLaurin doesn't go seven for a buck 10. Pretty simple, right? I mean, you, you try to get him into a passing down. I guess that's a lot of the league, but and you know where the ball's going to, they're going to try to target. Let's hit the headlines from the day that was next and gets you ready for Nat Spaceball. Protect your vehicle's engine with a full synthetic oil change and save with mobile one at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Purchase five quarts of mobile one full synthetic motor oil and receive a $10 O'Reilly gift card after rebates. See store for details. 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