Grant and Danny
Dan Quinn's Presser Post Roster Cuts, Belichick On Preseason QB's
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 NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDul, America's number one sports book. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's fandul.com/sportsfan. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with FanDul, an official sports book partner of the NFL. Must be 21 plus and present in Colorado. First online real money weights are only $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is now a throwable bonus bet set expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandul.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800-522-4700. Dear Autumn Leaves, you won't be covering roads alone this season. Toyota's lineup of cool, colorful vehicles is ready to ride by your side. Take on fall in a trail tackling Tacoma, or go for the powerful tundra. Head to toyota.com for more info or visit your local Toyota dealership today. Toyota, let's go places. You will hear from Dan Quinn who just addressed reporters a few minutes ago in Ashburn coming up this segment on Grant and Danny. Here on the fan, the 53-man roster for Washington is set. Two undrafted free agents make it one on each side of the ball. Titan, Colson, Yankoff and safety. Tyler Owens. As far as the positive that the who made it, the big stories, I think that would be the beginning of the list. As far as who didn't think the lead is KJ Henry last year's fifth round pick at a Clemson who had a very good preseason and a pretty good training camp. The other maybe notable name, if you thought Martavis Bryant was going to make it after he caught a touchdown in the third preseason game with the wide receiver position wide open for him. He did not make the roster. They chose Jamison Crowder and Byron Pringle over him. I thought, well, both of those guys have been way more successful, way more recently. They're a little bit redundant, maybe. If you just wanted to go with size, you could add Bryant make the team, but obviously it wasn't a big priority because they have the one receiver over six foot in rookie Luke McCaffery, but they're going to keep working and whittling away. I'm sure they're going to be making tweaks and changes to this thing. Adam Peters is going to talk to the media tomorrow. And who knows, by the time he steps up to the mic, he will have already had an opportunity to swing a trade or two if he wants to do that. Indeed. Yeah. I mean, there are a couple of things that sort of set up for those opportunities, right? Where you look at maybe some duplicates in safety. Maybe somebody likes someone there out of that room. You look at the defensive tackle spot and Ridgeway, Mathis. Maybe there's some value there. Maybe somebody's receiver that that shakes loose. For example, Tim Patrick and Denver just was released. They couldn't come to a trade settlement. It was funny. I retweeted a couple of the receivers they got cut. Oh, and I was just like saying, this guy is six foot two. This guy is six foot three. And someone said, are you going to do this with every receiver that gets cut all day? And he's being a smart ass, but I should have said yes, but I didn't. I just said, well, if they're huge and they make sense for Washington, I've done it twice and that might be where we stopped. Yeah. You know what they need as a receiver with size. So anytime a guy that's six foot two or bigger, who's at recent six gets gets cut, I am intrigued. And that is someone that they should consider picking up. The beauty of having the second spot in the waiver wire is that only one team gets to choose someone before you take advantage of that. I would probably make five more changes to this roster just off the top of my head, depending on who I could go get and how they fit into my scheme, to be completely honest with you. Like, I'll take the under. They're not going to do that. But I have no problem. Who's the best corner available? I just signed them. Best receiver signed them. Best tackle. Sorry, Trent Scott. I would just make moves like that and improve my roster. You know, Patrick, coming off two years, catches in the fifties for about 742 and 734 yards, six touchdowns, five touchdowns, respectively. So nobody's telling you, this is the guy that's set in the world on fire. But that's better than anybody else on this roster, save Tara McClure. That wide receiver to production. There's nobody on this current group that's come close to that, either because they're a rookie or because they haven't come close to it over multiple chances. So yeah, to me, that guy improves the room. Some other news from around the NFL before we let you hear from Dan Quinn. Odell Beckham, Jr. is going to miss the first four games of the season for the Dolphins. They placed him on the pup list today. The Vikings did the same thing with TJ Hockinson, their star tight end, who ends up every year among the top passcatchers and most targeted players at his position. So he's going to have to make up for lost time in the last three quarters of the year if he's going to get there this season. That's bad news for Sam Darnell, one of the big weapons for Kevin O'Connell will not be available, start of the year. In terms of released players, the Chiefs parted ways with Kadaryas Tony. They stood by him last year. I think a lot of people in Kansas City thought they were going to cut him a few different times as he was dropping passes and costing them with penalties. But Andy Reid was pretty reticent that he was eventually going to help them. And to his credit, as the year went on, at least got back on the field. But the Chiefs and Kadaryas Tony part ways today, they released the former top of the board pick by the New York Giants. I wonder if he gets another shot. You would think he would because that there's this perception that he's dynamic. But God, it was very publicly really ugly with the Chiefs. If you couldn't do it there, I get not thriving in New York when they had you, me, Daris Ryan, and like a couple of other guys in the station on offense with there's not much going on around there. Honestly, you can make the same case though. Like they had Isaiah Hodgins, they had nobody at receiver and he couldn't do anything. And then he went to Kansas City and the other side of it, if he can't do it there, it's Andy Reid, it's Pat Mahomes. And that's my point. And they didn't have wide receiver talent. Rishi Rice finally emerged as the year went on at and nowhere to become their best receiver. But you've been in two places where there's nobody on the depth chart taking food off your plate and you still can't become a playmaker. And that's kind of the point. So you could excuse it one of them away in New York where it's like no one did anything. Right? There's no Terrell prior situation where they had someone that went for 75 and 1100. Nobody did that. No one did anything. They barely had any forward progress as an offense. You couldn't do it in Kansas City with someone that clearly liked you with with Mahomes and Kelsey taking the pressure off and not much on the outside. There's just not much to it. So yeah, maybe somebody he catches on somewhere because the idea of him is awesome, right? The idea of him, it people see like a Percy Harvin kind of clone where you can line him up in 10 different places. And it's this. It's that it's not. But the idea of him is very sexy. Other NFL news of the day that may make some headlines for those of you that have been following the league or planned fantasy for a while, the 49ers place running back Elijah Mitchell on injured reserve. His season's over, not even designated to return. It sounds like they think he's going to be out for the remainder of the season. Titan Robert Tanian remember he was the former Green Bay Packers bounced around a little bit. He got waived by the Minnesota Vikings. They also cut their former first round pick at safety. Louis scene. They also released running back Kuwait and Wagner, who had played a ton for them in this preseason and looked like he was going to make the roster. And then Samaje P. Ryan, man. Somebody check on Jay Gruden. Samaje P. Ryan. He got cut by the Denver Broncos. That is stunning. He had more catches than Johan Datsun last year. He's out of work right now. He is looking for a gig. So those are some of the headlines from around the NFL. All right. Let's get you just moments ago, Dan Quinn meeting with the media, explaining away some of what he did with the roster with Adam Peters. You're listening to Grant and Danny. Good afternoon everybody. I think a lot of you might have viewed our initial 53 and actually even think of it as deeper than that as a 70 man roster. And so there's a lot of work to get to that tomorrow. And so Adam and I, we look forward to meeting you with that tomorrow. So be glad to get started with some questions. So can get going. Hey Dan, just curious the decisions that Andrew Russia releasing KJ Henry, but keeping Kamen Davis and Jean Baptiste. Yeah, for sure, Ben. I think honestly, when you're going into, you know, new program, you're really looking at, you know, some things that will change and, you know, scheme fits and what you're looking for. Sometimes when you're, you know, going into something new, you're looking for different scheme, different fits. But I think by and large, we've really been pleased with what we've seen from Jamie and that that certainly was part of the factor. Hey Dan, thanks for doing this today. One of the 2023 draft class, five of the seven guys were cut today and he kind of goes to what you were just saying. What's the challenge for you when you come in, you have a class of draft picks, but you got your new guys too. How do you weigh all that consideration? Is it just scheme fit? Is it just kind of sometimes you just move on through the past a little bit? Yeah, I think once I took the job there, my guys too. And so I just, we're always going to make what we think is the best decision for the team. John, that's our obligation. So there were ours or they are doing that kind of good stuff. Like once I was here, man, I connected with lots of players here. And so yeah, no looking at anything other than just, you know, what do we need to do best for the team? And really that's where it starts and ends. Hi, Dan. Thanks for doing this. You know, knowing that some of these players on this initial 53-meme roster could be off in this little, it's sort of six hours when you guys start to, you know, if you guys do make any waiver plans or whatnot, how do you frame it to these guys when you're meeting with them and letting them know that they did make it, but maybe just for now? And that's a great question, Nikki, that on a day like today, I think we made 38 transactions, but we met with the players that we had to do a transactions with, not the ones that we did not. And so as that goes, they do know, I have told them that, you know, the first, you know, part of the roster and likely into the first part of the season, it is fluid and it's not fine on that space. And so that the conversation, you know, as a big picture was, Nikki, that I said yesterday, but we won't meet with each player to say that they made it that will be reiterated again tomorrow, adding, you know, to get to that 70-man roster. So as we meet tomorrow, you know, we talk about factor squad and waiver claims and that, but it's a fair question, but I'd say in the front end, we say, you know, it's not said here that we're starting this initial 53, so that's the marker, I guess, that we say at the beginning. Dan, why keep three quarterbacks and why have that third quarterback beat, Jeff? Yeah, I think, as you're going through it, you're just with them, quite honestly, we like, you know, this quarterback room and you just want as many guys in the building that are going through the process, understanding the system and working and having such an important position, as you're going through it, you want as many guys in the building that are always developing and always pushing. So no, no other reason other than just, you know, the talent of the group, and we really felt like this, these group was really pushing it, and so that was the reason behind it. Coach, Martavis Bryant and Bryce and Tremaine were both part of the cut casualties today. What went into the decision to let them go and how do you approach building that wide receiver room? Yeah, Liam, it's two different spaces, really, so Martavis, getting here later, obviously, that certainly had a factor of, you know, proud of him for learning, you know, giving the system to be ready to play, especially more extended playtime versus New England, and with Bryce and Manny's really putting in the work, and as a very well on special teams, obviously, to go, and so a number of these guys, Liam, you can imagine, are way down that cut, and so that's what you're looking to do is give them feedback about where it'll take to take the next steps, and it's a hard day for a coach or a general manager, because, you know, we're all merchants for guys that are absolutely going forward and love the game, and so, you know, we want to make sure we spend time with each player, so it takes a long time, but it's really important, and the player deserves it to give them that feedback. Good afternoon, Coach. A couple of undrafted guys, Tyler Owens, Colton Yankoff, and he's kind of talk about what they've been able to show you this recent training camp, and the decision to keep them on the actual roster. Yep, I'd say both of them really, you know, have the professors absolutely go for it. You feel their intensity, you feel their speed when they play, work on special teams, and on offense and defense, respectively, so at the end of it, you know, when you're really trying to establish an identity, day to day, you've heard me use that word before. I think those examples come back up, you know, the speed, the physicality, the effort, the training, those are things that are commander-style play, and I thought those two really represented that. Hey, Dada, and you mentioned that the roster being fluid over the next couple of days and weeks, over the next 24 hours, the waiver wire, how much of this roster do you think is still fluid and how active do you expect you guys to be? I think, as you're going through it, it's part of where your needs are, Steve, and if there are ways that you can do things to address, you know, some needs for the team, so I think we have a better understanding of that tomorrow after we go through tonight, you know, as the wire comes back up today, obviously, the scouting department, you know, is the key part of that of assessing whether that may be on a routine that gets released in the current play or on a routine, so it's pretty normal around the league this year at this time that a lot of these conversations and things happen, and quite often you look at some players that never end up making it on the waiver wire, so I think we have a better assessment for that as we head into tomorrow afternoon and the days ahead. Dan Quinn with reporters in Ashburne going over the roster, anything standout? How fluid this is? I mean, you heard his first words were the initial, it's not like I said, the initial, he emphasized, he put the emphasis on initial, right? And the theme throughout, all the different questions that some good ones in there are from local folks asking the questions, they call the answers reflected, hey, this can all change. Hey, this is minute to minute, hour to hour, and you know, everything kind of goes from there, right? Where this is where we are now, this is only the first report. Nothing is due really finalized until next week before they get ready to play. He was asked about keeping three quarterbacks and why Jeff Driscoll would be the third. I don't have any problem with either of those things. Number one, I think your quarterbacks are going to run a bunch, especially Daniels, and he's very small, and there are questions about durability that he's just going to have to answer. Hopefully he answers them resoundingly by staying healthy and playing in 17 games, but no problem with third quarterback. And who else would you have kept? I mean, Trace McSorley over Jeff Driscoll. I guess you could do that, but Driscoll's a better thrower, the football, I'd imagine. Who else would you have kept? Would you have gone with Sam Hartman? You know, because you brought him in right after the draft, I think Jeff Driscoll's a better option than him and Hartman were mixed sorely for that matter, but both stay in your building on the practice squad if you want to go that route. So I was going to keep three on my 53, and I had Driscoll in. I think that's kind of a non story, but I have seen that some people were surprised that they went with two veterans instead of another younger project type, whether you view that as Hartman, who's actually a kid at a college or McSorley, who's just younger than Driscoll would have been. So I just view things differently in general. I would almost never keep three, because especially if I've got somebody like Jane Daniels, the instant he's not playing nothing I'm doing has any meaning anyway. Last week, you said you'd keep three this year. No, I'm not a keep three guy. It rarely ever what what I do it. There's got to be an extreme circumstance. Like if Dan Daniels was dealing with a nagging injury or something that could easily, you know, continuously have a setback or something like where he wasn't sure wasn't full go. Maybe I considered but in general, it's just to me, the plane crashes into the mountain, the instant my young quarterback can't go. If I'm good, like if I'm San Francisco, I might keep three or if I'm if I'm a team that you know, I might lose my starter for a little while or something to that effect. And I need to be competitive right now. If I'm a contender, maybe I do it, but in the developmental portion, that's not for me. You could also almost always stash a guy on the practice squad, which is like having a third in the building anyway. Yeah, like if I lose if I lose Jeff Driscoll, I'll be fine. Yeah, I will. Like if I put him on my practice squad or I tried to someone takes him, I'll find a Jeff Driscoll. Maybe not the guy that knows my system as well, but I can't lose sleep over that. Totally. But I do think there's a pretty sizable gap in a situation where you got to play a month of football between a Driscoll and a mix orderly. Now, I agree. I agree. It probably doesn't matter to this team if you win five games or seven games or six games or whatever. I get that. But I'm keeping the best players. And I also think just having an extra veteran and extra guy who can answer some questions around Jayden Daniels is not a bad thing. Agreed. Whether that would have been on the P squad where you can now keep veterans or on the active roster. Speaking of quarterback play in the preseason, Bill Belichick was asked how much performance of QBs in the preseason matters. And I thought his answer was really, really interesting. I want people to hear that next. We can also get into the fact that there's still a quarterback competition that doesn't have an answer that we don't know who's going to start at quarterback for a team. We will do that on Grant and Danny as soon as we return 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 Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Hey NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDul, America's number one sports book. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's FanDul.com/sportsfan. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with FanDul, an official sports book partner of the NFL. Must be 21 plus and present in Colorado. First online real money weights are only $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is now a throwable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandul.com gambling problem. Call 1-800-522-4700. 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Wide receiver running back, Kaz Allen and Titan Cole Turner among almost 30 players who got the axe today. Best stories of the guys who made it. I think you got to go with the undrafted free agent, Titan, Colson, Yankoff, the undrafted safety Tyler Owens. Danny. Tyler Owens from Texas Tech, the football player. If you can. Will it. It is no dream. Theodore Hertzel. Feel it. Chase it. Byron Pringle. Probably a surprise. He wasn't even on the roster on day one of training camp. They signed him a couple days in. I was told by the way that Terry McClellan really lobbied for him and or advocated on his behalf. Like really liked what he did for the room last year, liked him as a player. I had someone tell me that McClellan was a big proponent of bringing him back in. I believe that. I mean, it's, listen, it's not sexy. It's, it's boring even, but that's okay. Right? That, that is a dependable. What do you need? You need to fill in here, fill in there, fill it out. Like, not going to complain. Go to, go to work and help everyone. One guy we haven't talked much about. Javante Jean Baptiste, seventh round pick at an Notre Dame. We had him on the show right after the draft. He was a really good guest, but he bounced in college from one elite program to another. And after playing four years at one of the best programs in America, he went from Ohio state to Notre Dame to finish his college career. Highly recruited guy, a lot of talent. And they obviously, we're going to prioritize their guys over Ron Rivera's guys anyway. So maybe if him and KJ Henry were in a tie, you were going to keep Baptiste. Baptiste had some big moments in the preseason, had some decent practices along the way based on all the reporting out of training camp. So he made the roster. That was very good to see. Very notable as well. Seven safeties and 11 DBs made the team hard to ignore that man. I mean, again, this is the point I was making a little bit ago to Chris Russell, who's a podcast on the deuce. You bring in a defensive head coach and empower him and then empower his top lieutenant and Joe Witt. What are they known for? What are their calling cards? When you think of Joe Witt, you should think of a guy that leads Lincoln interceptions. It's a different person every year. Their secondaries pick people off. And think of Dan Quinn, what do you think of the strongest brand association, lead you to boom, they have worked secondaries. So you're going to see that. Like if you empower, you know, that agency of the government, you're going to see more things leaning that way. It just sort of stands to reason, right? Like if I'm the president and I have the state department, in my ear more than I do the defense department, I'm going to do a lot more diplomacy than I'm going to drop bombs on people or vice versa. You bring in a defensive head coach, all of a sudden, that's what happens. You end up with six guys, really seven, when you include Dominic Hampton. And when you actually include Dominic Hampton and you have the seven safeties, I should say it's 12 DB's. I said 11. That's with the six safeties, but they list Hampton as a linebacker. So really, they kept 12 defensive backs, which is essentially half of your defense. Yes. In some, you know, 53 man rosters where you might keep like 26, 0, 24 D or something like that. So pretty unreal to think about. All right. I wanted to get to this audio. So this was Bill Belichick on the Pat McAfee show where he's going to be a staple on ESPN throughout the year. I've already gotten a lot out of listening to Belichick talk on different platforms in the media now, this year, but you and I keep talking about the rookie quarterbacks and how well they've all played. We're impressed with Jaden Daniels in town. Bo Nix won the job in Denver. They love how he's performed, whether it's Drake man, New England or Caleb Williams in Chicago or Michael Penix in his one game with Atlanta to a person. All of those guys shined in that limited capacity that they got on the field. JJ McCarthy in one game. People wanted him to start over, you know, Sam Donald, because he looked good. And so the question to Belichick was basically, how do you evaluate quarterback play in the preseason? And if a guy, young guy or old guy, doesn't matter, if they look good, it does that mean anything? This is what Belichick had to say about that. Well, I mean, first of all, I don't think you really know how anybody's playing in preseason. I mean, especially at the quarterback position, the schemes are so simple. From the outside of the ball, generally speaking, you're running, for the most part, you're running very basic schemes. You're trying to evaluate your players, trying to get them to play the good fundamentals that they know what to play. You're not disguising things. You just want your defensive players to be ready to react and play fast. And quickly, you don't want to put in a thousand adjustments against a team who offensively isn't running that much anyway. So most of those games are very basic. When you watch the games, it's two or three coverages. You see a lot of man-to-man coverage because teams like to evaluate their players and see who can play man-to-man, who can't. And so, look, zone teams play zone. I'm not saying that, but you do things to evaluate your players. I think to come out of preseason and say, "Oh, this guy's really playing good. That guy's really playing good." I wouldn't put my stock in that at all. I'd put more stock in what they're doing in practice. And let's see what happens in the first three or four regular season games when the opponents specifically attack certain players based on what they think they can and can't get on them. And then let's see how they're playing then. That's a cool bucket of water, I think, for a lot of the fan bases that are raving about how their young quarterbacks playing. And I think some of that is the common parlance or what you hear said about the preseason. I just think it means so much more coming from him when he says, "These defenses are not playing any kind of confusing coverages. They're not giving you any looks that aren't elementary. They're lining up and playing football. It's a lot of man coverage." When we watched Drake May as an example, looked excellent the other night. He was awesome, I thought. Was, yeah. For the Patriots, made some ridiculous plays. And the story out of that was their media grilling, the drawd Mayo, that he should be the starter. And why isn't he the number one on the depth chart? Well, Bill Belichick's point, it's not just a May point, but just more largely is, take all of these performances with a grain of salt. The practice is more telling than the game. I mean, but it's all we get. Like, we're on the outside. I understand. Yeah, him on the inside, we get the little trickled out things or a beat reporter's tweet or, you know, trying to read between the lines on the comments from a coach or position coach, an offensive coordinator or something about how someone's grasp it or a teammate. And we're desperate for the information. And then we get either confirmation or negation of that with a quote-unquote live performance. And his point, as you said, I think it's very, you're dead, right? It is the giant cold bucket of water on anything that you saw. It's the ALS ice bucket challenge. Seriously. Just being dumped on your head a little bit where you watch a lot of young QB shine in the preseason and you're like, man, maybe this guy's really good. And the fact is, it's probably only telling if they're stinking up the joint, which isn't to say that if you're a Patriots fan watching Drake, maybe the other night or heck, you're in DC with Jaden Daniels or in Denver with phonics or wherever that you shouldn't be excited. I would still rather them look really good than not. And maybe when the regular season starts, it comes easy. And these guys are all really efficient. But what is the chance that they're all awesome? They've all played that way. They've all looked like they're about to have a great rookie season. Somebody's fooling everybody. I don't know who those quarterbacks are. Maybe one or two of those guys has a great year. The rest of them are going to be up and down. One or two of them might have a really bad year. Right now they all look like they're about to go out and ball. Yeah, even in a historic rookie year for quarterbacks, it doesn't look six for six. You know, I mean, it's two for six or three for six or eventually becomes four or five for six. But the only thing I'd push back on here is me about to take on Bill Bello, check in terms of a takeoff. But if I'm, if I'm a fan of a team, which I happen to be here, you can still see reasons for excitement. Like I'm not sitting here telling you that put a gold jacket on Jayden Daniels just because I saw him play well in the preseason because he took that one shot play, checking out of a run. But if his arm couldn't get the ball there for the sake of argument, like somebody's open and it's a wet noodle wounded duck that's been shot by a buckshot that falls five feet short or he's skipping the ball here or looks lost, can't even handle the snap and is getting confused and turtles up, you could tell something. You could also have reasons to be excited. No one's saying it's done. No one's saying it's over. Like you and I push back. I love the guy to death. But when he said he's bus proof, no, it's not. Nobody is at this stage. Like nothing is done. But you could be excited to say, Hey, this is started. I see I see something that's worth developing here. I think that's a fair pushback. Yeah, I don't think there's such a thing. Certainly have a high draft pick who's got the physical traits to go in the top five of like not being able to look like he can walk into gum. I know you were being a little bit hyperbolic, but like I don't think that's a reality for a guy that's drafted high. You might get a UDFA quarterback or something who just can't get the ball out, can't figure it out, can't get the ball in the deep out 15 yards downfield. But I think Bella checks point and it's kind of how I've always felt is all of the stuff that's going to determine if a young quarterback's good or not, they're really not doing yet. Yeah. You know, the reading of defense is in figuring out what you're disguising against me and playing chess and being able to get through my progressions and we didn't see any of that yet. It doesn't mean it's not going to be all there when it needs to be in September. Every report is great. So I'm excited. I'm encouraged. I'm happy. I'm optimistic. But just like in Denver, just like in New England, you know, some other places, you're not seeing a lot of that. Speaking of New England, they still don't have a quarterback starter named, which is very odd to me. This whole thing's been strange. It's almost like John Mayo, who I don't think ever interviewed for head coaching jobs outside of New England and didn't even have to interview for that job. If I've got this right, because he was the coach in waiting and there's never been a coordinator, only a position coach as a linebackers coach is doing it in a weird way. You know, it's almost like his lack of experience is showing. So he said comments along the way that are very strange. He called Drake May after the game, the second best quarterback on the team. Well, if that's the case, why is there an open competition? And why haven't you named a starter? Then the next morning on the equivalent of the junkies in Boston on his weekly radio show, like Mike Rezzo does with the junks or whatever, he said Drake May is outperformed Jacobi Brissette throughout the preseason, who he had just called the second best quarterback. And his point was I have to take into account practices all the way back to the spring or whatever. But there's been some conflicting thoughts. Nobody really knows exactly what they're doing. He said over and over again at the start of camp that Jacobi Brissette was the starting quarterback, then halfway through camp after a preseason game or two, it was an open competition. The whole thing's been very, very strange. I don't think they will start Drake May. I don't even think they should. Initially, I think that line is so terrible that I just saw in person on Sunday that I would throw Jacobi Brissette to the wolves for a month or so and let them sort out the line and then go to the kid and try not to get his confidence rattled or, you know, him any worse off to start with bad personnel around him than he already is going to be. And I'd wait about a month with a tough schedule, but I guess it's possible he starts for them. But I just think they've handled it so badly. This was Dan Orlovski on ESPN talking about the decision and he thinks it would be malpractice to start May with just how bad that line is and some of the issues they've got from a person else's standpoint. Couldn't pay me enough to start Drake May. I wouldn't do it and I wouldn't let anybody convince me otherwise. I got a lot of love for Louis. Here's my stance on this. If we're looking at it through the prism of Drake May, when it comes to his development, I've loved it. Well, he's changed protections. He's controlled and owned a little bit of the line of scrimmage. He's thrown the ball very well. The big flaw coming out of school with his feet and the erratic element of his feet, that has improved so much. So from that vantage point, I get it. I understand it. Someone give me a good reason why to play Drake May. Are you serving yourself or you're serving what people may want or what you think the organization wants or the fans want? There's three things that rookie quarterbacks need to have success in the NFL, let alone to make sure they don't get ruined. Good scheme and play caller, plus offensive line, plus skill. Alex Van Pelt, their offense coordinator, I don't know a ton about. I like his scheme. I don't know a ton about him as a play caller. I think it's his first time. So I'm not making a judgment on that. They don't have plus offensive line plus skill. They don't. There's no reason to play Drake May unless you have those three things the Patriots have at least over two, if not over three. So the problem I have with that logic, which actually is really smart and setting a guy up to succeed, they're not going to have two of those three things by the end of the year. Right. It's not as if they're walking through the door in week six. Oh, so you just don't play them at all is week four. Okay. Is week seven. Okay. There are teams two and three years in that don't have that. Sorry. I mean, at some point, you got to play. And I really do believe if you're special, a lot of times you can overcome. Now, you're not going to overcome horrific and maybe they're horrific. Like, I think Washington's got enough there in a bucket where if Jayden Daniels or Bonix or whoever was here, they're really good. They'll overcome. You got McClorn. You got Echler. You got her. She got, you know, a decent enough offensive line that was middle of the pack via PFF last year. Like there's some bones to work with here. New England is an abomination on the offensive line. Someone should be fired for building that group based on how they play the other night. If that's really what they are, minus their center. But it is what it is. Their outside receivers are mostly young and inexperienced. But I guess my point, Danny is, Hey, I wonder what they're going to do. They're the only team where we really don't know who their quarterback is and be that logic of if you don't have these three things, then you can't start a guy. I think that's silly because a lot of bad teams don't have those things. So a couple of things. One, this reminds me of those discussions we had for so many years where it was the Snyder led group. And they would just sort of say we were at that point, we're the Redskins. People will come to us. You know what I mean? Just because it's who we are. And we get the benefit of the doubt when that was gone for a long time and they didn't realize it. That's how New England's behaving. We're the Patriots. Yeah, really been the quote, unquote, Patriots for a handful of years now, right? That 20 years of dominance is long over. And you're not the most, the smartest guy in the room anymore. You're not the genius that sees it, that more no one else sees it, but they're acting in a very arrogant way. It just seems to me, just generally it's all putting. But number two, I understand the point in the sentiment, right? If it's so bad, I wouldn't want to put that challenge in front of my quarterback. I would have done a lot more in the off season. They, again, they didn't see fit to do that. So I don't like throwing a guy to the wolves and saying, get over this and be special enough to fix it. One reason why they should start them. Well, he's the best player they have at the position. That would be one. Well, he matters. And the other guy doesn't. I mean, so that's the reason. Like his, his development's important, where his presets is not. So that's why you play him at some point. You play him week one. I would. But I, I have always said yes until seeing them in person and seeing how Washington's D line destroyed that O line. And I think they've got to just play for a couple of weeks and get that sorted out. Now he didn't seem to have a problem. He was running all over the place, making throws. Yeah, picking up broken snaps and fighting for it. Yeah. Grant and Danny on the fan. I had a wacky experience this weekend that I want to bounce off Danny. It was wild and it has kind of changed how I feel about something sports wise. We'll get to that. Also cut down day in the NFL, the commanders have a roster formed. We'll get into that next on the fan. Welcome back, Grant and Danny on the fan. This past Saturday afternoon, Danny and I had an event down in Richmond. We went to the football fest, a wad through a big party, nine, 10, the fan. So all of our listeners down in Richmond, we were down, enjoying a lovely day. That was fun. And a bowling alley restaurant bar outdoor vibes was really, really cool. River City role. I think it was called. That's right. And it was great a venue. Great event. Nice job by a wad. We took part in a little Q and A on stage with Michael Phillips of the fan in Richmond, and got to hang out with Fred Smoot. And I was playing the new college football game on somebody's Xbox. And the whole thing was just a good day. Good luck. In fact, a wad's producer stump and I played head to head and I beat him. What was the score? Like 57 to nothing, I think in the new college football. I'm sorry about that. Now this is going to be a recurring theme. I was on easy and he wasn't. You guys may remember that from no spring training trip that we made. Did you be clarity or Toby that way? I can't remember Toby. It was like 77 to three or something crazy. So we should have restarted probably because the settings weren't right. But we played the game anyway. And what was great about it was even though he was better than me at the game, I'm sure because he actually plays it. And I was beating him so handily. There was a band on stage and they kept looking over at the score. And I was Virginia Tech and he was JMU. And they're like, JMU, dude. So he was like, it was so embarrassing. They kept calling him out. Every time a song would be done, they'd look back up and be another touchdown or two. That's it was rough. But we had a fun time. The reason I bring this up is I drive down to Richmond on Saturday. And I had worked from 10 to noon on Beck UL and Infinity Sports on the national show that I do here on the network. And so I woke up in the morning, did the show drove down to Richmond, hadn't had anything to eat or anything all day. And so I texted Danny. I'm like, Hey man, where'd you end up in Richmond? Cause I know you got down there earlier. Yep. I know of one sports bar in that general vicinity that I used to go to all the time when I would go to commander's training camp. They were then still the Redskins. I was on the beat or even after that. And not far from where they practice, there's this sports bar in downtown Richmond called gusses that I really like just because good menu, it's, you know, burgers and wings. It is a sports bar. Exactly. Lots of TVs. So I walk into this bar and it is packed to the gills with Arsenal fans watching Arsenal football. We'll call it for the sake of the story. Okay. This was the Premier League on Saturday and they had a big game apparently. There was another funny thing that happened, which is as soon as I sat down at the table, they put me kind of in the corner by myself at a little table. I look over at the bar and I see Danny Ruier sitting there. Yeah. Which is hysterical. On many levels. I mean, there are not enough levels to count how funny it is that we ended up at the same bar that you're in a bar. I'm sitting at a sports bar. I'm sitting at a bar, which I don't do opposite of you in every way. And I'm like, what the heck? There's Danny. That's crazy. So I tell you this story to tell you that I end up watching and you did as well. You were at the bar. I was sitting kind of in the corner at a table. But it was amazing to watch a game with Arsenal fans. And it made me wish that I liked soccer and went to bars on the weekend to watch soccer. The amount of chanting and singing. How do they know all the songs? All the things like some one guy yells out like a cheerleader would like, let's say a guy's name is like Grant. They're like, Grant is the best. And everyone's like, Grant goes left and he goes right. How do they know the songs? The whole thing was just an awesome experience. And I kind of want to be an Arsenal fan now. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing for those of you like soccer. I don't know if that would be a worthwhile endeavor for me. But I think I need to get a kit and I need to find out where to go in DC. And I just want to chant and sing and take my son. One, who's looking to get two? I'm sure everyone will be very welcoming and not scolding you and super annoying and put up barriers and roll the rise at you and be really, really frustrating. The other thing I would say is so I'm with my buddy, Brad. So I met up with my, our friends, Brad and Melinda for lunch down there. And, you know, she had to take the kids back home and Brad and I had some time to kill before we had to be River City Roll pretty close by. Like, oh, you know what I want to watch? The Florida State Georgia Tech game from Ireland. That's on. That's cool. College football, that'll be fun. Let's go to grab some wings. And so there's a guy that's just sports by around in the corner and gusses. And we walked in and seven people before we could even get to the bar with our arms wet up and going Oh, I said, oh, I said, oh, I said, oh, I said, oh, I'm like, what so much so bleep is this and why? Why are you yelling? And how does everyone know the songs? That's what I have for you. I loved it. I imagine you did not. No, it was loud and it was energetic. And it was just a lot of people having fun. All the things that you hate. It's not the fun part. It's the where is Arsenal. If you're from there, that's really cool. You get to watch your team on television when you're like an ex-pat watching across. Otherwise, what'd you do? You just throw it down on a board? How'd you decide to be an Arsenal thing? Did you like the songs? I thought the whole thing was great. I do have one buddy who's a big fan of Arsenal who watches them every weekend or whatever. And I texted him and he was like living so vicariously through me. He's like, dude, this is so awesome. I'm sending him all the chant videos and everything. And he said, all right, if you really want to get him going, he's like, you got to yell out. I don't remember like, what do you think of? I think it was like Manchester United or another team. I don't remember who it was. But he's like, yell it out really loudly. And I just didn't have the stones to do it. To say, what do you think of like, city Manchester City? I think it would lead to either another chant or some type of like, big thing. He's like, yell out in the bar, this quote. I don't remember what it was like, what do you, I'm just making this up. Like, what do you think of Man City or something? And then I guess you do that and all the Arsenal fan hates them. And so they do something in response. It was like a call on response thing. I just didn't have the yeah, it had the cool to do it to pull it off. But I still had a lot of fun. And I'm jealous of soccer fans who watch games and that kind of experience. We have nothing like that. You watch a football game. You cheer when there's a big. Yeah, we got one song and hail to the commanders and now with the barbershop quartet fighting for our commanders now. We literally don't have that anymore. Yeah, we have nothing. We have cheering when a play happens. That is awesome. I just thought it was so cool and so fun. And that's all that is. And the fact that you were at a bar is still comical. It's so it's so weird. But doing it there like at whatever like Arsenal Stadium is and let's call it Northwest Stadium for Arsenal. If you're there and like the spontaneous singing and jubilence that rules like watching Welcome to Raxum when they just sort of break out into the song. I don't know how they get the songs around everybody so that every player's got a song every situation of the game has a song. We've got a lead. What knows the lead? We're up one now and they all know what to do it. And it's who starts it? Who's in charge of it? Just these weird things to me that are amazing. What's our biggest disagreement with the commander's roster decision today as they form their 53 man roster? We'll get into that next also. We'll get you ready for game two with the Dylan Cruz era. And that's baseball right here 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 casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. 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