Grant and Danny
Jay Gruden On The Commanders Hot Start
On air and on the road, J. Groot is driven by the Tedbert Automotive Group, Tedbert Ford, and Chantilly and Fairfax, your F-150 headquarters. Tedbert Chantilly, Lincoln and Tedbert Chevrolet and Sterling, home of Tedbert for life lifetime vehicle coverage. See and shop them all at Tedbert.com. Jay, it's only been a month. Jaden Daniels has played very well. I saw you tweet something to the effect yesterday that it's official. The kid is good. Can we write it in Sharpie that they got their guy, that they got their franchise quarterback? Or should we not rush to judgment? None of you are right at Sharpie, man. This guy in four games has been pretty impressive. He sees the field well, he escapes, he can run, he can throw. Yeah, I mean, he does it all right. He got great poise, too, as I like the best about him. He doesn't get rattled. You know, I can tell. Sometimes you can see quarterbacks eyeballs through their face masks. They're so big and scared, but this guy is a he's a surgeon back there. He's got confidence and plays a lot of poise and he's accurate and fun to watch, man. He's fun to watch. What did you make of the response to the first negative play? It seems like they've had in a month, right? The trying to give Terry a shot who I don't think, you know, I think kind of lost his footing wasn't his best throw. Sales guy makes a great play for an interception. And for me, I'm going, okay, that was bound to happen. Good, bad, or indifferent. You're going to have a something negative occur in this league where everybody gets paid to play. What's the response? And then it was unbelievable. What did you make of that? Yeah, I mean, that's just the mental toughness part of it that has to show up throughout the season. You know, it's not always going to be perfect. You're going to have your bad plays, your bad quarters, your bad throws, whatever, but how you respond is just what is the most important? And he responded in a big time way and they responded again when Arizona went down a score to cut up the two touchdowns. They went right down the field and scored again. So their response has been outstanding the last three weeks. They don't blink and they stick with the plan. I think Cliff has done a great job of not forcing too many throws down their throws. They still mix it up with the runs and some of the design quarterback runs. And then obviously the quick game and some play passes and he keeps going to defense on their heels. That's for sure. Jay, they've punted three times in four games once in the last three ways, right? He's got the easiest job in America. I mean, he does. I mean, poor guys got to hold every now and then, but he can play more ping pong now. I mean, I'm telling you what, he didn't miss any ping pong games over the years. It's pretty good at it, as you know, but they've scored on 24 drives and they have 19 incompletions offensively. What do you make just overall of what Kingsbury's doing and how do you summarize for us like what he's doing so well? Well, I think it's just a combination thing. It's not one thing. He's got a great game plan together. He's mixing them around and pass inside zone and not just inside zone, but he does a lot of different run concepts with pulling guards and, you know, pinning them defensive ends and pulling attack holes and doing a lot of different things. And then the zone reads and the RPOs and all that stuff off of them and then the play pass. So he's doing a good job of keeping the defense off balance. Now, the offense has done a great job of staying positive down a distance, staying ahead of the chain. So they're not in sports in third and long and they're playing ahead the last three weeks. So they're not coming from behind. They're not one-dimensional. When Cliff or any good offensive play caller has every play, it is disposal on a drive. It's fun to call plays. You know, when you have to delete like three quarters of your playbook because you're one-dimensional, it's not that fun. But he's done a great job of keeping teams off balance. You look at Arizona, what they try to do, their game plan is a drop eight and only rush three guys. They did it like 12 times. And Jay just stood back there like a statue, just had great poise and just waited for guys to uncover and drop time. So, you know, and then they tried a rough five and he got any scrambled outside through a guy and flat. I mean, I don't know what you do as a defensive coordinator against this guy. Teams are having trouble trying to figure it out. Jay Gruden with us here on Grant and Danny, you mentioned this offense. I want to get to the offensive line here, Jay. I think Sam Cosby's good. I think he'd play and start for most teams in the league. I'd probably say the same about Tyler Biotich. I'm a fan of his. I think he's probably, you know, middle of the pack, you know, maybe about half of the league center. The other guys, I don't know that they'd be day one starters on most offensive lines yet as a group. I feel like they're playing really well together. What do you see from that, Olin? Yeah, I've been impressed with the rookie. I think Brandon Coleman has done some good things in a running game and has held his own in the passing game. You know, like I said before, they've done a good job at changing his launch spot. So, he's not sitting and taking five step drops and waiting for high crossers and deep daggers and all that stuff. They're moving around or changing up the launch spot so that Lyman or having fun. Cosby is doing a good job at Wright Guard. I love Tyler. You know, he did good at Dallas last year. And obviously, Andrew Weiler's a veteran guy who knows how to play. And they're letting these guys come off the line of scrimmage and be physical. And they're not asking to pass protect every time. I think the addition of Zach Kurtz and obviously John Bates that tied in and the rookie tied in. They've got a mouth physical presence that tied in, which helps the running game, which they didn't have last year. It makes a huge difference. Jay Gruden on Grant and Danny here on the fan. One thing I noticed yesterday, more so than in the Cincinnati game, like in the Cincinnati game, whether it was the Terry deep shot or the touchdown in the corner, some incredibly low percentage generally throws that Daniels was able to drop into the bucket. And he second in the NFL and completion percentage over expected this year. But they have the highest expected completion percentage of 73%. And when I watch some of these other teams, whether it's the bears with Caleb Williams or whatever, it's not as easy. Like a lot of stuff around the line of scrimmage. I joke about the horizontal raid, but the expected completion percentage for Daniels this year, 73%. And he's actually 82 because he's plus 9%. But I guess my question is that's a scheme thing, right? That's a cliff thing. Your thoughts on that? Yeah, no, they do have a lot of, you know, bubble screens built into the running game, which are easy completions. He's going to get, James is going to get seven or eight of those a game. Cliff's going to dial them up a little quick game or flaps or release screens or bubble screens or, you know, Brian Robinson, a swing pass or Eckler, whoever it is, or Mick Nichols, you know, he's going to get seven or eight of those. He's going to be eight for eight. And then the rest of them, he's going to have to make good decisions with the football. You know, Cliff did try to get after their defense with some double pose with some high cross and deep deep, deep throws. But Jayden did some good things with making the right decisions. Just kick them out to the flat or find the completion somewhere else. So I think his decision-making has been good as why his completion percentage so high is not forcing the ball. The only ball he tried to force was the interception of Terry, you know, and that wasn't a pearly. He just sailed it a little bit. So his decision-making has been on point. He's keeping the chains moving and Cliff's calling him good game. It's a good combination to have. Jay, talking about Cliff, what's that like going back to a place that you've coached before? I know everybody likes to tell you it's not a big deal. I know this when I saw a girl that I dated 15 years ago, I sucked in my gut and tried to pretend that I was confident. You know what I mean? Like it's human nature, right? Oh, yeah, for sure. You want to go back and you know, prove that you are a capable coach. You know, when you get fired, it's no fun and people doubt your ability to coach the game. Sometimes you need a second opportunity. Maybe I could get one one day. I doubt it, but who knows? But it's always good to go back to a place that you were in and kick their ass. That's for sure. I know Cliff is excited about it. And he did some good things in Arizona, but over the long haul, he didn't do a good enough job. So he let's go. Now he's making his mark back again. He'll probably be a head coach next year or the year after. Jay, what do you make of the receiving core down the depth chart outside of McClellan? There was so much made all off season about they don't have enough talent. They don't have enough weapons. And they got an offense that can't be stopped right now. Zacchaeus went ham yesterday. Noah Brown's been good. We had looked McCaffrey on the show a couple hours ago. He doesn't get a lot of targets, but he seems to be open a lot and doesn't drop the ball. What have you thought of their wide receiver group? They've been steady. They've made plays when they have to. You mentioned number 14. I still don't know how to pronounce his name. You can go with OZ. You can go with OZ. People that don't know how to say his name, OZ. OZ. Yeah, the ex Eagle. He did some good things. And obviously, Noah Brown, the steady guy, he's got good hands. He's a physical guy. He's a presence in the running game. He's not going to drop the ball. He's not a speedbird merchant, but he can get open. I think Luke McCaffrey is finding his way. He's making some plays when he has to. So obviously, Terry's a big guy. And obviously, Zacchaeus is one of his favorite targets. The back side of the back, he'll do some good things. But the key is Jayden. I think he just takes what the defense gives him. Now, eventually, some teams are going to challenge these guys to play some tighter man-to-man with a spy on the quarterback. And these guys are going to have to separate somehow some way. But they're going to play zones and loosen up their coverages and play spot drop zones. Jayden's got to find a short guy, the intermediate guys, and he's done that so far. So the key test will be when they play a good defense with some corners that can rush a passer with four and see who can separate other than Terry. Yeah, to that point, McCaffrey told us they really have seen very little man at all. And we were asking about... He's one of the top guys in terms of separation percentage in the league. And he basically said, look, I'm just kind of finding spots to throttle it down or whatever. But he said, we really haven't played man. I just don't think they're going to see that much man. A, you barely see it in the league. I don't know what the percentage is generally. You'd probably know better than I would on how much man you even see. But also, it seems like teams are petrified to turn their back to Daniels. Yeah, that's what I said. You had to play the spy on a quarterback. And Arizona played man. And one time they rushed three, had a spy on the quarterback, tried to play a little two-man, and that didn't work out. You can play, you can rush four. But the problem, when you rush four and have a spy on a quarterback, you lose that middle field player that helps with all the crossing routes and all that. So that's a problem for defenses as well. So the teams are in a bind, man. And they're in a bind with how they're going to defend this guy. But eventually, I would imagine somebody's going to be able to get home before and place the man to man with a spy on them. But I don't know. I don't know if maybe they won't be right because Dallas really doesn't have the ability to do that. I don't think Philly does. You know, and I don't think the Giants do. They don't have the corners to do it either. They play them next, you know, they play them five more times. So I don't think they'll see much man to your point. Is this why everyone's looking for the quarterback who can run? Well, you got to the combination. Totally. I mean, if you can't, but I'm saying, like, nobody's looking for Derek Carr anymore, right? I mean, the idea is you need everyone's looking for like Josh Allen, so to speak. And I know there's only a couple of those guys. But my point is, is this why? Yeah, because the coverage, as you see, you're limited. You don't see any two, man. You don't see any match coverage. You know, you see a lot of different coverage with a quarterback that can't really move. It's difficult. A lot of ton of blitzes for God's sake. But you got to pick up blitzes like our blitz period, you should be like forever, you know, trying to pick up all these damn blitzes at practice, because, you know, Kirk wasn't much of a runner. And you had to pick them up. But with a runner, you know, a lot of those blitzes, they're afraid to do because if he breaks contain, like he will, there's nobody there. So it's scary. The defensive coordinators, like I said before, I think the first week, I think he'll see a lot of spot drop zones and drop eight, some foreman rushes with, uh, I try to get as many eyeballs on the quarterback as they can. And hopefully he makes mistakes and try to enforce them in the coverage. Jay, for the non-Jaden Daniels part of the running game, what are you seeing that's so effective? The last couple of C's here. Banyman ever didn't really want to run the ball. Scott Turner loved running it for 2.2 yards a carry numbers approximate. It looks like there's gaps and places to go. And it just seems that everybody's got momentum. It doesn't matter who they hand the ball off to. They're able to find some yardage there. What do you see in this run game and it's making it so good? Well, I told you the most important thing they had in tight end presence. So I don't think the guys before Cliff had tight ends that could hold the point of attack, walk the backside, be physical with the double teams helping tackles and do all the things necessary. Tight end need to do in running games. Zach Hertz has done that. This career John Bates is very good at it. And obviously the rookie's file solid at it. So that helps. You have physical offensive line. And I like the way he's running the ball. He's doing a lot of different ways. He's running spread them out, running inside zones. He's running outside zones. He's running some pin and pole plays, which are good. He's changing it up and doing a good job. And the linemen are pretty effective. They're not great pullers, but they're effective enough and they're getting out there. But the inside zones are getting a lot of movement. Brian Robinson has great vision. He's finding holes. And even this Jeremy McNichol's guy, he bounced one out for a 27 year touchdown. I have no idea where the defense was. But they're hitting different gaps and they're making defenses cover every blade of grass. And if they settle down and bring everybody up and run, he'll just fire out a bubble for the Terry McLorfering unit. So it's very difficult to defend because Cliff is making him defend every blade of grass. So now that we've seen four games with so much progression from week one to week four, I remember week one, I was not thrilled. I think a lot of fans were pretty ticked off as well. Just will look pretty vanilla, pretty, you know, like just let's not screw anything up and let Jaden Daniels kind of play Superman for almost three and a half quarters. And they didn't weren't able to do much against Tampa Bay in week one. Since then it's been a steady build into this juggernaut. Now that you look back at the long road, what about that plan? Maybe he's more crystallized. Maybe it makes more sense now now that we have a month of data going back from the before the first game to right now. Well, one is they've been able to establish the run and they've been playing with the lead. Like I said, the whole playbook is open. They're not forcing the one dimensional calls. They're not forced to throw on a 12 yard hook route on third and 10. You know, waiting for people to uncover and all that stuff. So they've been ahead of the chains and they've been able to run in different personal groups, two tight end sets, one tight end set, and they're hitting different areas of the field inside the home. They can run right. They can run left. They're doing a lot of good things in that regard. But the key is the same head of the chains. That's why New Orleans is the first two games. They were unstoppable because hell, they had second and two, first and 10, second and two, first and 10. They were just gutting people. Now they are forced to throw the ball. They're not as effective. But, you know, I just think they're doing a great job on the first second now, which is critical and pro football nowadays. Jay Gruden is with us on Grant and Danny here on the fan. Let's broaden this out to some other teams around the NFL. We've asked you a couple times earlier this season about Caleb Williams. The Bears got a defense led 24 18 win over the Rams. Williams, though, at least the line was better, 17 of 23 for a buck 57 touchdown. No picks. Was he was the performance kind of with the line like better than he had been? Yeah, they got the win. He didn't turn the ball over too much. They still struggle a little bit. But the, you know, swift had a big hit in the running game, which helps out a lot. And they got some turnovers defense and the punter, third punter. Holy, who's this punter for Chicago? Good guy. Oh, that's drafted a lot. It was like a mid-round pick to the two to the one. Yeah. So, poor Rams had to drive 98 yards every time. And in Chicago, a great field position throughout the game. And they got away with a victory. But Caleb is looking better. He's making some better throws, but he's still in my mind in the first four games and I am close to what Jayden is doing. Houston won this weekend. Jay, but looked a little shaky doing so. They lost the week before it didn't play very well. Where are you out on the Texans? I like the Texans. I think they have great coaching staff. And obviously C.J. Stroud's ice water in his veins. Very similar approach to the game is Jayden Daniels. Both of them see the field very well. They don't get rattled at all. And C.J. got the two-minute drive down there and was very patient. Just took what the defense gave them and got the last touchdown. But, you know, the Jaguars and the Texans have always played tough games. And there's very similar, a lot of these division rivals are going to play tight games despite what you think the records are or what the score should be. They've got a lot of pride in these locker rooms and they're going to play hard. And C.J. just came out with another gritty victory like he always does. How are the Chiefs who are four and O despite, you know, not being really good offensively at all? Now they've lost their only true weapon in Rice with Pacheco already sidelined. Kelsey's been very, very pedestrian. Mahomes is off to arguably the worst start of his career. I mean, he is I think second in the NFL and turnover worthy plays right now. How are they going to continue to score and move the ball? I don't know. It's going to be tough. You know, Patrick can only do so much. They got to have somebody that can uncover Xavier Worthy had a big hit last week, but they got to find somebody else. For she writes, there's a lot more than people think as far as this physicality to the game that he brings on the shallow crosses. He catch them and split them and all that stuff. I don't know where they're going to find a guy for that. Kelsey, you'll have to do a lot of that. You've got to get in better shape. But I imagine there'll be the go-to guy and somebody else have to emerge. I don't know who that will be, but it's tough on Pat. I don't care how good you are a quarterback. You've got to have somebody that could separate right now. They don't have anybody. So it'll be a struggle that spags. We'll keep them in games because they play great defense and Andy Riddle call a great game to figure out ways to get somebody wide open for touchdown. I don't know. Probably win close to you until he gets some weapons back. Do you get the sense with Kelsey that it is a little bit of just getting him back in game shape? Yeah, he's older, you know, and he's getting slowing down a little bit, but he's still got a great feel for the game. He could find holes and solves now as far as man to man's separation. Be probably not quite as good as it used to be, but I'm sure he can do a little bit of that. But you know, they're going to put a couple eyeballs on him at all times now that he's the only weapon. So it'll be a little bit tougher on him moving forward. But, you know, I think when it's all said and done as a season wears on, he'll make more and more plays and be more of a force. But in the meantime, they got to find somebody else. I don't know who that's going to be speaking of weapons coming back. Jay, I'm still an Eagles believer. Doesn't look real good right now this minute as they got smacked around this weekend and kind of been struggling, but no Devontae Smith, no Lane Johnson, no AJ Brown. I got, they got a bi-week here now. I feel like when they do get some of these guys back, there's still going to be a force to be reckoned with in this division in the conference, but it's getting harder to prove that your thoughts on the Eagles. Yeah, you know, they're classic underachievers right now. They're not playing as good as their talent level suggests they should obviously lose them the two key weapons hurts a lot against Tampa Bay. Those two wide out too much and Lane, they get those guys back. They'll be fine on offense. I'm worried about their defense. They don't get any pass rush ups, not getting anything. Jalen Carter is not playing like a pro-bolt defense. The three techniques should be and they're giving up a lot of big plays and you know, they don't rush the passer very well. They don't blitz very much. Dan Joe has been very conservative in his approach because I think he's afraid of the corners. Derry Slays get a little bit older and the rookie Quignon Mitchell is struggling a lot. So they got problems on defense. So when they get their guys back on offense, they got to go back to the talented type of offense, control the clock, keep their defense fresh and they'll be fine. Mitchell, first round pick. Oh, by the way, Jay, before we let you go, Monday night football, we got a double dip tonight. I'm sure you'll be locking in on both games. Titans, dolphins, Miami's going to Tyler Huntley at quarterback. So this will be their third starting QB in three weeks and then Seattle Detroit, the Seahawks have a chance to get the four and oh, really would be their first quality win, frankly. Detroit hosting them tonight at 815 in the second game. What do you like this evening? I like Detroit. I think Seattle got four defense linemen out. I think Detroit runs the ball and gets back to their pounded ground and pound type ways that Dan Campbell likes. So I think they'll get the victory and I think Tennessee will come in and make play good. I think they'll get back to Pollard and get him the rock and the spears will get going and Bill Callahan will have some nice cool design runs. I don't know if they'll work or not, but he'll try. But they got to keep will of it from hurting him. He's got to throw in completions and not turn the ball over. And I think Tennessee will get the win. I just, you know, I don't, I don't, Miami's they should be better, you know, but Huntley's is a tough call for a quarterback. Just come off the couch to start a quarter, start a game on Monday night football. I know he's played a lot. He's a he's an effective guy. But I think Tennessee's defense is pretty damn good. They had a great defensive tackle. They get great corner, a couple of good linebackers. So I think Tennessee gets it done. James, thank you as always, man. We'll talk to you next Monday, hopefully about a four and one football team. How cool would that be? That'd be awesome. Thanks for having me, fellas. Thank you. There's Jay Gerudin with us on Grant and Danny every single Monday at five o'clock. On Aaron on the road, Jay Gerudin is driven by the Tebrid Automotive Group, Tebrid Ford and Chantelian Fairfax, your F-150 headquarters, Tebrid Chantelian Lincoln, and Tebrid Chevrolet and Sterling, home of Tebrid for lifetime vehicle coverage. See and shop them all at Tebrid.com.