Grant and Danny
Beltway Blitz, What Has Impressed You The Most w/ Jayden Daniels?
in one hour when J. Gruden joins the show for his Monday appointment. We're giving away cap stick. It's right here on Grant and Danny. Make sure you're listening at five o'clock. We'll take you up to six 30 on the fan. Forget the NFC East standings. How about the conference standings? There are two teams with a better record than the Washington commanders at three and one right now. Welcome you back on a victory Monday. Time for you to plan your future. The exclusive sponsor of the show is the law firm, Condorion Murad. I'll help you get your last will and test them and put together. Set up a trust for you and your family. I know this sounds like something you do way down the road, but you got to get it done now. It's not fun, but they'll make it very, very easy. Schedule a free consultation with their estate planning attorneys today visit kmloyers.com. Be sure to tell them that we sent you. That's kmloyers.com. Danny, as soon as I have kids, my dad said, hey, make sure you got to do this stuff, man. You do the important paperwork and these guys will not only help you, but if you're a listener to the show and you mention us, they will do it for a nice discount as well. Absolutely. They are awesome dudes who get it, right? They understand it's not the most fun thing in the world that to do. And they make it as pain free as possible. We'll cover the commanders and the NFL and the blitz. We start on the diamond. The voice of nationals baseball since day one back in DC is Charlie slows who alongside Dave Jaggler in the broadcast booth yesterday, put the finishing touches on yet another season of nationals baseball. Charlie, I guess broad brush here, but how would you describe the 2024 campaign? It's, you know, it's really interesting because there were a lot of good things. I think the improvement in the starting pitching, the young pitching, two pitchers who weren't there when the season started in Mitchell Parker was up quickly because of the injury to Josiah Gray and then DJ hers when Trevor Williams went down at the end of May. Progression of Jay Curvin was terrific in the first half, maybe leveled off, maybe fatigue late in the year. I think, you know, those are the positives. And then I think really feel good about number one, Mackenzie Gore with the way he finished the year. I mean, he pitched in his last, particularly his last three or four, but really his last seven starts the way you hoped he would come out of the gate this year. And if that's what he's going to be, now you saw number one, ace type stuff. So I'm really feeling good about the starting pitching door for old for next year. You know, position player-wise, we kind of knew they were going to struggle with score runs, you know, they hoped they would get more offense and all more a long ball than they did if then you're transitioning to the young players in wooden crews coming up in the, you know, the second half of the year. And more to come, and you know, Mike Rizzo's talked about now what they need to add, obviously he realizes they need a run producing back somewhere where it's a first baseman, a designated hitter or a full-time D.H. or guy can play, can do both. Those are the, those are the techniques to take that next step forward. The young players progress, the young pitchers progress, and the bullpen is good again. You know, you've got a chance to really move forward. Charlie, what's your biggest unanswered question going forward? You kind of reverents it there. I'll give you mine, for example, you can copy it or pick one on your own. Where's Kate Cavalli? And I feel like we didn't hear anything. Why didn't we hear anything? He was supposed to come back at some point and that never happened. That's my biggest unanswered question. What's yours? Well, yeah, he, you know, I think he, you know, he was ill in the middle of the year and suffered a dead arm stage and not everybody comes back at the same pace. You know, I think they really thought he was going to, you know, initially was going to pitch in the second half of the year. And so, you know, he didn't. They hope he's 100% healthy that he physically feels like he's, he's ready to let it go next year with, with no restrictions and no qualms about it. But now that he hasn't pitched all year and he missed all of the previous year, I mean, Davey made that statement yesterday. They're going to have to be careful with innings of how much he is able to move forward, how much you can count on him for next year. Charlie, last we saw of CJ Abrams at Wrigley Field. He's playing, went over, we find out he gets sent down. The team never confirmed why, but we know it's because he was out all night and then went straight to the game and they didn't like that very much. When he shows back up, it's obviously going to be a big story at spring training. But do you think that there's any kind of lingering effects or is it just kind of clean slate, fresh start, big year for him come spring training? Well, that's what you're hoping for. I mean, obviously, they were sending him a message about how they would like their players to conduct themselves and that, you know, in this day and age, you know, where you are is always visible to anyone who has a camera and a mobile device that can be put on the internet almost instantly. And so, I mean, you have to be real careful about, you know, perception and that kind of thing. So hopefully, it isn't a lingering thing and, you know, he's ready to go from day one and, you know, message delivered and, you know, he can come out of the gate next year like he did this year where he showed so much improvement initially defensively and offensively because he's an electric player when he's on his game. Charlie, thank you as always. Hopefully get some well-deserved going on, buddy. I'm starting right now. I love it. Thank you, my friend. Be well. Hit that NFL center, please, Darris. Our pal Nate Davis is going to talk about the NFL with us right now. Nate, let's start with last night. Baltimore, a resounding win over Buffalo. What does that mean for both teams? Yeah, Danny, I think it meant more for the Ravens. I think it just kind of shows that they're really finding a way to incorporate Derek Henry in there and that that offense is really just a Swiss army knife that can attack you and some looking for ways. And I think, you know, I think the rest of the league, it was kind of put on notice last night and that this team may really be ready to take off. The Chiefs are four and oh, but they're an unimpressive four and oh if there's such a thing and they lost Rishi Rice yesterday. Now, all they do is win and we know they can flip a switch, come to playoffs, but my home's has not been himself. Kelsey has not been himself. How do you feel about Kansas City? Yeah, I mean, I think I think they're number one until they're knocked off cramp. But I mean, like you're saying, it's a very precarious perch. You know, the average margin of victory, I think, is five points. You know, they had been some good teams in there, but they've also, you know, not looked like necessarily a team that's on the verge of a 3PD or, you know, we'll see if they end up replacing Rishi Rice or if they think they can take care of that internally. I think the thing we lose sight of is that this really kind of has been a defensive driven team for the last, you know, season plus. So, you know, that certainly counts Chiefs out. It's, it's a apparel. But, you know, I think, I think it's pretty easy. Look at some of these other teams, like the Ravens, and think that, you know, maybe they have a better shot winning this whole thing. I know it ended up being only a two point win that. But, you know, for those of us that were mad, I'm sure I don't know who Matt is. Nate, who we're watching most of it. Because I'm going to ask about Minnesota, and I put the M in front of it. I don't know who, but I don't know how I got to Matt. Anyway, Nate, I'm terribly sorry about that. You are Nate. Uh, I'll end up being a two point W, but Minnesota was dominant for most of that game before Green Bay's kind of furious comeback. Minnesota to me has been the most impressive, kind of given where my expectations were for them before the season. Your thoughts on them, you can answer as you or Matt. Yeah, it was kind of like a replay of the Alabama Georgia game with a 28 nothing lead. Yeah, right. Um, give them their credit, right? I mean, they're four and no. I mean, they're, they're, those are legit wins. You know, the 49ers and the, uh, the Packers, um, among that group, um, blew out the Giants. So, I mean, I mean, the Vikings are, you know, they're not frauds. I mean, it doesn't, you know, I'm not ready to fully buy in and say that they're Super Bowl contenders, but I think this is a tribute to Kevin O'Connell, his coaching staff, Brian Flores on the defensive side. And, um, you know, we've seen that they kind of unlocked Sam Darnell here, which is probably going to lead an interesting debate after the season. Um, but yeah, I mean, I, I thought, I saw the team. I thought they were kind of a last place team by default because I thought the rest of the clubs and that, that very good division were, were better, but I'm really curious to see how far they can sustain this. I mean, they're, they're, they're tough on both sides of the ball and, uh, you know, they're showing they're going to hang in there. Sam Darnell can keep this up. Second time in as many weeks, Nate, we've got two Monday night football games, the Titans and the dolphins in the AFC tonight at seven 30 and then about 45 minutes after that, the Seahawks trying to get to four and oh, if they could surprise the lions in Detroit, are your thoughts on tonight's slate? Well, I'll be watching one of those. You know, I guess I'll have the other one on the, uh, the second TV on mute kind of monitor it, but I'm really looking forward to that Detroit game. I mean, the beneath teams get together. It's usually a show. I think the last three meetings between the Seahawks and the lions, the average score has been 45 to 35. So, um, should be fun. I mean, I'm curious to see, you know, kind of because it's the first real division one game for the Seahawks. So I'm curious to kind of see how they, how they hold up on the road against, you know, team that we all think it's probably, you know, Super Bowl contender, at least on the NFC side. So, um, looking forward to that, um, asking the other one, you know, just, you know, I don't know how we'll take away the tightens of the dolphins when both those teams having, having so many problems right now, but, um, you know, they also provided a really entertaining game on Monday night football last year, that tends to come back. So, you know, Dan, I felt that you don't expect, but, um, that definitely afforded the one in Detroit much more tonight. Nate, when I ask you about bears, uh, they're two and two, which kind of belies what's been going on. They shouldn't have won in week one. They got bailed out by some bad. We'll love a sink, but killer Williams hasn't really looked great just yet. I think it's way too early to start asking questions. My question is, when is it okay? When is it on time for us to say, Hey, wait a minute. How sure are we? Yeah, you know, I've got, I've got that debate with some colleagues. I mean, I don't think that there's any reason to be major concern. I mean, two and two is kind of what I thought the bears would be at this point. Um, I also thought that maybe they started turning a bit of corn yesterday. I mean, I thought yesterday was kind of the starting to follow. You know, Caleb Williams was a lot more efficient yesterday than he had his other games. Um, he is increasing the volume, uh, he didn't do more strength in the past again. Um, but they all scared the audience with him. I mean, he had like 165 yards total yesterday, which was more than he'd had in the entire season to my at that point. Um, so I think they're kind of a lot of certain aspects, uh, although they're roster, which we all thought was a pretty good going into the year. Um, and I think this is one of the things really going to have to like lean on his defense to really be driving the force of this game. Um, and a complimentary office with Caleb and let him come to the job, but I still think they're capable of getting a nine wins. Maybe that wild car sponsored the end of the year. I'm a third nade on hold. Thank him for us. Ryan, his phone's breaking up. Nate Davis, USA today. Let's talk, uh, commanders. Nick Ackeridge, PFF helps us to do that. Nick, it wasn't a bangles game. Obviously. I don't, I don't know that we'll see another one of those for a while by anybody, but another ultra efficient performance for Jaden Daniels yesterday. Yeah. I mean, he is just, uh, he's not looking like a rookie four games into his career. That's for sure. And yeah, you know, he's just answering any question people had, you know, pre draft and in questions I had, um, you know, kind of doing my scouting process and he's answering them in four weeks. It's pretty incredible. Why? There's so many ways I could ask this Nick, but at the end of the day, I'm wondering how was I so wrong or how was so many people so wrong sort of doubting Cliff Kingsbury? Now this is a third of the way through the season, not even and teams make adjustments. They'll figure stuff out, but through four games, guys are open. Whatever they want to do, they're able to do pretty much. How is this happening and how, how would, how would defenses seem so off guard? Yeah. I mean, I think the biggest thing here is the run game that they're using in it. And I don't, I don't think all of that credit will code a cliff Kingsbury. I mean, I think that they've done a great job as an offensive staff, you know, kind of using the screens that we've talked so much about with Cliff Kingsbury and that run game to really kind of set stuff up in the past and that run game has been so unique. It's been, it's just so well kind of drawn up where you're getting, you know, Jane Daniels out in space. You're kidding, Brian Robinson in space and it's just been, it's just been incredible. Like you said, you know, teams are going to adjust and it's kind of up to Cliff now to kind of, you know, keep adjusting his own plan so that, you know, defenses are unprepared, but right now he's been pretty much flawless. When you guys at PFF put together the grades for this game, who stands out? Who were some of the highest graded players on the team? Yeah, the big ones were the two linebackers. Frankie Louvoo and Bobby Wagner. Louvoo had a 90.3 Bobby Wagner with an 87 and they were just flying everywhere. They, they, they played so well together. Frankie Louvoo had that, that force fumbled, but yeah, it's been a long time since linebackers kind of led our defensive grades here for Washington, but they really stood out. It feels like Allen and Payne had their, had their biggest games, you know, maybe something stuff that you guys noticed and other games have stood out, but for the rubes like me, counting stats were there that they were wreaking some havoc in this one. Yeah, from a pass rushing standpoint, they were much better. You know, Jonathan Allen looked like he was getting a little bit, you know, back to what we've seen from him in the past, but in the run game, they were still kind of struggling a bit, just kind of not really holding up their gaps losing too much ground. So it's been a little bit rough from them in terms of, you know, the running game, but it was nice to kind of see that pass rush really, you know, start to, to impact the quarterback. Last thing they got the Browns on tap next thoughts. I mean, the Browns don't look great. Hey, the Sean Watson has been, you know, somewhat unlucky. He's greater, really well with us. There was a pick yesterday that was right in the Mario Cooper's hands and he dropped it that turned into an interception, but their offensive line is kind of struggled. I think it's going to be, you know, early in the season before we kind of, you know, got to the last two weeks and the last two wins. It was going to be one that I thought they would kind of struggle with, but you know, you kind of think that they might be favors in that game and we'll have to go to four and one. So I'm pretty excited to see what they do again on offense. But yeah, I think they should be favored in that game. Nick, thank you. So it's brother every week. Yep. You guys have a good one. A sneak acreage of PFF on Grant and Danny here on the fan. What impressed you most about this team over the last week? And let's take inventory on the feel for Jaden Daniels, who has been absolutely lights out looks nothing like a youngster. You're listening to GND. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] Welcome back, Grant and Danny on the fan. It's a victory Haulin Oates Monday on GND. Second time in one week on this show. We've been celebrating the commanders putting on an offensive display for the country to enjoy. But more importantly, getting a pretty huge win. Three and one now for Washington. That Tampa Bay game feels like a long time ago, doesn't it? It certainly does. That's how the season began, going to Tampa, getting eviscerated. I remember you and I feeling like they were a long ways away. And maybe they are. Maybe we'll find out that this isn't reality either. But I like this team's chances to be in the thick of things all year long. Here's the big picture point I would make today. If you're hesitant to come around on the commanders, you don't want to sip the Kool-Aid, fine, whatever. In fact, I'm waiting till after the Browns game to really jump all the way into the deep end. They beat Cleveland back at home. Not that the Browns are particularly good, but it's a let down type spot. Winners of three in a row, coming home, reading your press glippings, family and friends, seeing you first time since you got on the bird to go to Cincinnati, I could see them losing that game. That's certainly the way things have gone over the years around here. Right when everything starts trending in the right direction, one thing goes wrong, broad pull begins, and they lose to Cleveland and they're really three and two. But if they're four and one, you start talking about percentages of making the playoffs, being pretty astronomical. It becomes pretty hard when you're four and one with their schedule, not to be in the eight nine win mix. You get to 10, you almost certainly get in, and you can start finding some wins. They've got games at the Giants again, the Panthers, the Bears don't look all that good. The East Division games against Dallas and Philadelphia, Danny, even those games, four of them look a lot more winnable because that's the point I guess I wanted to make big picture is nobody in this division's any good. Washington's the only team that has looked good this season. The Eagles got destroyed by the bucks. I don't know why everyone keeps telling me how good Philadelphia is. They're not. They haven't been since October of last year. This is who they are. The Cowboys are two and two. They deserve to be two and two. They're not that good. They got one weapon on offense. One. This division is there for you. It's winnable. It is winnable and the longer you're in it, the more of a possibility that becomes. You're talking about math. I mean, you and I, years ago, in 2019, when the Nationals started off so terribly, right? And we're going, here's what they've done. They're not eliminated. It's not over. It's not going very well right now, obviously. But the math is not on their side. You have no margin for error. You can't do that bad two weeks where, you know, two starting pitchers get the flu. Someone's got dead arm and your best two hitters are in a slump and you lose eight of 10. You can't do that anymore and you may and still make the postseason. Well, they didn't have that. They went on this rip roaring run where they had the second best winning percentage in baseball and we're right out going to the postseason. Flip it here for this local 53. If you're four and one by hooker by quote. It doesn't matter how you get there. Let's say you're four and one. If you're just average, if you're 500 the rest of the way, that's a 10 win season. If you're dare, I say above average and God forbid, there's no huge regression and you just kind of keep plugging away and you win a couple, a game or two more than you lose. You win 11 games for the first time in more than three decades. That's the kind of position you put yourself in. Now, collapses are certainly possible and injury here or there happens. I want, you know, one too many key guys go out, schemes get figured out. Bad stuff happens all the time. It's the league. But the point is the math and the path is now something that you've earned. You've created the ability to have meaningful football games. They're already to the point where there's a great chance they play meaningful football in December and maybe even in January. That is 100% on the table now, whereas I didn't know that it would be before now, but they've earned that right, which is really cool. Yeah, I just think that if they play the way they've played the last two weeks, they can beat anybody. If they play the way they played against the Bengals, not a team in the NFL, they can't be the only four and O team other than the Chiefs is the Vikings. They could be either Kansas City or Minnesota play in that game. Kansas City is about as unimpressive. A four and O team is you're going to find. They just have the ability to squeak out wins. It's a superpower. I don't really get it. It's ugly. There's no style points, but they just do it. And then they flip the switch in the playoffs. The Vikings, I think you asked Nate Davis about it. They got out to a 28 nothing lead yesterday and looked amazing from that moment until the end of the game. They got they were quicksand dominated by the Packers for the most part. And by the way, there were a couple of drop picks by Green Bay in that game. It could have gone very, very differently than it did. I wouldn't be scared of Minnesota. Wouldn't be a fun game necessarily. But I guess my point is there's not really great teams. I was talking to someone last night who said the books are the best team in the NFC. Maybe. I mean, I don't know if that's true or that's not. I know that last week the Bucks lost to the Denver Broncos 26 to 7. So maybe they are the best team in the NFC after beating Philly by 17. My point is nobody's that good. Washington at three and one. Just sheer resume style. If you take commanders off of the ballot, if you take their name out of the equation and everyone's resumes were lined up, I think a lot of people would would pick them out of the pile and go. This team's punted once since week one. This team has more scoring drives than incompletions. This team has three punts all year. I'll take that to him. They have averaged 40 points each of the last two games and their defense seems to be going in the right direction. Give me them and you go. All right. You pick the commanders. You go wait. Are you sure? Can I turn it? This quarterback is number one in QB DVOA this season. I'll take this team. It's Washington, right? So I'm not trying to convince anybody that they're going to continue winning every single week or that this is all not going to come crashing down. But I do think that when you can move the ball and score, you have a chance. And for the first time since Jay Gruden, who joins us at five, they can move the ball and they can score. So they're going to have a chance every week. When you have a quality quarterback, you're going to win and like with cousins as an example, they were never an 11, 12, when team, but the floor was always you're going to be an eight, nine, win-ish type team. If you can squeak out some wins and kick a field goal and make some plays, you get a big takeaway, block a kick. Maybe it becomes 10 wins. The floor gets higher and they are in that bucket right now. It would appear. But I just love the fact that the division is there for you. Take Washington out of the equation. The Eagles have lost to the Falcons in a collapse and the box in a game where they didn't really show up. They were lucky to beat New Orleans and they barely beat Green Bay on a slip and slide. You start that game over. It's 50/50 toss-up. They're going into a bye week. Cowboys, anybody like what they saw from Dallas on Monday night football against the Giants squeaking out a win against New York after getting embarrassed by the Saints and destroyed for three quarters by the Ravens? It's there for you, man. This is fun. 800-636-1067. All right, let's talk Jaden Daniels. What do you think? There's, we don't have enough time for all the different things that I like or that I'm excited about. To me, here's one. And this goes directly to one of the questions, criticisms, whatever to call it that people had. Everyone was panicked about the number of sacks that he took. And for those of us that are devotees kept yelling, not all sacks are created equal. The reason we care about a sack is not just to hear ourselves talk, but it means it's usually a drive killer. Warren Sharp has some great stats. If you're curious about what happens, typically on a drive where there is a sack, pretty much almost to a percentage point, points don't get scored on that drive. It is a drive killer. That's because it's an eight, nine, 10-yard loss. Oftentimes it leads to fumbles or turnovers, that kind of pressure. For those of us that kept screaming this, Daniels isn't taking 10-yard losses very often, right? It's not the 12-yard loss. It's a two-yard loss. Now it's not good, but it's not a drive killer. Even to that point, he's been sacked fewer times than Kyler Murray, than Sam Donald, than CJ Stroud, the Jalen Hertz, the Matt Stafford, half the sacks of Caleb Williams. Some of these things are credit to the offensive line, credit to Cliff Kingsbury and the design, but also Jaden Daniels, there's a ton of credit here. Yesterday, especially. Yeah. Ten pressures, zero sacks. It's not zero points. Zero, what's not Mark Griffin behind the 91 Redskins offensive line, but for a rookie quarterback going through this, having to make some plays here or there, to get out of trouble, Jean, he's got in spades. That's been really impressive to me. Yeah, it's been a really big part of his fast start for sure. As someone who was worried about how often he took sacks in college, I would say number one, he has been better in that area than I thought. So full compliment to him. This is a Cliff Kingsbury stat right now though. That ball is out of his hand very, very fast and it's one thing to just avoid sacks that way. It's another to be effective. You know what I'm saying? Like you can guarantee a low sack count by wide receiver screening people to death and throwing the ball short at the line of scrimmage and you can't hit me if I don't have the football. You can't do it. You're not getting a sack if I'm not holding the rock, but to be able to do that and to have success moving the ball like they have has been really, really incredible. The stat I would give you on that is the expected completion percentage for Washington, which is to say normally around the line of scrimmage throws, defenders aren't in the area. It's just ball to the quarterback. Quarterback throws to the receiver quickly is the highest in the NFL. So 73% of throws out of Jayden Daniels and are expected to be completion. The only quarterback I should say, the only guy that is within one percentage point of that is Malik Willis as an example who Matt the floor designed like this high school office for and was like, Hey, Malik, don't throw the ball. We're going to hand it off. You're going to run it or occasionally I'm going to have you throw a screen. So my point is like they're just they're not having them hold the football at all. Brilliant. But here's where Daniels gets his credit. When they've gone drop back, when they've asked them to, when they've taken their shots, to your point, he has been very, very good at escaping. And certainly in the last couple of weeks, no doubt about it. First half the Giants game was kind of my fear if I'm being frank, where I think he got sacked five times in that one half. Maybe it was four times and five in the game, but he held the ball. If you remember, he was getting sacked a bunch. Now to your point, a few of them were minus three, minus four, whatever. But the negative play is still the problem. It's like a loss of down. Even if it's a sack for zero, a loss of a down is a big deal. Now you're behind the chain, so to speak. That half is really the only half we've seen like that. And I thought that would be more than norm and not the rarity. So that's where right now I give Jayden Daniels all the credit. What he did against pressure yesterday was sensational. Absolutely brilliant. 10 pressures. Danny's zero sat and talk about P2S. Like that's a really, really big deal. So yeah, that's been one of a few areas where I think he has far exceeded a lot of our expectations. What do you think of Jayden Daniels? That's the question here. I got some thoughts. Danny's got more to offer up as well. And we're going to hit the phones on this 800-6-3-6-1-0-6-7. We do have Jay Gruden coming up at five o'clock. Also at the very top of the hour and 20 minutes when Jay joins us, we will be giving away those caps tickets on the fan. [BLANK_AUDIO] Yeah, I had told him earlier, I was really proud of my new, there were some extra stories and things here back at ASU and going to that. And much like Cliff, you would never have known that. There was a history here. He and I were in the bubble at ASU talking about at a coach on team that had practiced here for Super Bowl and his time here. And I just thought he handled like a real G, like this stage steady all the way through in terms of the preparation. He and the quarterbacks and the guys were many of the late nights in the room watching tape together. And there was just one office down for mine in the hotel and all the way through the week, including in the last night, just putting in the extra time going into it. They just stayed around and we're talking through all the stuff to go. So I think that speaks to their preparation. Dan Quinn from Phoenix, Arizona after the win yesterday. I mentioned this before you got here in our first hour, Danny. But I don't think it can be talked about enough how good of a decision it was to fly straight to Arizona from Cincinnati to foot the bill and to pay because I just think it got you right back to work. It got you locked in and Dan Quinn talked so much about brotherhood. It's one of his favorite terms. In fact, Luke McCaffrey was on the show last hour and he came on and he said that this team's a brotherhood and they look out for each other and the good and the bad. He said, we ride or die in the good times and the bad times. We've built a brotherhood on this team straight out of the Dan Quinn playbook. But don't you think that was a great decision to just go straight out there and just put your nose to the grindstone? Sounds good to me. I mean, I can hear arguments for anything. It's always one of those, if they'd lost 42 to 14, then it would have been a footnote. Nobody would have cared. It certainly sounded like it worked, right? It seemed like it was practical and thoughtful. The part that I care about is football people turn to business people and go, this is what we need. Business people say, okay, no questions asked. That's what I love because what's the whole point of this? It's not to sell another t-shirt. It's not to sell some gimmick to people. It's not for some stupid slogan or a hashtag. It's to win as many football games as possible. And everything that everybody does every single day is supposed to be geared towards that. And so the ownership group goes, okay, no problem. That to me is the story less so than, you know, this coach using this slogan thinks this is the best thing or, yeah, nobody has any idea if it was 100% unequivocal. This is what you do. I don't know if everyone would do it, but you might see, you know, studies written about it. But to me, the football people said, this is what we want. Business people said, yes, and that's what's exciting. What's impressed you most about Daniels so far, 800-636-1067. We'll ask Jay Gruden at the top of the hour here on Grant and Danny. I think his decisiveness ball comes out fast. That's partially designed, but you got to do it too. I mean, how many times have you seen the Bears with Caleb Williams or some other young quarterback where the slants there, you don't throw it? Like it's bang bang, he makes those decisions. And I think a lot of the things that we want them to work on, I say we collectively as a fan base or the media talks about it or whatever. Like week to week, it just seems like he, he makes the adjustment. He hasn't slid. Last two weeks, he's got one base in each game. He's not scrambling to reset to throw. He's scrambling to run. Last couple of weeks, he scrambles, he resets this past week. He's leaving the pocket running. He just flips the ball to Zachar. It's rather than taking his own hit and running. I mean, little by little, week by week, you're just seeing him kind of add another ingredient to the stew, so to speak. Let's go to Smitty and Laurel on GND. How are you, Smitty? Right, Danny. How are we doing, fellas? Hey, buddy. Hey, listen, so just as I've been watching Daniel's with this small sample size that we've had him, you know, the preseason and the public games he's played. What I've, what I've noticed about him is, you know, doing his interviews, he just says the perfect thing. Oh, wait. He has the perfect smiling. You could tell he just was brought up right and has the right background and he was raised right. But let me tell you what else I noticed. This dude is a killer on the field because he gets all dead, Danny, and he's smiling and he's having fun. But at the same time that he thought they're smiling and having a great time, he will snatch the soul of the heart of your defense and has no problem telling you about it why he's doing it to you. He's the type of dude that if he was on any other thing besides mine, I would hate him. He's Kobe. I wouldn't like him at all. But when, but since he's my quarterback, I love to do. I love the way that it's such a good point. Obviously, I never made the NFL or anything close to that. But I remember going up against guys that were better than me and I'd be efforting and sweating and red-faced and, you know, dabbing my face off with the towel and look over and they're laughing at me. They're chuckling. It's intimidating, man. I love his demeanor. Yeah. Totally true. But like when he gets to the sideline and the guy almost hits him but couldn't, he got either. There's that jocularity where I just assume he's going like not this time. Like, I'm waiting for the Mike Duck Jaden Daniels game to confirm what I'm assuming. But it feels like there's a lot of, especially guys, he knows veteran, you know, players, linebackers, safeties. He's been watching for years. There is a very obvious, friendly banter where it's pretty obvious that he's like so comfortable in his own skin that he's kind of talking trash in this playful way with his big smile. Robert Fairfax, you're on Grant and Danny. What's up? Yeah. So you mentioned Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins could not score, you know, in the red zone the way Jaden Daniels can. I mean, I watched a lot of his games. He can move the ball. No question. But then he got down on the red zone. He kind of ran out of real estate, right? And he had to make a really accurate throw. He couldn't scramble five yards like JD can. And if you look at all the games, he won, right? I mean, Jaden Daniels is, I think he scored a touchdown in every game. I mean, in the modern NFL, teams can move the ball into ones that separate those field goals and touchdowns. I mean, that makes a difference. And I think that's why we found a formula. Yeah, totally. So a couple of things on that call. The first thing is, it's a really good point about moving the football. I think because the starting field position on average now is close to the 30. I haven't heard anyone talk about this, but I was cooking this theory up last night. So field position over the league, it used to be close to the 20 yard line where drives would start when the touch back was the 20. Yep. Then they turned the touch back to the 25. And on average, not surprisingly, the starting field position was around the 25. I heard the stat for the first time yesterday, Danny, that average starting field position now is around the 29 yard line. So if that's the case, it makes sense because each time we change where the average start on a touch back begins at the 30, you know, some are getting brought out. But if the average is now the 29, you're five yards closer to midfield. Here's the other thing no one's talking about. Washington has not benefited from this for the record, but kickers are now better than they've ever been before. 55 yard kicks are happening at the end of every single drive. It used to be you had to get to the 30 yard line to set up a 48 yard field goal. Now I'm not doing a bit here. You have to get to the 40 yard line because you're seeing 56 57 58 yard attempts, not at the end of the half of the end of the game, just to do it because we know that Brandon Aubrey or whoever my kicker is is going to go out and make the field goal. So instead of having to get to the 30, you know, have to get basically to the 36, the 37. And at that point, the coach feels really good. So if so fact, though, you used to start at the 20, you had to get to the 30, you had to go 50 yards to get into field goal range. Now you're starting at the 30 and you basically have to get to the 35. You've got to go 20 plus 15 35 yard. That does not sound that your best. It's not as daunting. It's a couple first down. So you're going to see more drives ending in points, right? The commanders are shattering records. I think that speaks to the league. You're also seeing more sustained long drives in terms of plays and yards because teams are giving you the underneath. This is where I was going to go, right? So the over the tops that have not anyone nears readily available anymore. Teams are content to give up yards. That means more first downs. That means more third and sevens get converted so that nobody ends up on sports center with a negative highlight. So I do think that's the thing. But here's the to the the caller's point. The only reason I brought up cousins was I was actually presenting a stat, which was the last time they did what they've done the last two weeks in terms of you know, scoring those points and wins was with cousins and Gruden, who's going to join us at the top of the hour in five minutes. But to the caller's point, the difference for Washington is, I think everyone's kind of content. You want to run 10 plays and go 70 yards, be our guest. You better not have a holding penalty. You better not give up a sack and you better not, you know, eventually you're going to turn the ball over. But Washington's never holding anybody. They're never getting sacks against them and they're not turning the ball over. And they're finishing these drives with touchdowns while everyone else is settling for field goals. Is that part sustainable? No. But I think the moving of the football actually is taught against the Giants where they didn't score touchdowns. They sabotaged themselves, but they didn't punt. It went up and down the field. Somehow they still won. Yep. We'll talk to J. Groot next. We got caps tickets for you as well as soon as we return on Grant and Danny.