Grant and Danny
Luke McCaffrey Joins G&D To Discuss The Hot Start
Uh, why does this room look amazing? What'd you change? Oh, I just got these custom shades from Blinds.com. It's all online, so it's really easy. Great price, too. Ugh, I remember shopping for Blinds. I waited around all day just to get a quote. Hi, sorry I'm late. I know you said just the bedroom, but what did you feel about? I feel like I had to say yes, just to get rid of her. All right, just go ahead and sign here and we'll get everything taken. It took forever, and the worst part, hidden fees. How about you? I chatted with my Blinds.com design consultant on my time. Got free samples and it was all super high quality at a great price. Plus, they make it easy to DIY or add installation like I did. Blinds.com sounds way better. Way better. And everything comes with their 100% satisfaction guarantee. Plus, check this out. I can control them from my phone. Whoa, magic! ShopBlinds.com for up to 50% off-sitewide and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Blinds.com rules and restrictions may apply. 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. I'm John Aran and I have a new podcast called The Varsity. I will bring on the smartest people I know to break down the hottest topics in sports media, available now on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Luke is on the line with us right now. So first of all, Luke, congrats on a hot start. Yeah, man, and a job. Well done. Thanks for a few minutes. You know, yeah. Thank you so much for having me. This is awesome. Well, we're fired up to have you on the show just to take a few minutes out of your day from just scoring points and kicking ass. You got to be so tired from doing that. This offense cannot be stopped. Try it. Trust way is barely on the team. One point in three weeks. What do you make of how well you guys have moved the ball? No, this has been awesome. I mean, I mean, I think it's a lot of guys doing what you're supposed to do and getting their job done. No, I think the special plays come when when they present themselves and then it's a lot of just operating in. I think everyone can attest to this, but I think it's a lot of guys just having fun out there playing free, playing fast and enjoying it. I can't wait to bring it back to back to the DMV and play at home this week. So was there a moment? Was there a point in time? Maybe Luke going back maybe a month or two ago where you go? I think this offense could be pretty good. Like like go go back to that point versus right now, because this is better than pudgy rubes like myself ever thought. I mean, you guys are scoring 40 a week. And as Grant said, you hate punting so much. You just never do it. When did you get a good feeling? Like, you know what? I actually think this offense can be pretty special. Yeah, holy cow. I mean, I don't know exactly how to describe it, but you know, I think I came here as a rookie and just thought, oh, it's the NFL. Everybody's better, right? And so I don't know if I ever ever noticed that we were doing, you know, stuff, right? I just assume that, you know, when you're playing at this high of a level and when you're playing in the NFL, things operate according to plan and you get your job done just like everybody has. And so I think it's been so cool to see just the way that guys come out and compete with intention every single week and every single rep in practice. And I think that goes a long way. Hopefully we can use that to keep growing, right? To keep getting better because you want to peak at the right times in the NFL. And it's great to have momentum now, but hopefully we can build on this and grow. As Jayden Daniels done anything that's really surprised you to this point. Oh, I'm not sure, you know, playing with him. I think he's been, he's been pretty on it since the jump. I think what's so cool to those to watch how he's gotten comfortable, how he's gained confidence and how he's grown, even just being with them in this, in this short period of time from OTAs to what are we, week five now. And so I think it's just been cool to be able to go along with, with this journey of his. You were a quarterback in college. You know, a lot of guys, I'm sure in the league played quarterback in high school or whatever, but you're more a quarterback than most dudes are. And so I'd imagine your perspective of just the grasp of the offense and what every receiver is doing. You probably see it through a little bit of that QB lens still. I mean, what do you make of just overall how he's performed and the efficiency with which receivers are getting open and he's moving the chains. You guys have more scoring drives than he's had in completions through a month ago. Yeah, you know, I think I played quarterback for a long time. We have a lot of smart cats on our team, right? We, we have a lot of receivers, a lot of running backs, a lot of tight ends and even alignment who really understand and love the game of football. And I think that goes a long way to where, you know, it builds a cohesiveness that we all kind of get a play together. We get to play at a high level and we get a, you know, beyond the same page. And so I think that's all played into it, just being able to learn Cliff's scheme, being able to see how he, he dices it up. And I think he's done such a great job through these first couple of weeks as well. And then, you know, when you have a quarterback that can mash and create chemistry with a coordinator and the rest of the team, you know, I think it's cool because a lot of weapons can, can attack a defense, you know, whether it's, you know, one player, one game or another player, another game. There's, there's always another option if a team decides to, you know, dedicate themselves to take away a player. And that's been a lot of fun to just see how, how many guys we have that can hurt other teams. Look, McAfee with this here on Grant and Danny, how much more comfortable do you feel now than your first day on campus? You know what I mean, of being a pro for that first rookie mini camp? Like how much more confident comfortable in doing things are you right now? Yeah, it's a lot of fun. You know, I think it's so cool to see how this coaching staff has been able to just really take in the young guys. We have a really young team in general. And I think just the confidence that they bring and the ability to attack every rep and then learn from every rep has been awesome. So I think they instilled that confidence so early that it's just been a process of getting better and learning. And I think we've all myself most definitely have gotten better since day one. But it's the, you know, it's a confidence that they instilled early that allowed us to go out there and take risks and make mistakes and do whatever we can to help grow and learn from us. Luke, I haven't seen the updated numbers since this game, but you went into this game in the top five in the NFL and average, you know, separation score. Basically, like how far you get detached from whoever's covering you. What do you make of a, that status, that's something you track it all. What do you care about as a receiver? But be just kind of the way things have gone for you because you've been involved from time to time. You got seven grabs in these four games. You had the big 40 yarder on fourth and two against the Bengals, but you're also open a ton. When I go back and watch the last few games, I mean, you're, you just stay open. Uh, why does this room look amazing? What'd you change? Oh, I just got these custom shades from Blinds.com. It's all online, so it's really easy. Great price to. Ugh, I remember shopping for Blinds. I waited around all day just to get a quote. Hi, sorry I'm late. I know you said just the bedroom, but what did you feel about? I feel like I had to say yes, just to get rid of her. All right, just go ahead and sign here and we'll get everything taken forever. And the worst part, hidden fees. How about you? I chatted with my Blinds.com design consultant on my time. Got free samples and it was all super high quality at a great price. Plus, they make it easy to DIY or add installation like I did. Blinds.com sounds way better. Way better. And everything comes with their 100% satisfaction guarantee. Plus, check this out. I can control them from my phone. Whoa, magic! Shoplines.com for up to 50% off-sitewide and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Blinds.com rules and restrictions may apply. 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. I'm John Aran and I have a new podcast called The Varsity. I will bring on the smartest people I know to break down the hottest topics in sports media. Available now on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, well, thank you. I think receiver is such a fun position because it's a little bit of an art form, right? It's a little bit of a, if you've ever seen Yellowstone, it's a little bit like cowboying, right? It's something that, you know, your best plays aren't always going to be the ones that are your highlights. Sometimes your worst plays end up being your highlights just because you're covered and you make a great catch. But what I think is so cool is how we've been able to open the offense up altogether, right? We've been able to get so many guys open at different times and it's just a matter of, you know, win and wear depending on who clicks, right? It's so cool to be a part of a team that has such great depth, such great character and then a lot of unselfish guides. You know, I think it's so cool. Just especially, you know, I think one great example is Terry of, you know, he hadn't gotten a ton of touches and then you watch him in that bangles game just show why he is so special, right? And it's stuff that we've all known and we've never questioned ever because we see him every day at practice and we saw him through fall camp and then, you know, you get to see that shine at different moments and it's so cool to be a part of an offense where you can genuinely be so happy and joyful for other people and that it makes to success, right, in the long term and we're going to go out there and compete and battle every single rep. Alright, putting you on the spot, all of your teammates, who's the John Dutton, who's the Rip Wheeler, and who's the Casey Dutton? Holy cow, that's a good question right there. John Dutton, I'm going to go with, oh, I mean, I feel like he got to go coaches right there. That's VQ. He said John Dutton, Casey, Casey, I might go with Colson Yankoff. He's my roommate. He's a good buddy. He's got the mustache. He's from Idaho. He sits into that entire, you know, enigma and then, you know, you look at, I'm going all rookies here. I love it. I probably forgot a bet, but I'm going with T.O. Tyler Owens for my Rip Wheeler. I think he goes out there and just hits people, right? He's just a force to be reckoned with and I think when you go out there and if you watch special teams and all, holy cow, he is. He's putting somebody on the ground every single play. He's hitting people just to hit people and he's, he's setting the talent for us, which is pretty cool. If you want to fight somebody, fight me. That was awesome. That was a difficult question to answer on the fly and he just, it was like he prepared the answer last night. I love it. Serious one though, football wise. Here's, here's something I always kind of wonder as, as a receiver, like you're responsible, don't any given play. Let's say it's a pass route, right? So you run your route. You've got a guy like Jayden Daniels who is going to extend somebody play. Sometimes it's a run that he, that he takes on. Sometimes he's buying some time for you to kind of get back open. What's kind of the, go through that internal clock in your head versus kind of also reading things where you go, okay, this one's probably time for me to block or this is time for me to keep plastering and find some space for him. I'd love you to go through that process for a guy that's so athletic. Yeah, I think if you go back to fall camp and anybody who's been around our program just appreciates the smart, smartness and the genius of Cliff, right? We've been working on scramble drill since OTAs and that's something that not a lot of teams do, not a lot of teams I've been a part of at least have really emphasized. And so when it comes to that, you're always ready and you always have a plan, right? So where obviously you're going to have to improvise, you're going to have to make plays and you're going to have to, you know, react to whatever's in front of you, but it's been so cool to work on that, to take that as part of our offense, just knowing. Hey, we're going to get some looks or they're in drop eight, right? We're going to get some looks where there's three man rush and maybe our concept's not going to work because they got, you know, a whole bunch of guys out there in coverage. But how can we still make that a play, right? How can we still create that and do an explosive and then, you know, especially in the red zone, you see so many off target touchdowns and successful plays that I think that's such a vital part of, you know, the whole entire game of football now, no matter who you are, even if you're not necessarily an athletic quarterback like Jaden is, but I think it's been so cool to work on that and to put that as a piece of emphasis. Couple of part question for you and Luke McCaffrey's with us on Grant and Danny's off to a tremendous start as a third round picker in Washington, helping out this passing attack 17 yard catch and run acrobatic athletic play middle of the field to set up a touchdown yesterday. On Cliff Kingsbury, you just referenced number one, did you guys get a sense at all that that was big for him to go back to Arizona or did you just assume it. I saw the reaction in the locker room. He downplayed it all week. And then second, what is it about him or his design that is so unique and so successful because there have been a lot of questions about him. I kind of love the formations and he had four guys that stacked up in like a quad look with three tight ends and be robbed for a screen. Like there's just so many different things he's doing that I don't really see a lot. Yeah, I think for for starters, you know, you asked about him going back to Arizona and that's probably something that's assumed and I think we built a brotherhood on this team which is really cool that you know we ride or die in the good times and the bad times. You know, we know that we're the group that fights together and it's really cool to see every single person on this team and in this organization have success and that was just a cool, cool marker for him. And then, you know, when you look at his scheme and the different movements, you know, there's so many elements that defenses have to keep accountable, whether it's, you know, the power run game, whether it's getting outside zone, whether it's a zone read. And then, you know, in the past game he just builds up a lot of really good man beaters and then, you know, always has an answer for zone and so it's been hard, you know, we haven't seen a lot of teams run man against us, especially, you know, you saw Terry have a couple deep blocks and that opens a lot of things up and just allows allows the scheme to play into itself and I think all of that whether it's mixing personnel's whether it's creating match ups is something that Cliff does really well in combination with building tempo and building a sense of urgency for the offense to where you always feel like you're attacking right and and that's something that we always emphasize as an offense and it's been really fun to get into that and to grow and hopefully you know I think we can continue to grow and get better as as we go throughout the season. The lack of man, do you think that's because of Jaden's running ability and not basically one and half to turn your back to him. Yeah, there's a lot of factors I think that plays into it I think, you know, having a couple receivers that can win versus man goes into it I think, you know, our screen game and our running game goes into it and then also, you know, the NFL is a majority zone scheme league right now and I think that plays into it. It's just not a lot of people's bread and butter and so it kind of plays into all of those. Luke, I'm just a dude that loves watching football and watching you guys win has been awesome. I think this is my unprofessional opinion. I feel like you're a really good blocker. Do you agree with my assessment and be if I'm wrong, what am I missing? Thank you. Yeah, you know, I think that's something we've emphasized all year again going back to OTA is being able to block being able to get an open station. I think that was one of the things switching from quarterback that was the biggest, you know, hurdles of trying to learn how to do that. And I think I had a lot of help from, you know, all our coaches here on staff and then from my dad, it was a great blocker back when he was playing. It's been cool to just learn from all these people's experience and to kind of become somebody who takes pride in blocking. I think I'm not as good as I hope that I can be, you know, one day, but I think I've taken a lot of steps, which has been cool and fun. Last one for me. You mentioned your pops. I loved him as a player. It was pretty good. Right when I was like coming in, so I'm in my thirties, but when I was like becoming a huge NFL fan, he was just putting up thousand yard seasons and then also the Denver team. And then when I hear the stories about him telling you like not to wear jeans on Friday night to make your legs tired or getting IVs, getting out of class. Like I'm just like all in on this guy. He is a commander's mark right now. He's like posting the standings. He's getting all in. I've fallen him on Twitter now. I guess he's got two favorite teams, right? Because he's got a multitask with your brother in San Francisco, but Ed McCaffrey, a commanders fan. Let's go. I know somebody somebody gave him a Twitter and we haven't been able to get him to stop typing everything. He's put out probably more tweets than than anyone in the country, but but no, I love it. His Twitter is actually awesome and I think it's cool to show his personality a little bit. You know, he was always a very stoic player. And I think now that he gets to do a couple of things, whether it's Twitter or the radio, he gets to show the personality that we all know him as and it's a lot of fun to just see. I'm joking around him having a blast and then, you know, obviously when you win games, it makes it even more fun and exciting. You mentioned personality before we let you go. A couple of frivolous things that do not matter here, Luke. You've got your young, you have a metabolism, must be a lot of fun. You're cheat meal, right? No one's going to judge you. There's no way in coming up. You're going to eat whatever you want and then just sort of lounge afterwards. Give me the meal. Yeah. My cheat meal. I'm going to Texas Roadhouse. I'm getting the outlaw ribeye. I love that answer. Texas Roadhouse. Do they still do the really good bread? Yep. Yep. You know it. That's a great item. What are your sides there with your ribeye? You're not even worried about that. Oh, I get fries. Yeah, fries. And then if I have the time, I'll go to Chili's and get one of those chocolate mold lava cake. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. One of us is one of us. Chili's chocolate lava cake. No exaggeration is my favorite dessert. Like, I will sit that out. Yeah, it's always been mine. We would go there for birthdays for holidays, for everything growing up. And so that's a special one to me. The scooped ice cream is like a frozen brick, basically, that they just drop on there. Oh, it's so good. Are you watching anything right now or is Yellowstone like rewatched over and over again for you? I rewatched Yellowstone a lot. I just watched better call Saul. So good. Oh, yeah. What else? I restarted Stranger Things just because it's a good show. So kind of in between a lot right now. You pop on that old 22, you'll see a lot of yards and a lot of points from the local football operation. You can watch that all day long like the rest of us will be. It's been a blast in town, man. People have been waiting to just see a fun offense for a long time and you guys are delivering the goods. Thanks for three straight wins. We appreciate it. Congrats, buddy. Yeah, awesome. Thank you. It's great hearing the support. Can't wait to can't wait to see everybody at home this week. It's going to be great back at home for the Cleveland Browns. It's Luke McCaffery on Grant and Danny. Why does this room look amazing? What'd you change? Oh, I just got these custom shades from Blinds.com. It's all online, so it's really easy. It's great. I remember shopping for Blinds. I waited around all day just to get a quote. Hi, sorry I'm late. I know you said just the bedroom, but what do you feel about? I feel like I had to say yes just to get rid of her. All right, just go ahead and sign here and we'll get everything taken care of. It took forever and the worst part hidden fees. How about you? I chatted with MyBlinds.com design consultant on my time. Got free samples and it was all super high quality at a great price. Plus, they make it easy to DIY or add installation like I did. Blinds.com sounds way better. Way better. And everything comes with their 100% satisfaction guarantee. Plus check this out. I can control them from my phone. Whoa, magic! ShopBlinds.com for up to 50% off site wide and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Blinds.com rules and restrictions may apply. 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. I'm John Aran and I have a new podcast called The Varsity. I will bring on the smartest people I know to break down the hottest topics in sports media. Available now on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music)