Grant and Danny
Jay Gruden Joins G&D To Discuss How Good Jayden Daniels Is
Jay Gruden, the former head coach here in DC is with us on Aaron on the road. Jay Gruden is driven by the Ted Bird automotive group, Ted Brett Ford and Chantillion Fairfax, your F-150 headquarters, Ted Bridge Chantillion Lincoln and Ted Brett Chevrolet and Sterling home of Ted Brett for life lifetime vehicle coverage. See and shop them all at Ted bread.com Jay, how about the Washington commanders? They are four and one for the first time since 2008. They got a chance to be five and one for the first time since 1996. It just doesn't feel real. They're putting on teams through the last two weeks. They've looked unstoppable. The defense is playing a hell of a lot better. They're hustling. They're flying around to the ball and they are kicking people's ass, which is fun to watch. So I want to start on that defense, Jay, as an offensive guy, what do you sing differently than what's happening, maybe the first three games? They look like a different group on defense. Yeah, I think Coach Quinn's doing a good job at mixing up coverages and fronts. They put some five-man fronts out there. They're moving people around, Lou Vu. Is that his name? How do you say it? Lou Vu? Yeah. He's bouncing around all over the place. They're rushing wagner in the eight gaps. They're giving you different looks and then they're playing a run a lot better. Bobby Wagner's always been a good run player. The interior guys are, they're rotating in and out a little bit better. I think they're staying a lot more fresh offensively as they're doing their part playing good field position. So yeah, all around they're playing good team defense, they're hustling, they're tackling and they're playing well. Jay, give me one legitimate reason why Kevin Stafansky should not have benched to Sean Watson about halfway through yesterday's game. I don't have one. I don't have one. I don't understand it, really. He hasn't looked good all year. Offensively, they have no pizzazz whatsoever. They can't drop back and throw it. They can hardly protect when they do it with protections when he scrambles around and runs into pressure. It's bad football right now over there at Cleveland, so they should make a change. I don't know if he'll be the cure all, but he'll be a hell of a lot more fun to watch. I mean, you look what happened when Flacco came in last year, he took him to the playoffs, played extremely well and maybe a change of pace is what they need. They lost Watson injury, I guess the last two years, but they got a lot better with Percet who played better than him two years ago. They got a lot better with Flacco who played better than him last year. And now we're on to year three and it's just trending in the wrong direction. That's why we're trying to figure out, yes, Washington did a lot of things well, but how much of that was just a broken quarterback that was incompetent kind of aiding them in their defensive renaissance, so to speak. Oh, there's a little bit of that, but you have to force them into those issues. You seven fact is not a fluke now they went after they got after a vast and they kept the pressure on them. They did a good job stopping the run for the most part for Ford had a 16 yard hit and Foreman had a 40 cut, you know, 25 yard hit, but for the most part, they kept them in third down long got off the field on third down and they stayed fresh the entire game and just stayed relentless, stayed after a move. It was a great performance. I know it was anemic by the Browns, but Washington had to make them look anemic and they did. J grid with the CEO, Grant nanny. So Jay, this is not a good question to just kind of want your thoughts on this. Early on, especially I thought Cleveland's defense was was pretty good. Five of the first six players either went for no gain or were negative. The one was a Daniel scramble that he threw up to to tear him a corn for a big gain right before turning it over. Like Cleveland, I thought had a good plan. They were aggressive. They were pressuring. They were tackling close and then behind the line of the scrimmage and they still Washington still scored 24 points in the first half. I just, I kind of, again, that's not a great question. I just sort of can't believe what I'm seeing at this point, even when the other defense is good and playing well, they still end up scoring 24 points and a half your thoughts. Yeah. A lot has to do with Washington's defense, getting a lot of three and out and getting the ball right back and giving me opportunity for the offense. When you give Jay and Daniel multiple opportunities in the quarter, three, four, five opportunities in the quarter, you didn't get a couple in there. I mean, he's unbelievable. So the key for beating Washington is keeping that guy on the sideline. You got to get your running game going and try to get these eight, nine play drives going and keeps clock running and be physical at Washington's defense. But they even couldn't do it and just kept giving the ball back to Washington and opportunities are golden for Washington right now in offense. What did you make of their first half, Jay? Because I'm sitting there late second quarter and I'm going, man, they're leaving a lot of meat on the bone. They pick on the goal line, they miss an easy touchdown throw that they had a ball at their own two yard line. Should have been a, you know, 80 yard, 100 yard touchdown. Maybe it's accurate. It's down the middle of the field. If he doesn't get caught overthrown. And in addition to some of the inaccuracy stuff that we hadn't seen at any point with Jayden, just overall, it wasn't quite as clean. And yet the 66 yard play made the McCorn was a top five play I've ever seen by a quarterback in that stadium. You know, the 41 yard throw to Diami Brown was nuts, the 34 yard run. His good was so good that you look up and they have 24 points at the half, even though it didn't feel like they played well offensively. Yeah, he missed a couple of, well, they're not really, I mean, he did a good, they scored on the third drive of the game. Now the first two drives, they, you know, they had, they punt and they drive down there and they get the intercept. He just didn't see the player right there is not a terrible throw. He just didn't see them. You know, I had a corner out over the top of him. Probably should have worked the other side. It started to wide open, but that happens sometimes and he bounced back and scrambled and they got the touchdown and they, you know, you know, I believe we've got a good defense. Now they got an all pro corner and all, you know, one of the best passwishers in the league. So they're not going to be easy to get points on when you play that defense, but the more opportunity to give Jayden the better opportunities you have and that's what they did. They stayed with the course, they didn't panic, they did a good job with the protection plan on hit a couple of big plays, right and stuck with the plan and ran the ball. Echler had a couple of big hits. So I like what the way they played called the game. They didn't have to take too many chances because as the game was going on, they could see the Cleveland couldn't move the ball off. So they were a little bit more conservative probably and then went after them later in the game and made some big plays. I guess I mean, this almost complimentary as if to say, I thought that they didn't, they weren't that sharp and they scored 24 because of the chunks. They had seven plays of 23 or more yesterday. It gains of 66, 50, 41, 34, 33, it's almost like it erases a lot of the less efficient plays. Oh, exactly. Right. Against the good defense, you have to have some chunk plays because like I've mentioned before with Cleveland, it's hard to move the ball, you know, 12 plays, 80 yards against some of these good defenses. You're going to have to have some chunk play in the way Jayden's playing and Terry's running down a field. Now you got down the ground doing it, you know, that hurts almost another big play. So Eckler had another big play so you can get it from multiple people and big plays are going to be a necessity moving forward when they play teams with better defenses. Jay Good with this year. Jay Good with this on. Oh, Grant nanny. Sorry, Jay. Just you've been around this game a long time. Coaching and observing it and, you know, living this life for us. This is new territory. We usually don't see teams that beat up on bad teams and get to rest their starters in the fourth quarter and everyone's laughing and joking on the sidelines and having to grain all time. Wherever they used to this, how good is this team? Like not just for right now, the second, another playing well, but the future five weeks from now, 10 weeks from now, like where does this group go? I'm watching around the league, Danny and I, these guys are as good as everybody I've watched on TV. I mean, Baltimore had a hell of a game against it's bad. I mean, they wanted overtime because, you know, the over dropped the ball for Cincinnati, you know, Buffalo struggled. Some of the elite teams, Kansas City struggled a little bit on off that, you know, Dallas has their issues, right Philadelphia has their issues. I don't know why you can't say these guys are as good as anybody in the league right now, other than maybe Minnesota, who I think is playing the best football on both sides of the ball. So San Francisco, Los Arizona, who just got pummeled by Washington last week. So this is a hard league to figure out this year. I'm telling you that. I promise you with the quarterback play of Jayden Daniels, the way they can run the football and the defense is starting to come together hustle and play hard. I don't see why they can't win 10, 11, 12, 13 games. So you think they are one of the best teams in football. They're playing like it right now. I'm telling you, this is Jayden Daniels, top three quarterback right now, playing right now after the first five games. You have to say that, right? I mean, he's playing unbelievable. I mean, the other day, it's clear we've got a free rusher and he doesn't even come close to getting Jake. He just runs around him and took those out of bounds for a game of six instead of a loss of nine. So this guy is playing an ultra high level both within the pocket and outside the pocket, which is going to give them opportunities to compete with anybody on their schedule and then defensively they continue to play hard and play good. They'll be in every game. As a coach, how do you keep the guys from believing that this thing is, it's a wrap. You know what I mean? Like, I know these guys are pros that come to work every day, but there's a feeling that's happened here a lot of times after a bit of success where everyone, whether it's their either press clippings or that's just a figure of speech. But guys, Jay sort of, you know, feel like, hey, we've done it. I've arrived. It's all over. Like we're here at the top of the mountain when in reality, you've had five good weeks and that's awesome, but that's not a season, right? As a coach, what would you do to kind of keep these guys on brand on message to say, hey, there's a lot of work to be done. Kind of keep at it. Well, I think winning helps a lot. I mean, you can put the stuff on tape the way they're hustling and playing hard. Matt carries over a type of people that looks like they have in the locker room. I think help a lot. The leaders like Terry McLaurin and John Payne and Jonathan Allen, those guys are good for you in adding Bobby Wagner, who's probably a future Hall of Famer. These are great quality players that can keep people low on Zach Kurtz, another veteran guy. They did a great job of addressing certain positions and getting the type of character you need to keep your football team focused. You can't always be the coach yelling at you, you got to have players within the building to keep your team on track and doing the right thing. And I think they got great leadership, they have great athleticism and they play hard. Jay Gruden, weekly with us here on Grant and Danny every Monday to break the game down, to break down the Daniels performance after watching the film five o'clock on Mondays with us on the fan. So Jay, you mentioned maybe top three, you would say, it just kind of top of your head as to how well he's playing. Who's in that combo? What are we talking about with Daniels right now? All right. You talking about this year? Yeah. Yeah. Obviously, you know, obviously, obviously Lamar is playing crazy Joe Baro turn a corner a little bit. Just the normal, good players. I think you talk about Baro and obviously, my homes, but he's not lighting up the world statistically. But they're undefeated. Sam Darnell is, he had a couple of really good games kind of, you know, played okay, but they're five and oh, so he's doing some good things. But Jay, in the way he's running the football, he's got 250 yards rushing already and throwing for over 1,000 yards, completion percentage is high. There's not any quarterback in the league can say that other than maybe Lamar right now. So, yeah, I should be, I think he's playing as good as anybody in the league right now. So Jay, how would you coach Daniels at this stage? And I guess what I mean is, you know, these moments that you're talking about, right? Like that fourth and three where Uso Kormo has him dead to rights until he doesn't and he's left in the dust for 34 yard gain, the sack into a first down that you referenced earlier, or the deep past of a corn or all in those kind of improvisational, you can't coach that type plays, right? But then maybe if you go back and look at the film, the hey, this guy might have been open quick and easy for the first down, et cetera. How do you balance that as an offensive mind because you don't want to stifle the gifts, but you also want maybe some of the easy stuff that may be available within scheme. Like, what's the balance there as a coach? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. You got to keep coaching the scheme, right? That's number one. You're going to keep coaching the scheme and how you're going to affect the closing defense. Baltimore is going to have a different way of playing defense, whether it's court quarters or cover two or match, whatever they're going to play. You got to have plays that affect that continue to coach them up. And then when plays break down, you just take your think, protect football, protect yourself for God's sakes. But I don't think you can overcoach him when it comes to his ability to extend play. That's just a God given talent that he has. And you just got to ride with it and have some fun and watch him and pat him on the head when he comes off the sideline because he'll have to usually make it into a good play. The one more about the offense for me, Jay, is what the what I think is really cool. I mean, I think back to your offenses, right? Where it's like when you had Pierre Garson to Sean Jackson, Jordan Reed, it had to be pretty exceptional for one of those guys not to get the ball on a certain play. You know what I mean? Like it made a lot of sense. Those guys are so productive, so good. This seems like it's a different guy, almost series per series, right? I mean, I know McCorns has put up a little bit of numbers here with over a hundred this past week, but going back to last week, they didn't have echo, it didn't matter because it was McNeckel's an alumni as a kid. This week, you know, down me Brown has a big catch. How was that like something that becomes sustainable, even though it's not one person or not one star? How did that kind of keep mixing and matching and like playing whack-a-mole for a defense where a new guy comes up every week with a big play? It's great on offense because it keeps everybody engaged and Jayden does a great job of spreading the ball out. He doesn't play favorites. He doesn't force feed one guy and you can tell that the team is really unselfish and that's important too. You got to have a team of unselfish players that don't care about fantasy numbers. They're going to go out, block when they're asked to block, run a decoy route when they're asked to run a decoy route when their numbers called and they're open. They know Jayden is going to give them a shot to catch it and they're going to produce. So it just works all the way around, but you got to have the right type of players in your building I think Dan Quinn and the organization on a great job getting those players in here with McCaffrey and the draft picks that they got and the new offensive lineman that they added from Dallas. I mean they got some good players that really helped out this football team and they're all unselfish good players. Is it too early for me to be a little bit worried that Cliff Kingsbury is going to get head coaching consideration? Yeah, I don't think, yeah, he'll probably get another job for sure. I think that's why you have to groom your coaches on staff to continue what he's been doing there. And I think that sometimes the quarterback makes the coach look a lot better and I'm not putting any shade on Cliff Kingsbury whatsoever. Don't get me wrong there. But I think when you have an outstanding quarterback like Jayden Daniels, I think the next coordinator will be just fine. You know, look at all the coordinators Tom Brady had, he had about seven of them. They're all just fine. I mean, if Daniels is that special, right, then no doubt, but we've also seen so many times where a guy leaves and it's not the same after that. But I guess like anything, you know, whether it's a head coach, a wide receiver, if you got the right quarterback, then a lot of things don't matter a whole lot. Really. Yeah, I mean, look at Shannon and he left here. They were three at 13 when he left and he went to Atlanta and he had Matt Ryan and he goes to Sam Fran and, you know, he's got all these talented players. He's done a pretty good job. So in the situation, sometimes for coaches, you got to have some players that can execute especially at the quarterback position and makes everything a hell of a lot easier for play color. Jay, I want to go on the league a little bit with it. You mentioned the Ravens earlier that offense last couple of weeks, 35 points, 41 and overtime against Cincinnati. All of a sudden they're home and over 500 yards of offense against the touchdown. Did you see it Danny? It's that was that was a video game play where you would have just thrown the controller now. That's crazy. The craziest plays I've ever seen in an NFL game. You see the Lamar touchdown Jay? Yeah. I watch that whole game. So you're they're both on at the same time as a sports bar, watch them and those hard not to watch the bar neck in or Jay knows those fun three hours of watching football with those guys. Lamar hates the play that, you know, not even that one other play that we're just unbelievable. So yeah, he's he's fun to watch guy too. Well, they match up this week now. What do you make a Baltimore just in general defensively? Maybe not quite as good as I thought, but that offense is tough to stop. Yeah, that's the issue, man. This might be a shootout. I mean, really defensively they they've given up some chunk plays now their corners aren't locking down receivers right now. They're having trouble stopping any kind of short routes deep, rather getting by them. There are people running the ball against them. So you know, they're the not the Baltimore Ravens that you're accustomed to back in the day, if you scored 17 points, it gets a rave at your high five. Nowadays, you're probably going to have scored 35 to, you know, to beat them. So it's a totally different ball game, but offensively, they're playing a high level offense alliance playing very well together and both teams are healthy. And that's the other part that you don't, you have to understand too, as the season goes on, you've got to stay healthier through key players. See so many teams right now that are battling injuries to their key players and they got no chance, but both teams right now are coming this game very healthy. So you'll get a very good test to see where you are as a football team, you play the Ravens next week. Jay, I got to do to just slide into my Instagram DMS at Grand H. Paulson and he slid into the DMS. He wants to me to ask you this. He said, ask Jay if he thinks they should be buyers before the deadline to try to make a run this year. I would, you know, provide the caveat just as a former coach. At what point do you start advocating and go into Peters and saying, hey, look around the league at the landscape here. We can win this division. We could mess around and host a playoff game. Yeah, our plan was one thing, but that's all well and good until now we're seven and two or whatever. I mean, is that get to a point where you might try to expedite the process a little bit to add a piece for the next couple of years, if you can. I think so. I think if it's the right guy and the right type of player that you've got to make sure you get the right type of character guy, you know, in a position fit for you. Like I would say, it's just off the top of my head. If there's a pass rusher out there, they could really get to go alongside Armstrong. I think that would be very beneficial, especially the way the offense is playing. If you're in play with the lead and teams are going to have to come back and throw the ball, I would like to see him out of one more very good pass rusher off the left side or right side, whatever it might be. And, you know, if there's a receiver that they really like, but I really like the way this team has built a chemistry that they have. Sometimes if you add a guy, a knee guy that could disrupt a chemistry, it could be more of a problem than good. I was going to ask about that because on offense, before the season, I'm going, they're probably need one more playmaker, especially a receiver. Now, I'm not so sure that, you know, there's 35 a week without anybody, a lead opposite Terry McClellan. What would that have to be in order for somebody to qualify there? And if there's a, we know some of the names are out there, whether it's Devont Adams or otherwise, but how would you find someone that could truly fit in with what this group is doing on offense? Or is it even worth trying? Yeah, I'm kind of with you. I don't know if it's even worth trying. You know, I don't know how, you know, it's no Brown's injury, how bad that is, how long he's going to be out. But yeah, I just think Diami Brown and OZ and Luke, they do different things for you. But I still think maybe one more bigger type receiver would be beneficial, not only to help you now, but maybe have some depth down the line because if something happens to Terry McClellan, knock on wood, you're going to have to have somebody that can make some big place for you. And I don't know if any of those guys can do that without Terry being on the field. Jay Gruden on GND. I'll let you out on this one. Last one from me. I'm curious what you think about this take. I just want your first blush reaction. I said earlier in the show, and I'm normally fairly measured, but here we are five games in and I said, it would now feel like a disappointment if they go six and six the rest of the way and finish 10 and seven, it was said differently, maybe it would almost feel like a disappointment if they don't win a pretty mediocre NFC East. Your reaction to that is. I agree with you a hundred percent. I really do. I just think what these guys have put on tape for the first five weeks, you know, it's not like they played easy schedule. A giant just went to Seattle and beat them. Cardinals just beat the hell out of San Francisco. The Bengals obviously are the Bengals. They beat them on Monday night football, Joe Burroughs. So they've had some tough teams. They've had to beat. So yeah, I'm not too, I'm not too sold on the NFC East right now. The other teams Dallas has their issues on defense and back makes a bonehead throws every now and then Philadelphia. They're always in the media for something. They get going on over there and you know, he can beat the Giants already did. So I don't see why that that's a stretch. So you can't win the NFC East and then go at least eight and four your last off. Jay, super quick question before we let you go. I know you obviously you're in demand and you go on multiple shows, you know, for our company across the different platforms. Which shows your favorite one to go on? Here's of course. That's what we were hoping you would say, Jay, because I told Chris, I told Chris, it was his too. Well, it's funny to say that because earlier today on another station in a far off land, this is what Jay Gruden had to say. So I was just over hanging out with the boys, Grant and Danny, who I know you're going to be on at five o'clock with them. And I said, Hey, Grant, I said, do you have any good questions for me to ask Jay Gruden that I can steal from you. And he laughed and Danny chimed in and he goes, ask him who he enjoys being on more with you, meaning me or us, meaning Grant, Danny. So I'm going to ask you, who do you enjoy being on more with? Oh, you Chris, for sure. You're the man. I've never really heard of Grant Paulson. There's a little energy. It sounds like there. I believe that one. What you said. Can't you tell sarcasm? Would you hear it? Oh, you Chris, for sure. You know what that does sound like, so now you replay my detectors going on. He's got that Rob Kelly, like, growl going, I love me some Rob Kelly. It's you, Chris. Oh, you Chris, for sure. Yep. You know what? The jury, the jury is spoken. They just slammed the gavel. It sounds like Jay Gruden enjoys this show the most. Is it this show? Yeah. Yeah. Jay Gruden. Especially when you go to barbecue joints. Exactly. That's when you're real. You're like this show. We'll put some ribs down, some wings down with you. Jay, thank you as always for hopping on, buddy. We'll do it again next Monday. All right. Thanks, fellas. Yeah. There's Jay Gruden on Grant and Danny here on the fan. On Aaron on the road. Jay Gruden is driven by the Ted Britt Automotive group, Ted Britt Ford and Chantelian Fairfax. Your F-150 headquarters, Ted Britt Chantelian Lincoln and Ted Britt Chevrolet and Sterling home of Ted Britt for lifetime vehicle coverage. See and shop them all at Tedbritt.com.