Grant and Danny
Who Deserves More Credit For The Commanders?
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue, and guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law. Hey NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDul, America's number one sports book. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's FanDul.com/sportsfan. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with FanDul, an official sports book partner of the NFL. Must be 21 plus and present in Colorado. First online real money weights are only $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is now a throwable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanDul.com, gambling problem, call 1-800-522-4700. Hey Mike Vellini here, host the cash to take it alongside my partner, Jim Costa. It's really simple. Are you tired of podcasts claiming there are a bunch of pro betters when they live in their mommy's basement? Are you tired of podcasts that claim they hit 80% of the games when really they just lose like most of us? Think cash to tickets the spot for you. We're real, we're transparent, we're having a hell of a good time with it, and we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys. We're just trying to figure it out just like you. Follow and listen to Cash the Ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. There's plenty of flowers being thrown for this team doing something it hadn't done since 2008 through five games has a chance to be five and one for the first time since 1996. But who's not getting enough credit and what about this team do you think isn't getting enough credit? That's the question right now on Grant and Danny. I'll start. These might be a little bit too easy, GP, but I'm going for many hell. Number one is Tyler Biotish, a guy that you've highlighted throughout the show today and we talked to Will Montgomery earlier and he was great breaking down what he sees from the old line. But the lack of penalties, the how many times if you've seen a free rusher and someone going, oh, I thought you were supposed to block that guy and I was going to block this guy, but oh, we got confused because this guy went this way. They're on the same page, especially with the rookie quarterback. Exactly. Rookie quarterback, three new starters, really four on the offensive line. I mean, give or take right at times when you add in the fact that Coleman and Lucas are splitting, but they all of a sudden look like a cohesive group that's played together for a decade and everyone seems to do on the same page. He's not only, you know, he was brought in to be a stabilizer, not necessarily a pro bowler, but that's how he's playing at this point to me. I mean, I'm not grading every center around the league at the stage, but here's what I know. They don't get penalized very much. The holes of the run game are there. Nobody's running unblocked to Jayden Daniels in the rare times that they leave someone on a counter for. Daniels goes for 35 around his butt. So give me Tyler Biotis and unsung hero. I think that's a really good one. I'm going to go with, I think special teams in general has mostly been a strength for them and has been very quietly something that, again, not batting a thousand, they had a couple penalties in a game and a kickoff return for a touchdown brought back. But Echler, last time I checked, was leading NFL and kick return average. They have done a really good job there. I thought Alameda is a key as this past week as a punt returner was legit great, routinely 10, 12, 15 yards he was getting on punt returns. Since the first week of the season, a loss and a bad loss, they have not missed an extra point or a field goal. That's huge. Tresway is kicking bombs, very rarely punting, but when he is punted, he has been very good. Echler yesterday, when we had him on the show, accentuated the kickoff coverage unit, which is one of the most physical thumps at a level that very few around the league do. I think that they've been pretty good on punt coverage. I don't really remember anything being ripped off against way or the punt team. I'm not going to sit here and say it's a, you know, a plus, but it's pretty close since week one, I would say, and it's at least, you know, maybe in that B plus a minus range for the season. And sometimes those hidden yards you never think about, you gain 15. So instead of first and 10 at the 15, it's 30. You know, you don't get a penalty to take you half the distance to the goal and you start your drive at the 29 yard line. Those things add up. And I think that they're going in their favor way more often than they have in the past. Unsung heroes, you touched on one of the names. I'm going to, I'm going to do sort of a three is one here. Lavena Zacchaeus, Luke McCaffrey, Noel Brown, really on fourth and D'Almi Brown. Now, this is not a statistical production kudos because you add their numbers together. They equal a wide receiver that is the way I'm used to doing it. The way the rest of the league does it, right? You got a number one, and number two, you get about 30 catches and, you know, 300 400 yards out of those guys at this point, right? They're not doing it that way. What they are doing is having guys complete their responsibilities. So any given play, you got something different to do and the blocking. We highlighted this play on Monday. Austin Echler highlighted it yesterday on the run that Echler rips off where he fumbles. Zacchaeus is out of the play. He carries out a play fake to the opposite side of the field, outruns 15 different people to slide in there and retain possession. Now, Washington wins the game regardless. They were better that at worst would have acted as a great punt, right? Like as a, you know, an arm punt kind of a thing, except it was via a rip off run from from Echler. But Zacchaeus hustles his butt down there. Oftentimes you do that that's thankless. Well, the one time you need to do it, he does it recovers that fumble. That unselfish receiver play in terms of blocking and completing assignments and then doing everything you possibly can every play is part of the reason why they're running it so damn well, especially when they go outside. And those unsung kind of, you know, on to the radar plays are massive. Couple guys on defense that I think have been mostly good. I remember a week or two into the season. There was this narrative that Bobby Wagner had lost a step and he's not as fast as he once was. I think that's probably clear. You're not going to be at his age when you've tackled as many guys and had as many collisions as he has. But I do think Bobby Wagner's played really well as the defense has improved the last couple of weeks. He's got six tackles for loss six six. Nobody else on the team has more than two. That's a boatload. You're talking about him, you know, for a Mike linebacker to be on pace for like 25 tackles for loss over the course of a season. It's pretty insane. The other guy I would call out defensively that I haven't heard mentioned basically at all this year, who I think has flashed a ton is Quan Martin and he got banged up. We'll have to see what his status is moving forward, what the injury report looks like for him. But Quan Martin to me is really settling in as a very solid long term building block in his role defensively where he essentially serves now as like a second safety. But really it's just positionless DB football where he covers. He's in the nickel occasionally and dime. He's he's matching up with somebody that playing zone and bring him down in the box from time to time. I think Quan Martin's been much better maybe than people think so far. Give me George Armstrong. Now this is what would he people a lot of times when it comes to past pressures or otherwise will oftentimes focus on what somebody is not. He is not von Miller in his prime. He is not Michael Parsons. He's not a guy that we just saw this we couldn't do much. But he's not Miles Garrett. Very few of those guys are. It's a little bit more workman like he's not going to win every time and disrupt the play. You don't always see him coming. You don't always see him constantly beating a tackle. But he's on 11 sack pace. Part of that is because they're playing good team defense. Part of that is they got leads and guys are throwing. Part of that is you know just by being around you'll end up touching the quarterback in a stubblefield style. But 11 sacks is 11 sacks. You know what I mean? That's not something that happens all the time around here. So it's again it's not always the the flash play the sack fumble the game changer type stuff. But whisper quiet is on pace for an 11 sacks. 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 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 casually insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Hey NFL fans you can start the season with a big return on FanDul America's number one sportsbook. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game you can check out the latest stats view live play by play and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's FanDul dot com slash sports fan. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with FanDul an official sportsbook partner of the NFL must be 21 plus and present in Colorado first online real money weights are only $10 first deposit required bonus issued is now a throwable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt restrictions apply see terms at sportsbook dot FanDul dot com gambling problem call one eight hundred five two two forty seven hundred. Hey Mike for any here host the cash to take it alongside my partner Jim Costa it's really simple are you tired of podcast claiming there are a bunch of pro betters when they live in their mommy's basement are you tired of podcast that claim they had 80 percent of the games when really they just lose like most of us think has to tickets the spot for you we're real we're transparent we're having a little good time with it and we sit there and we're there for the sweat with you guys we're just trying to figure it out just like you following listen to cash the ticket on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.