Grant and Danny
Louis Riddick Joins G&D To Tell Us Just How Good Jayden Daniels Can Be
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We're not really sure what to do with our hands, Louis, but what have you seen so far that you say, you know what? This isn't just something new. This is sustainable. This team is good. Yeah, I think, you know, obviously a lot of that optimism and the shift from hope to expectation centers around Jaden in his development, clearly. I think there's no question that what he is doing as far as his development, his mastery of the offense. I shouldn't say mastery. His continuing mastery of the offense, his leadership, his efficiency is something that's definitely sustainable because that's who he's always been. As far as someone who was willing to put in the work on the field, not the field, and appreciate himself, the teammates, immerse himself in the playbook and then he's just freakishly skilled. So yeah, that's definitely sustainable as they continue to build out this roster and continue to make sure that protecting him is sustainable, having him have weapons is sustainable, continuing to build out the defensive side of the ball so they can give him more crack that it is sustainable, and keep an infrastructure around him in terms of the coaching staff and the support staff that allows him to go out and execute, you know, making sure that stays as stable as possible. That's also something that's, you know, by and large up to the people who are in charge in Washington, so it's all sustainable. It's all something that can be built upon from here and I'm sure that everyone who's in a position to affect that understands just how much it's not luck. They didn't hit the jackpot, you know, out of luck. Everyone knew all along that Chicago was going to take Caleb. It did the absolute right thing in drafting Jaden and now, you know, it's off to the races with him. So yeah, it's, but I think the shift is on, or rather, maybe it's already taking place. Like I said, when you're moving from, well, I hope we're pretty decent to now. I expect us to be pretty pretty damn good. I expect us to put up points. I expect this young man to play well. I think that's well underway now, and that is a pretty good feeling. Louis Redick on GND. I mean, he's clearly the son in this solar system. There's no doubt about that. But what about some of the other main characters in this story right now? I mean, you've been on the front office side at the, you know, highest levels and interviewing for GM jobs. Adam Peters getting his first crack seems like he hit a home run in his first free agency class. Dan Quinn getting a second opportunity so far. So good for him. And they're just, it just seems like they're so ahead of schedule. Like they're press conferences. We're using words like rebuild in patience and time. And right now, we're one of the best teams in the league, five games in. Yeah, well, I think, you know, it's part of the job when you're a head coach and your general manager is managing expectations both internally and externally. And I think that's because you don't, you want to be realistic, you know, as best you can based upon what you think the forecast of the future looks like. And it's always cool and always a lot of fun when maybe you shot a little low and then you wind up exceeding those expectations. And it's not because, again, it's not because it's luck, but because guys maybe developed faster chemistry, developed better, you know, within the coaching staff, chemistry developed better, most importantly on the football field. And, you know, then the conversation changes from, well, this is just a full scale. We build everyone temporary expectations. Everyone calm down with, you know, we may be lucky to be a nine and eight, eight, nine type team. And then we'll, we'll hit it big on our second year. Everybody says that. Everybody tries to keep things, you know, on the down low, so to speak. But there's no, there's no doubt that, well, again, has learned a lot from his first in as a head coach in Atlanta. And then how he took some time really, I mean, we talked about, we talked to him about this when in some production meetings, when he was the D.C. in Dallas, about all the work that he had put in during the time off that he had between leaving Atlanta, becoming the D.C. in Dallas, and how he really like took himself apart metaphorically and put himself back together, analyzed every part of his, of his operation, both as a person and as a head coach. And he thought he would be better for it once he got his next job. Clearly that paid off. Adam Peters has been someone who's been around some of the best in the business as far as the whole entire scouting process, the valuation process, the selection and development process. That's clearly paying off. And then, you know, then of course, there's always that relationship part of it, which you never know how to help that's going to go. You never, you, you think it's going to go good. You think it's going to be something where everyone's going to act like a professional and everyone's going to be, you know, good all out of themselves into the team type of mantra, but you don't know. And see, you know, and you know what? I'll tell you what, see, even now that success has started to rear its head, so to speak, now you find out even a little bit more about what you've built there, because it's always at the extremes where you find out or where you have some surprises and you find out just how strong your operation is. When stuff is going bad, that's when, you know, people fracture and start pointing fingers, when stuff is going good and things start to build, that's when everybody starts wanting more and more credit and wants to say, you know, hey, look, I did this. I know what's happened there. It's clearly been a collective effort, and they need to make sure everyone understands that and that they just keep pushing the way they've been pushing, because as you all know, as I know, I think as anyone who has studied NFL football knows, there isn't much better than winning in Washington, D.C. There isn't much better. It's been a long time. So I think they will do a good job of safeguarding that at all costs. And I'm just hoping that, you know, they continue to build, they continue to knock everything out of the park from A to Z, not just with Jaden, but from A to Z, because what that town deserves is that fan base deserves it. They suffered a long, long time. And now they've kind of got their prince of the city like in place, man. And it's like I said, for me, from the outside looking in, that's pretty damn cool, man. It really is. ESPN's Lewis Riddick with this here is on the call this weekend for Florida at Tennessee on ESPN Saturday night. Lewis is a guy, you know, watched so much football and as an evaluator, Jane Daniels has taken a lead by storm and it's been incredible here to watch as an evaluator, though, putting your objective glasses on. What does he not do well yet? Like what if there's a weakness or something that is relatively not as strong? What are you seeing there? Maybe areas for improvement? To be honest with you, look, I mean, I think those things internally, you'd have to be there internally on the grind with him day to day to really say, Hey, you know what? I think you need to really work on this right now because from an external standpoint and from what I know from going down the bat and Rouge and talking to the people down there and watching all this tape. And but there's always, look, the guy's breaking records right now in terms of quarterback efficiency through the first quarter of the season doing things that no one's ever done. It's hard to pick out some things and go, well, damn, well, you're not doing that really good right now. I think his command at the line of scrimmage from what I can tell is second to none relative to where he's at in his career. I think his field vision, his decision making, accuracy, short intermediate deep. No, who throws a better deep ball than him in the NFL right now? I mean, really, who throws a better deep ball? Who throws better ball under pressure than him right now? I think he's clearly learned how to protect himself as a runner to where it doesn't look like Ole Miss 2023 where I thought, man, they're going to break him in half before the end of this game if he's not careful. So I think there's always going to be room for, can he operate even faster? Can he recognize things even quicker? Can he be more consistent with feet, hip rotation, arm placement, ball placement, changing speeds, you know, as far as how much he puts on it, how much he throws with touch? Of course, there's always going to be all those things. And some of that isn't going to be, you know, recognizable to the naked eye. It's all going to be things that unless you were with him every day, you won't know if he's doing a great or if he's not. But look, I have nothing bad to say about the guy. I was all in on him from the time I started studying him. And I think right now, they just need to keep internally, you know, working in silence, keeping him on the straight and narrow, continue to work his crabs, they'll clip this, needs to keep him on the path that he's on right now, man, because he's doing historic stuff already. He's making throws right now that there isn't a quarterback, not a single quarterback in the league who's throwing a prettier ball than him. And he's doing it under some, he makes some tough, tough contested throws where he's getting the absolute crap knocked out of him in the pocket. And he doesn't flinch. I'm not going to even try to pick out a bunch of things that he isn't doing well, because the things that he is doing well right now, just ride them, man. And hope that the coaching staff continues him on the path that he's on right now, which I'm sure they will. They know it's just like you guys know it and every fan in Washington knows it. Yeah, pretty obvious. It doesn't take a scout when you turn on the games or turn on the tape to see what he's doing. You mentioned the coaching staff. Cliff Kingsbury's been incredible. And I didn't see this coming. And I was not a huge fan of the hire and hindsight, looking back now, it seems like a marriage made in heaven. We have also seen though, Lewis, and you know this better than we do. Kingsbury's offenses have gotten off to these amazing first half starts in Arizona and cooled off. Now we didn't have Jaden Daniels at the controls in the past. But I guess I'm just curious for your thoughts on what he's been doing, because they're getting receivers wide open. They are running a lot of this is Daniels related in the run game with read option and whatnot. But I mean Kingsbury is completely reinventing his name in football right now. Yep, he sure is. And look, I think just like we mentioned with Coach Quinn, you think you think Cliff hasn't kind of looked internally inside of himself and kind of deconstructed himself and put himself back together in terms of like, how do I need to be better in terms of my preparation, my scheming, my strategizing, my execution on game day, my relationship with Jaden, you think you didn't learn a lot from what, you know, his relationship was like with Kyler, what worked, what didn't work. But it's not like he doesn't have enough in his bag, so to speak as to how to attack NFL defense, is how to make sure that his quarterback has answers for whatever is being thrown at him, whether it be zone coverage man, coverage five man pressure, six man pressures, simulated pressures, you think he hasn't, he has all that in his toolkit. And clearly, his teaching methodology is one that's resonating with Jaden. And it's something that they've struck a chord. Now, teams are going to find ways to push on those sore spots that make Jaden uncomfortable, that, you know, kind of like expose some of the things that maybe he's just not quite as good at as time goes on. That's what always happens as you gather more intel. Then it'll be on on Cliff to kind of readjust again. But, but the thing about, about coaches, just like players, is that not every player is ideal for you. It's not always going to be, and it doesn't necessarily mean that, well, now the diet has been cast, you know, you've already kind of like created your mold, you are who you are, you can't reinvent yourself, you can't get better. We've seen that that is a big, big mistake that fans, media personalities, shout GM's owners make, is to think that people can't learn and adapt and improve. Same thing holds true for a Cliff Kingsbury. There's a lot of people who thought, well, this hiring going to turn out to be worth a damn. Look at what he did in Arizona. Look at what he didn't do in Arizona. Look how it turned out between him and Kyle, and look how, you know, like, we've got to be real careful to do those kind of things, man, when we're assessing people in general, and then we're, and then for short, when we're assessing people in such a team, such export as football, you can, you can wind up making yourself look like and sound like a fool when you do that, because we know how, how things are on such a razor's edge in football and how one place could be crapped for you and the next place could be heaven. Just look at what's happening with Sam Donald right now in, in Minnesota. When he left the jet, and he's talking about him seeing ghosts out there, you know, when Adam Gates was talking to them, everyone's thinking, this guy's a colossal bust. He'll never be worth a damn. He'll never get another shot. He may be coming back clearly year now. He may lead that team to the number one season, the end of see for all we know, you know. So you got to be careful with that. And I think we're Cliff. Hey, let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Just like we give him, you know, people gave Dan Quinn the benefit of the doubt he learned from his first go around. And now he's got that place humming. So with Cliff, man, you know, more power to him. I'm hoping he's able to keep it going because he's in a great situation right now. It's, it's cool. Like he can go back to his roots of, let me coordinate and coach the quarterback, the thing that I probably know how to do best. And at the same time, what a great resource for him it is to have Dan Quinn there too and say, hey, you know what, you could best believe in some of their private time where they're kind of just one on one. You think he's not picking Dan's brain about what happened to him in Atlanta and then how things benefited him when he went to Dallas and now that he's a head coach again, of course he is. So yeah, I'm sure you're no different than many other people who were like, who were very skeptical of it. But man, it's true. He's looking pretty good right now and hats off the cliff for doing so. Well, it's got to grab you here about the news of the day. I was pretty stunned. I don't know how you felt about it. But Robert Solly getting relieved of his duties there in New York sort of, you know, ripping the band aid. What was your reaction to it? What are your thoughts? Yeah, like the head coach, the head coach bears the brunt of the blame when things aren't going well, just like he gets the credit most times when things are going right. And when you have a situation there where it just seemed like things were a little off, but things were getting a little sideways, you know, the communications between season. I'm taking a trip over to Europe, even though it's mandatory. Many camp, I had just planned already. They know I had a plan. Like, like, it just seems like things were a little disjointed there to where if things started getting sideways, it was probably going to fall back on the head coach a lot, hell of a lot more than it was on the franchise quarterback first ballot hall, a favorite four time MVP guy who's pretty much pulling the damn strings up there. So we've seen this before. We've seen this kind of thing before where a franchise quarterback has a hell of a lot more power and influence over ownership and what direction a franchise takes than even the head coach, especially a quote unquote defensive head coach who was under fire coming into the season anyway about making sure you maximize the potential of a football team that everyone said all they needed was to get rid of Zach Wilton and get a quarterback and we're rolling. We're the number one seed in the NFC. We have a shutdown defense blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They weren't going to get rid of Aaron Rodgers. They could have gotten rid of Nathaniel Hackett, I guess, but they weren't going to get rid of him either as the OC because that Aaron's guy. So none of that, none of that shocked me. That's how things go. That's how things go in the NFL. Someone's always going to fall on the sword. It's more times than not going to be the head coach, although you could have made a case for it be in any number of other things that are going wrong up there. And I think as the season plays itself out, Jeff Olbrick, the new head coach, isn't going to all of a sudden fix them. If they turn crap around up there, it ain't going to be because Jeff Olbrick just figured out how to get this running game going and how to get this offensive line being better than bottom quarter in the NFL and run block and pass block win rate. That ain't going to be because of anything Jeff Olbrick said. Nothing at all. They're not going to protect the pass or better because something Jeff Olbrick comes up with. Nothing at all. He just have a lot of other stuff going on other than Robert Saul. I'm not being the guy who can quote unquote provide a spark, which is one of the most annoying damn things I hear people say. Well, he's going to give him a spark. No, he's not. He's not going to give him a spark. The team in the, you know, the guys in the locker room will give them a spark by playing better, by protecting better, by air and making better passes. That's what they'll do. That's what will change it around. So nothing, nothing in the league shocked me about this. Like I like Robert, know him, you know, have talked to him in a professional manner many different times. This is just the NFL, dude. It's not for long. As you all know, if you aren't winning at two and three last year through five games with 93 points scored, when Zach Wilson was their quarterback, two and three this year through five games with 93 points scored. And they've been the number one defensive team in the league since the day they hired Salah, EPA per play. Hey, Lewis, we could keep chatting, but we know you're busy. We'll listen to you on the call and watch it this weekend. Florida number eight, Tennessee. You'll see a stud quarterback in that game ESPN on Saturday night. Thank you for the time. We appreciate it. Of course, but you got it. Guys. Thank you. There's Lewis Riddick of ESPN on Grant and