The Commanders have made some nice moves adding Laremy Tunsil and Deebo Samuel. But, are you underwhelmed so far?
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00:00So we tease it, so we're going to pay it off.
00:02Tobes, big picture.
00:04Washington, the local 53, their offseason is well underway.
00:09By all accounts, kind of the major part of it, pre-draft,
00:12I would say is done.
00:13There'll be some more signings.
00:15That's going to happen as markets cool
00:16and they kind of go bargain hunting,
00:18but they spent a pretty good deal of their cap space.
00:21Give me your overall sort of 30,000 foot view here.
00:24Your impression, your thought, your reaction
00:26to their offseason.
00:27Yeah, I mean, it seems like this
00:29was going to be the offseason to go out and make
00:31some big time moves, and they did with Laramie Tunsil,
00:33but kind of outside of that, because this
00:35is something we talked about going into the offseason.
00:38They're going to have a lot of cap space, which
00:39I think we had to be a little bit more nuanced with it
00:41and realize they had so many free agents, which
00:43I think we've talked about plenty, that in reality,
00:46when you look at that big number that was approaching $80
00:48million, it really wasn't $80.
00:50It was maybe a little bit less than that because of the fact
00:52that you were going to bring back so many of your own,
00:53which they did.
00:54But it's honestly a little bit underwhelming, Danny.
00:58Outside of the fact that they traded for Tunsil,
01:00that's kind of the redeeming move for me.
01:02If you were to take the Tunsil move out and they didn't do it,
01:04I would say I'd be disappointed because they
01:06made the Tunsil move, and I think
01:08he's such a big asset for them to help out
01:10on the offensive line, to help out at left tackle.
01:12I actually think I would give them slightly
01:14above what I was expecting just because you
01:16got such an impact player.
01:17But at this point, the way that everything
01:19has been done outside of Tunsil, it's
01:21built around what are they going to do through the draft.
01:23And they've talked about this, right?
01:25Build through the draft.
01:26That's the philosophy they want.
01:27So I think it makes sense that they're
01:29going to still be around that.
01:30But kind of at this point, for me, to grade the offseason,
01:34it's going to be dependent on who
01:35do you get in the first round?
01:36Do you trade down out of the first round
01:37and you get a couple extra picks?
01:39Because the only guy that I feel,
01:41I mean, Debo, I guess, moves the needle a little bit.
01:43But you brought back kind of your own guys,
01:45which was expected.
01:46And Debo, for a fifth, is good value,
01:49but you're paying him $20 million now, or at least
01:52Could be up to worth that, yeah.
01:53$17 million is guaranteed.
01:54Like, I don't know.
01:55I felt a little bit underwhelmed.
01:57And then the Tunsil move goes, OK, you're fine.
02:00But if they didn't have that Tunsil move, Danny,
02:02I really would feel disappointed in what they've done.
02:05So this is actually, I think, a harder question
02:07than you'd think on the surface, right?
02:09Because I don't know what we actually expected.
02:11There wasn't really, to your point,
02:12I think you made a good one, there
02:14wasn't room to do a complete roster overhaul with Stars.
02:18I know they had a lot of cap space,
02:20but they also had, what was it, 30 of their own free agents?
02:24Yeah, they were assigned 18 of them.
02:26And again, they're not all huge high dollar guys,
02:29but Deckerts deserved a raise.
02:31Yeah, but I mean, suddenly, when you have 29 free agents
02:34and a couple of them get eight, well, I mean,
02:36suddenly that's not a lot of cap space.
02:37Yeah, and Bobby Wagner deserved a raise.
02:39And you start adding those up, then, yeah, you run out
02:44of space pretty quickly.
02:45So now I think they are 16th or 17th,
02:48give or take, in terms of cap space and events
02:50and where you look.
02:51I'm looking here at overthecap.com.
02:53There are still teams like the Patriots and the Seahawks
02:55who want to clear a bunch of space for who knows whatever
02:58reason to kind of lay in wait.
02:59The Chargers were trying to get out from some bad contracts
03:02to kind of start a new window with Justin Herbert and company.
03:05The Raiders have no answer.
03:06A quarterback, they're in a bad spot.
03:08The Lions have actually done a really shrewd job
03:10of minimizing some salaries, despite having
03:12paid the human praying mantis, Jared Goff,
03:14and a bunch of players on offense.
03:16So they're going to try to retool as they go.
03:18But it's not necessarily like if you have a lot of cap space,
03:21you're good, or if you have a lot of cap space, you're bad.
03:24It's just kind of where teams are
03:25in their builds and their cycles.
03:26So there's some teams up at the top
03:27with a lot of room that don't really have much direction.
03:30Then there's some that are probably the class of the NFC.
03:32See Detroit, Philadelphia kind of maximized right
03:35around where Washington is in terms of bringing some guys
03:37back and retooling, kind of reloading on the fly.
03:40So for me, this was bigger than I expected offseason.
03:46My expectations were not Laramie Tuttle.
03:50My expectation, quite honestly, was
03:53I'm going to be a little frustrated.
03:55I thought, not that this group isn't smart.
03:57It always sounds like I'm negative and down on these guys.
03:59I couldn't be.
04:00Yeah, why do you hate them, Dan?
04:01Why do you hate me?
04:04They're so not Ron Rivera and the Marty Party.
04:06Sure.
04:07It's real NFL general managing leadership.
04:11And what I thought was going to happen
04:12was only the Bobby Wagners, only the Zachertzes,
04:17only the Noah Browns.
04:18I did not see them trading for Deebo Samuel.
04:21I didn't think they would do it.
04:22I didn't think they were going to be in on Trey Hendricks.
04:24I didn't think they were going to be in on Miles Garrett
04:26if it ever happened, or Harold Landry, who
04:29went and signed someone.
04:30I thought they would just do the thing that they just did
04:33and say, look at how good we are.
04:36Look at what we just did.
04:37Yeah, run it back.
04:38And which is defensible.
04:41I think those that really know, that take their fan glasses off
04:43go, man, yeah, it's a good fortune.
04:46Doesn't mean you didn't earn it, but it
04:48took some pretty miraculous things for that to go your way.
04:52You had a rookie quarterback, without a run game,
04:55play ball control.
04:56That's not sustainable.
04:57That's not sustainable way to do stuff.
04:59The offensive line really struggled down the stretch.
05:01And you could tell that was a part of them
05:02to address it, because they did.
05:04A defense that was a disaster, that we all know the story.
05:08You don't always get the Hail Mary.
05:10You don't always have a team with their playoff
05:12life on the line, miss a kick that 65%, 70% of the league
05:15is going to make in that Atlanta game.
05:17Whatever the case, it took a lot of good fortune to get there.
05:20Again, they earned it.
05:21They were much better than they were the year before.
05:22That's obvious.
05:23Go from a four-win team to, they were probably a 10-win team.
05:26That's still awesome.
05:28That's still out kicking what we all
05:29thought they could do by six wins or four wins, whatever.
05:33But I think you recognize, I think
05:34they recognize what a lot of us did.
05:37It sounds like we're down on what happened last year.
05:38We're not.
05:39I had a great time like everybody else did.
05:41But I'm kind of going, it may not
05:42be that sustainable to have your second leading receiver
05:45be Olamide Zaccheaus.
05:46It may not be that sustainable to have a running
05:49game that totally disappeared in the second half of the season,
05:51minus the Tennessee game.
05:52That kind of masked a lot of bad.
05:54It might not be sustainable to have a defense that
05:56couldn't stop either the pass or the run,
05:59so you just allow teams to run on you.
06:02So given all that, I thought they
06:04were going to be pretty quiet.
06:06And the fact that there are two major seismic trades
06:11this offseason to go with their usual array of free agency,
06:16I'm frankly pretty surprised.
06:17So I think I would say, if I've got to pin it down here,
06:20if it's met your expectations, exceeded or below
06:24your expectations, I think because of Tunsell and Samuel
06:28to a degree, which is one man's trash and another man's
06:32treasure, if he does what he did last year, which frustrated
06:35the bleep out of San Francisco fans,
06:37would be a godsend for this offense, I think.
06:41And maybe I'm overstating it, but again,
06:43having the looks that went to Jamison Crowder,
06:45Diami Brown, non-playoff version,
06:48and Olamide Zaccheaus going to Debo Samuel,
06:50I'll take Debo Samuel every time and twice on Sunday,
06:53please and thank you.
06:53Yeah, I think the reason that I'm a little underwhelmed,
06:55though, is I thought, for sure, going into the draft,
06:58they would be decidedly better.
06:59And in some cases, they are.
07:01In some, they're not.
07:02I don't think the defense is better, Danny.
07:04Not right now, not on paper.
07:05They're not better than they were last year.
07:07So if they're taking a step back,
07:08and they were already the part of the team that
07:10was kind of holding you back, I think the offense is better.
07:13Obviously, you've got a legit left tackle,
07:15which I don't even know how much you can quantify,
07:17having as the guy that you can leave over there
07:19and allows you to game plan, do stuff differently.
07:21I don't even know that we can just perfectly quantify it
07:23here on the radio for you.
07:24I think it's going to be a huge difference
07:26to have that left tackle.
07:27So I think they're better there.
07:29They have an upgrade of a weapon there with Debo Samuel,
07:31like you mentioned.
07:32But if you're, say, you've taken one step forward
07:35on the offense or two steps forward,
07:37however you want to do it, they've
07:38taken a step backwards defensively.
07:39So yes, they're probably overall slightly better.
07:43I thought they were going to be decidedly better
07:45going into the draft.
07:46You also factor in the fact that they
07:48don't have a third round pick.
07:50So you look at some of the picks that are gone,
07:52and I get that you'd rather have players over picks
07:54in a lot of cases, especially once you've
07:56got your quarterback on that rookie deal,
07:57see if you can win while he's there on that rookie deal.
08:00But I just don't feel like they're significantly better.
08:05And I thought they would be.
08:06And maybe that was too high of an expectation to set.
08:08Did you think they'd be better everywhere
08:10at the end of free agency, or knowing that you
08:12can't fix everything at once?
08:13Yeah, I knew they wouldn't fix everything.
08:15But a lot of it comes back to kin law,
08:18like we talked a lot yesterday.
08:21That doesn't feel like an upgrade to me.
08:23And the fact that you're spending 15 there,
08:26this free agent class wasn't great.
08:27And if you come back to me in a couple of two months
08:30after the draft, and they've come away with a legit corner,
08:33and they've got an edge rusher that they
08:34feel like they can depend on, then
08:36it'll be a little bit differently.
08:37I'm a big draft guy.
08:38And so part of the frustration for me
08:39is I think they've given up a little bit too
08:41much of their draft capital.
08:42But I just don't feel like they're significantly better.
08:45And I thought through free agency,
08:47they were going to be able to do a little bit more.
08:49They've had to do a lot of it through trade.
08:50And maybe that just speaks to how
08:51poor the free agent class was.
08:53Or lack of depth, or lack of impact.
08:56If you're good, you're getting paid.
08:59And you can't be in the business of doing nothing but that,
09:02I think, right?
09:03Because you could do it once.
09:04You could do it maybe even a couple times.
09:06It'd be nice if you could go, oh, here's
09:08the best safety in the market.
09:09I'll get him.
09:10Here's the best corner in the market.
09:11I'll get him.
09:11The best linebacker.
09:12The best whatever.
09:13Well, you're out of cap space.
09:14And now you can't resign anybody of your own, and whatever.
09:16You've got to be somewhat judicious.
09:18And you break glass in case of this is a priority,
09:21see Tunsil, to me.
09:24So I was hoping, frankly, they were
09:26going to be in on a couple of the marquee quarterbacks.
09:28That was the only spot in free agency
09:30where I go, there are a bunch of difference makers right here.
09:33Everyone from DJ Reed, to Carlton Davis,
09:35to a couple other guys.
09:36Not that I don't like Jonathan Jones.
09:38I think he's fine.
09:39I mean, no, let me rephrase.
09:40He's a major upgrade from Michael Davis, St. Jude's.
09:46You know what I mean?
09:46So thank you.
09:47So in there, I'm happy.
09:49There's some position flex with him.
09:50And I know that's a dirty word right here.
09:52With him and Sanders still, where
09:54if you motion one inside of the other, I'll banjo that.
09:57I got no problem, right?
09:58I'll keep one out, so I keep one inside.
10:00If you try to motion to get me out of it,
10:01it's not a bad matchup for me.
10:03If my guy that can also play in the slot
10:06plays in the slot, right?
10:07So I may be in the minority on this,
10:13but the things that I wanted them to do most this offseason,
10:18they did.
10:19And I know that we're not allowed to say that,
10:21because you have to shout about the defense
10:24and stopping the run and everything else.
10:26But to me, I'm going, I need excellent offensive line play.
10:29Not fine, not OK, not getting away with stuff.
10:33And they improved 40% of their line
10:34with one acquisition in Tunsil.
10:36And I think Coleman's an upgrade wherever he ends up.
10:39Left guard, right guard, right tackle, I don't know.
10:41Sure, that's number one.
10:42And number two, I need another easy playmaker
10:44for Jaden Daniels.
10:46I can't ask any quarterback, let alone my second year guy,
10:50where it's going to be much tougher next year
10:52than it was this year, with a schedule
10:54and the league having all access to the film
10:57and plenty of time to try to figure it out, to just go,
11:00hey, man, be a superhero, every single down.
11:03It's got to be easier at times.
11:05Enter Debo Samuel for that.
11:07That's kind of what I was looking for,
11:09maximize and protect.
11:10So that's where I think we disagree,
11:14is if you were to give me the option,
11:16there were two receivers that were
11:17traded for late round picks this year.
11:19You had a fifth for Debo, right?
11:20You had a seventh for Christian Kirk.
11:21Yeah.
11:22I think I would have taken Christian Kirk.
11:23And I might feel differently.
11:24I just, I'm not very high on Debo.
11:26I know he fits what they're trying to do.
11:28Debo's built different.
11:29I think that's the fundamental difference is I am.
11:32Correct.
11:32Yeah.
11:33I'm more bullish on him.
11:34And I think he fits what you're trying to do.
11:36And he's a unique build.
11:38He's a unique player.
11:39But I want a legit number two receiver.
11:41And he's not that.
11:42And I know you're not even going to argue for that either.
11:45He's more of a weapon.
11:46And I think if you could get a guy who is a number two,
11:49and I don't think Christian Kirk, at this point in his career,
11:52is spectacular by any means.
11:53But he's a better true receiver than Debo.
11:55He can't do the stuff that Debo does.
11:56But I feel like I can find someone that can be my weapon,
11:59whether it's a running back in the draft or something
12:01like that.
12:01And I would have felt better if you said traded that seventh,
12:05if you had to go up to a sixth to make sure
12:07that you got Christian Kirk.
12:08If Debo would have gone somewhere else,
12:11then I would have much rather that,
12:12and then spent a fifth rounder on one
12:14of these running backs in the class,
12:15and felt like you could have done something like that.
12:17I think that's where our fundamental difference is,
12:19where Debo just doesn't move the needle to me.
12:21For a lot of people, he does.
12:23And I think he's a solid player.
12:24I don't hate the trade.
12:25I know it sounds like I do.
12:26I don't hate the trade.
12:26Oh, you hate the trade.
12:27You know how you feel.
12:28But he just doesn't move the needle for me.
12:31Maybe this is where I think, semantics-wise,
12:34the only needle-moving move that they
12:37made this offseason so far to me was Tunsil.
12:40And because of that, I thought you were
12:42going to see a couple of those.
12:44Not like, holy smokes, they did that.
12:46But a couple of things were like, smart move.
12:48Shrewd, shrewd.
12:50Outside of Tunsil, I don't feel that.
12:52So here's the, and you can tweet me, by the way,
12:56at funnydanny.
12:57Toby's at Toby underscore Altizer.
13:00Got a good one here from Travis.
13:01Washington offseason is consistent to last offseason.
13:03Fans, once again, will be disappointed
13:05because of the lack of big names.
13:06But we'll get over it if they have another great season.
13:08Largely, I agree with that.
13:09Of course, the great season part.
13:11But last year, respectfully, there were a bunch of big names.
13:15Austin Eckler was a first-round fantasy draft
13:17pick for everybody that played the sport in, or not the sport,
13:19but everyone that played over the last decade.
13:21Bobby Wagner's a gold jacket dude.
13:23Frankie Lubu's a front-line defender.
13:25May not have made a billion dollars,
13:27but kind of everybody knew it.
13:29Zach Ertz had tormented us for years.
13:31These were bigger names than, say,
13:33as you're kind of going down the list.
13:35Bigger names than Nate Herbig, and Jacob Martin,
13:37and Will Harris, and Dietrich Weiss.
13:39But I think, generally, the point stands.
13:42Here's the optimistic viewpoint.
13:44I'm going to throw it out at you.
13:45You don't like it, throw it back.
13:47I'm going to throw something out.
13:48You don't like it, throw it back.
13:50Sure, OK.
13:51What if they shrewdly, shrewdly went and found guys
13:58on that defensive front that more fit what they wanted to do?
14:04They inherited a built-in defense,
14:06especially that defensive line with all the resources
14:08that have been allocated.
14:10Now they kind of know who they are
14:13and what they'd like to do with it.
14:14So enter Dietrich Weiss, Eddie Goldman,
14:17Ken Long, who's obviously much talked about.
14:19There's more size.
14:21There's more heft, if I can say that.
14:24Maybe a little bit of an idea of, OK, we've got one guy
14:27that we think could be an upfield playmaker,
14:28and Johnny Newton.
14:29I don't know what Deron Payne's going
14:31to do in this system or scheme.
14:33It may be a matter of time before he's out here.
14:35They may be counting on the days for his contract to expire.
14:37Not much they could have done with him this offseason,
14:39I don't think.
14:40Maybe TBD before the draft, who knows.
14:42Something to put a pin in.
14:44But maybe they went and found guys up front that fit.
14:48And it's going to be a some of their parts front,
14:50more so than it is, hey, I'd love Trey Henderson.
14:53Because I think they were in on having that superstar that's
14:55had 35 sacks over the last two years.
14:57But maybe there's something to that.
14:59If you can't go get the star, maybe get a bunch of guys
15:02that fit you better.
15:03Yeah, I like the idea that they're finding.
15:06I'm sure it was something where Dan Quinn and Joe Witt sat down
15:09with Adam Peters and said, hey, this
15:11is what we're looking for in a D lineman.
15:12We want these traits.
15:13We're going to try to use them in this way.
15:15And Peters is throwing some names their way.
15:17And they eventually come together
15:19and they figure out some guys that they wanted,
15:21with Martin and Kinlaw and some of these things.
15:23It could definitely work.
15:24I just think when you're looking at ways to do that,
15:28I'm more so worried about some of the stuff
15:30with giving up some of the draft picks,
15:31more so than probably a lot of other people
15:33are, because I look at it and say, what's the old adage?
15:36You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
15:38And so when you get a guy who's 27, 28,
15:41you kind of know what they are.
15:42If you can fit them perfectly into the role
15:44that they're best fit, then fine.
15:46Great.
15:46But if I get someone who's 22, 23,
15:48I can build them into my scheme.
15:50I can find ways to enhance some of those things.
15:52You've still got to find their strengths.
15:54But maybe they did identify some stuff
15:56where they're like, Kinlaw is still good in this spot.
15:58Obviously, Adam Peters is familiar with him.
16:00Maybe we can use Martin or Wise or someone in this specific role
16:04because we see that they're good at this.
16:07They're going to fit our scheme.
16:08I think they're smart enough, like we've
16:10talked about plenty, that they deserve
16:11the benefit of the doubts.
16:13They showed last year that how many people were excited
16:16when Zach Hertz was signed.
16:17How many people were over the moon when Wagner was signed.
16:19Or Eckler, or any of these guys.
16:21It's like you talked about for last offseason.
16:23It was like, are we signing these dudes in 2021 or 2024?
16:26It was a little bit different for those guys
16:28going into the season.
16:29But they ended up being home run hits.
16:31So I trust what they're doing.
16:34It's just, for me, I expected, and maybe this
16:37is just being flawed because there really
16:38weren't big names that were going to be out there that you
16:40could get for a reasonable price.
16:42But I expected a little bit more out of the offseason
16:45than what I got.