If you had to have it your way, would you rather have an impactful RB or WR in round 1?
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00:00Here's what I want to do.
00:01I've actually been thinking for a while
00:03about crowbarring a segment in at some point,
00:06and I was like, yeah, we'll just do it now.
00:08So I'm going to give everyone time to think about this, okay?
00:11But I want to play this at 5.30 today.
00:14I don't know why I've been in a mood to play this for a while.
00:17I want to play two truths and a lie, okay?
00:20So each of you guys come up with two truths and one lie,
00:24and we're going to see if we can guess the lie from each other.
00:29We'll go around the horn.
00:30So everyone come up with yours, Darius, Ryan, Toby.
00:34Now, should we do it, me and you working together
00:36or competing against one another?
00:38Or should we come up with our own and all five of us go,
00:41and then everyone can workshop it?
00:42Let's do that.
00:43Let's do that one.
00:44Every man for himself.
00:46I like that.
00:47So this is like an elimination chamber or something.
00:51What's the wrestling term for every man for themselves?
00:54A free-for-all?
00:55Is this a Royal Rumble?
00:56There you go.
00:57Somebody's going to get thrown over the rope.
00:58So two truths and a lie coming to you at 5.30.
01:01Why?
01:03Why?
01:03First of all, we say that, why?
01:05Where did that come from?
01:07Two truths and a lie?
01:08Yeah.
01:08Where you decided we got to play that.
01:10I just, you know what it was?
01:12I don't know why.
01:12When Tress Way filled in with me one of the eight times you were sick
01:15in the last month, I wanted to play with him.
01:18And I wrote it down.
01:19I'm like, I'm going to get Tress to give me three things,
01:22and I got to spot the lie, basically.
01:24And then we didn't play it.
01:25And ever since then, I'm like,
01:26it'll be fun to play it with Danny at some point.
01:28And then I was just like, you know what?
01:30Today is some point.
01:31Today is the day.
01:32There we go.
01:32We got a lot of draft stuff we could talk about.
01:34There's fun things to cover.
01:35It's a Monday, which is normally busier.
01:36But who cares?
01:38Let's have a little fun.
01:39All right.
01:39530, two truths and a lie on Grant and Danny.
01:43All right.
01:44The poll of the day is available for you right now.
01:46Go vote.
01:47106.7, the fan Twitter account.
01:49The G&D poll of the day is presented by Metropolitan Moving and Storage.
01:54Local, long distance, residential, or commercial.
01:57Three decades of best-in-class service and experience.
02:00The question we're asking you is, if you could add an elite speed weapon offensively in the draft,
02:07they hit a home run in the mid-rounds and they get a game-changer speed option at either
02:12running back or wide receiver, which would you prefer it to be?
02:16It's wide receiver for me.
02:17And I'm betting it's going to be the opposite for you, but I'll let you field it.
02:21To me, the value of the take-the-top-off-the-defense-danger threat is more valuable than the scat-back
02:30or speed-back who might be able to do the same but has longer to go.
02:33In other words, I want that long threat to, A, catch the occasional long pass, B, open things
02:39up for the midfield workers, for the McLaurans of the world, for potentially Ben Sinnott one
02:45day of running a route, but more likely Zach Ertz early on.
02:48I want more space for Debo Samuel to operate underneath, and that's kind of intermediate
02:52to short ranges.
02:53That lethal take-the-top-off-the-defense guy, I didn't quite understand the value of it.
02:58Obviously, you watch a SportsCenter highlight back in the day, you see someone throw it deep
03:02and the guy catches a touchdown, it's one pass, it's some points.
03:05I get that, but I didn't see the down-in, down-out impact it could make really firsthand
03:11until Deshaun Jackson came here, and I was wrong.
03:13I didn't want him, and once he arrived, I finally got it.
03:17There are games where he's three catches for 19 yards, and it didn't make much of a difference,
03:21and I'm going, why is that special?
03:22They're still able to hum and move the ball up and down the field.
03:24It's because everyone's terrified.
03:26Every defender doesn't want to end up on the recap show and NFL Network or the, you got
03:30crossed, and like everyone yells at you, and they go, oh, when you're trailing the guy
03:34on the way to the end zone, it opens everything up all the time, and I want that open up all
03:40the time thing for Jaden Daniels and company.
03:41Yeah, I don't think you could go wrong.
03:43I think a wide receiver like a Deshaun Jackson who strikes up the band, which is what we're
03:48talking about, is an invaluable weapon.
03:49Easier said than done, obviously, to find out, yeah.
03:51But I think you just saw with Saquon Barkley that the running back who hits home runs is
03:56just more valuable because the ball's in their hands more often.
04:00They have more of an influence on more things around them.
04:03As much as you just talked about how much a wide receiver sends ripple effects and changes
04:07things for other receivers and tight ends and everybody else, the quarterback, the O-line.
04:12A running back, I do think, affects more things.
04:14And the other part about this specific to Washington is that commanders have a much bigger need at
04:20running back than wide receiver, and it's not particularly close.
04:23Now, that's not to say that they don't have need at both.
04:26They are okay at running back.
04:28They are okay at wide receiver.
04:29But in terms of speed, they need that at running back more than they need it at wide receiver
04:36because if you add the player that we're talking about, this home run threat, band striker
04:42upper guy who gets a handoff and scores a touchdown or takes the lid off and goes 75 yards on the
04:49first play of a drive starting at the 25 for a touchdown, if you add one of those two players
04:55in the wide receiver room, you're fighting for targets behind Terry McLaurin aside from Debo Samuel.
05:04Whereas in the running back room, this guy's getting work and I think could be a starter.
05:09If they draft the running back, I want them to.
05:11That guy will start games and maybe get more carries than anyone else on the team this season.
05:16Like, Michelle Tootin, the kid from Virginia Tech that I really, really like, who ran the
05:20fastest combine 40-time, who's going to be on the show, by the way, midweek.
05:24Looking forward to talking to him this week on Grant and Danny.
05:26But, you know, Tootin, he might start here.
05:30Could start in week one.
05:31Like, I think he is every bit as good as Brian Robinson would be in this offense.
05:35And then you just change some roles around them a little bit.
05:38So, yeah, I'm going running back over wide receiver for Washington.
05:41Your answer is fine.
05:42And, look, it's probably debatable enough from a football philosophy standpoint.
05:48But I think for this team, with this construction right now, especially they're a run-first team
05:53with a quarterback who does everything out of read option, basically.
05:57Look at the Ravens going and getting Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, who almost went for 2,000 yards.
06:03Look at the Eagles going and getting Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, who did go for 2,000 yards.
06:08You don't want a home-run-hitting, scary-threaded running back next to Jaden Daniels.
06:14It would be way more helpful than a wide receiver.
06:16So, to me, and I don't hate the answer either.
06:19The thing that we might disagree on is I don't know if that guy's going to get the premium touches,
06:25this new running back.
06:26If I was penciled in for a mid-round dude, a third or fourth rounder, like you found Bucky Irving 2.0,
06:32for sake of argument, then he's got to get the football.
06:35Then he gets his 15 to 20 touches a game.
06:37They're going to get more touches than the wide receiver you're drafting.
06:39Well, they, yeah.
06:41By a lot.
06:41But I don't think it's that.
06:43I think there's still more fight for touches in that backfield.
06:46I think there's still more Brian Robinson than I want.
06:48I think there's still Austin Eckler, and he should get the ball some.
06:51I don't know that he's going to be the premium bell cow kind of guy like Barkley or Derrick Henry.
06:56Maybe you do find him, and you can't help but keep him off the field.
06:59Maybe not in year one.
06:59But in year one, the receiver that you're drafting, like we're talking about,
07:03would you rather them draft a burner, weapon, wideout, or running back?
07:07That's the question.
07:08The running back will be more involved in year one than the receiver will,
07:11almost certainly, because of the position.
07:14Closer to the position, right.
07:15Yeah.
07:15I mean, so to me, that shouldn't be a disqualifying concern to then answer receiver.
07:22You see what I'm saying?
07:23Yeah.
07:24Because if you're saying, I don't know if that guy's going to be as involved as you think.
07:27All right.
07:27Well, let's say he's not.
07:28He's still way more involved than the receivers.
07:30He's still getting 100 touches where there's no way that receiver does.
07:32That's obvious.
07:33Yeah.
07:33So point taken there.
07:34And he helps more because of that.
07:38Meaning just touching the ball more.
07:39Right.
07:40So there's more direct impact.
07:41I mean, to me, I'm talking about the value of the indirect impact,
07:44but I think that's either beholder.
07:47I think that speed in the backfield when they're not running the ball,
07:50with Jaden Daniels pulling and keeping.
07:52It helps too.
07:52It helps Jalen Hurts.
07:53It helps.
07:54I mean, it's not a coincidence.
07:55That's what the Eagles decided to do.
07:57They said, oh, my God, we got this guy.
07:58What if we had not a good running back like Rashad Penny,
08:01who's averaging five and a half, but gets hurt all the time
08:04and doesn't hold a candle to Saquon.
08:06But what if we had the running back?
08:07Yeah, the superstar.
08:08You know, what if the Ravens went from some very solid running backs
08:11over the years to a Hall of Famer next to Lamar Jackson?
08:14Well, guess what?
08:15Lamar has his best season.
08:16That guy runs for 2K.
08:17The offense is borderline unstoppable.
08:20Like, it goes together.
08:22It's meat and cheese on a sandwich.
08:25I think Jaden Daniels' presence makes the running back even more significant.
08:29I'm trying to follow the Eagles and Ravens' lead on this.
08:32I suppose you're cooking there.
08:34I mean, to me, it's still going to...
08:36I think the thing we're both looking for is ease.
08:40Speed.
08:40I'll answer that.
08:41Right.
08:42Well, and it comes from speed.
08:44Right.
08:44Whether it's a, you know, one pass for a possession for a touchdown
08:48or making...
08:49It just seemed like...
08:50You think about so many third downs, so many whatever's in long.
08:53Think about so many of those nitty-gritty gotta-have-it plays
08:56where it's like, by the skin of their teeth,
08:58because Daniels is working miracles.
08:59And my point with that is, not that Jaden Daniels isn't incredible
09:02and a godsend.
09:03He is all those things.
09:05I want to make it as easy as possible for him going forward,
09:08as the rest of the league is now going to punch back a little bit.
09:11More difficult schedule.
09:12Better defenses.
09:13You know, second-year adjustments.
09:15Defensive coordinators staying up late at night,
09:17figuring out what Kingsbury and Company does.
09:18I thought Deebo Samuel was the biggest first step towards that.
09:22The Glarmi Tunsil's kind of 1A,
09:23just being able to keep Daniels upright,
09:25you know, not having to run for his life as much.
09:27But, to me, that passing game was where I think of ease first,
09:30but it's a good point that having more effective first-down runs
09:33keeps you out of those second and 11s,
09:34which they seem to have constantly the entire second half of the year.
09:37I also think just the value of the running back position
09:40is climbing again, as you saw last year.
09:43But, like, here's a good comp.
09:45Amonra St. Brown or Jameer Gibbs?
09:48Who is a more important player for the Lions?
09:53For me, it's St. Brown.
09:54So, last year, Amonra St. Brown had 34 plays
09:59of 15 or more yards, number three in the NFL.
10:03Jameer Gibbs had 33 of those plays of 15 or plus yards.
10:07One fewer than Amonra St. Brown.
10:10Explosive plays are becoming the new turnover margin.
10:12I love this quote from Dave Canales,
10:14the head coach of the Carolina Panthers,
10:16was talking to ESPN at the league meetings this week.
10:19He said, quote,
10:19If you can have a plus three margin in explosives,
10:23over the years, we've learned that that almost equals the exact
10:27getting a ball from the opponent margin.
10:29It's really close in percentage in terms of leading to wins.
10:33Again, Jameer Gibbs, who this is just talking about 15 plusers.
10:37This is not all the other stuff,
10:38but 33 games of 15 plus compared to St. Brown's 34.
10:43Essentially, running back first receiver,
10:46the same number of chunks, explosives.
10:49You know, you got to worry about where Gibbs is lining up all over the place
10:52and moving.
10:53You know, B. John Robinson,
10:54now Gibbs was drafted 12th and everyone thought they were crazy.
10:57It was brilliant.
10:58B. John Robinson was drafted 8th.
11:00Everyone said they were maniacal.
11:02He went for 1450 and almost carried the Falcons at the playoffs last year.
11:06They had Cousins hurt and then benched.
11:08They had a rookie quarterback who, you know,
11:10had some good moments but made some mistakes down the stretch.
11:12Still almost made the playoffs.
11:13And I look at, you know, just the position in general.
11:17You know, in 1995, when I was seven years old,
11:20there were nine running backs that ran the ball 300 times.
11:24Nine.
11:25In 1995.
11:26In 2023, there was zero.
11:29Know how many there were last year?
11:31Five or six, I think.
11:32Six.
11:32Yeah.
11:33Six guys ran the ball 300 times,
11:35including Barkley 345 and Henry 325.
11:38The bell cow is kind of making this triumphant return.
11:41Trying.
11:41You know, we'll see.
11:42I think you got to be special to do it.
11:44And we can look more at the running back position
11:45because I got a bunch of other numbers
11:47I found in this ESPN piece that stood out to me.
11:50But, yeah, running back to me,
11:52it's also a way bigger need than the team seems to want it,
11:57make it out to be.
11:58Or even then.
11:59Are you nervous about that?
11:59Because I am.
12:00Eh.
12:01I mean, not really.
12:03Because I think they're passable.
12:05Like, it's not a bad position.
12:06It's just a way bigger need from the standpoint of,
12:08do you want to be scary?
12:13You know, do you want to be lethal?
12:14Do you want to be able to do the thing we're talking about,
12:17which is the four-play drive for 87 yards?
12:20Or do you want to go on a 13-play drive
12:23and count on Jaden Daniels to get a bunch of fourth and ones again?
12:26One of my biggest concerns going into this season
12:28is this idea that, like,
12:31oh, look how often they went on long drives and scored.
12:34They had to have a historically brilliant year on fourth down
12:36that normally is not replicable.
12:38Yeah, if you're at 70%, which is excellent,
12:41you lose five of those games.
12:43They went 23 of 26, if you remember,
12:45to start the year on fourth down.
12:4723 of 26.
12:48I mean, that is an 88% clip.
12:50Just by being really good on third down,
12:53you could go, like, 16 of 26.
12:55That's seven drives that died.
12:57And you're still 61%, still among the best in the league.
13:00Right.
13:01So I'm just not relying upon...
13:03This magical, incredible thing that happened.
13:06Yeah, that to happen again.
13:07When I say, are you nervous about it?
13:09My fear is that this front office,
13:13who's really smart and they're really good,
13:14we're just talking football now,
13:16looks at both those position groups that we're talking about
13:18saying, we're good there.
13:20I think we did our move with Debo Samuel.
13:23And we got Noel Brown back,
13:25and Luke McCaffrey's going to get a chance to blossom.
13:27And with the running back room, we like our guys.
13:29And the running game is now solved
13:31because we've upgraded our offensive line a little bit.
13:33Kicking Coleman to the opposite side,
13:35adding Tunsell.
13:36He's not known as a dominant run blocker,
13:38but he's still, you would say,
13:39better than your average bear.
13:41I worry that they feel solved there.
13:44And there's a little bit too much, in my mind,
13:46reliance on the Daniels magic thing.
13:48And again, he is magic.
13:49He is incredible,
13:50but I just don't think that's right or fair to do that yet.
13:53When he's making 80 million bucks in a handful of seasons,
13:55when he signs his mega extension,
13:57which I signed him to right now, by the way.
13:59Yeah.
14:00You can start to expect those things.
14:01We've got to make the McNichols of the world better.
14:04Yeah.
14:04I mean, I guess I'm not nervous, but like, or bothered.
14:07What I would say though, is so far,
14:09my perception is that Peters prefers size to where I prefer speed.
14:16You know, Peters, and I don't just mean running back,
14:20although it's certainly been obvious there in some ways,
14:22but they did go get Austin Eckler, who's not a big guy.
14:25It's more shifty.
14:26He's not particularly fast,
14:27but like if they go into another season with Brian Robinson,
14:30just as an example,
14:31as they're starting running back in a bell cow,
14:34well, that tells me everything I need to know.
14:36They just watched him for a year.
14:38They didn't inherit him.
14:38They had an off season to kind of make a decision and they opted into more
14:43of that.
14:44Brian Robinson's fine.
14:46He's not a bad player at all.
14:48He should absolutely get carries on a good first,
14:51but he is not ever going to hit the ball over the fence.
14:56Like he is going to hit some doubles,
15:01but it's a lot of base hits.
15:03You know,
15:03he is trying to leg out some,
15:05some knocks in the five high full.
15:08And it just means that we see it differently in terms of like what they
15:11prefer in their backs.
15:13And they got an idea.
15:14They got a plan.
15:15They got a vision.
15:15That's cool.
15:17I would have three Ecklers before I had three B robs though.
15:21And,
15:21and Eckler is not even really what I'm talking about.
15:23He's just shifty.
15:24And so he makes it work in the open field.
15:26But what I want is a,
15:27you know,
15:27four to nine or,
15:28you know,
15:29four,
15:29you know,
15:30three,
15:31six.
15:31So,
15:31you know what I want a,
15:32a speedy Gonzalez,
15:33just one of the fastest backs in the league who you can get the ball in
15:38space and them touching it with no one around them means they just gained
15:4227 yards.
15:44I understand.
15:44It's really,
15:45really hard to find Jameer Gibbs.
15:46I'm not pretending like I would just take over and touch a button and do
15:49that.
15:50It doesn't work that way,
15:51but you got to want to do it.
15:53And I'm going to find out during this draft if they want to do that.
15:56Yeah.
15:56And my fear is that they don't.
15:58And that's the only,
15:59that's kind of the,
15:59and again,
15:59it hasn't happened yet,
16:00but,
16:01and we're talking about relative fears.
16:02I'm not panicking or saying every all is lost now because they don't see
16:06things maybe the way that I do,
16:07but that's what I'm looking for.
16:09I want speed at one of those spots.
16:10Like if I can pick one,
16:11it's receiver,
16:12but if you come up with a speed running back that they take and say round
16:16four,
16:16fine by me,
16:18as long as that guy's going to get the looks and it's not just going to be,
16:20you know,
16:21he's,
16:22he's down every third game and isn't really getting touches and carries and
16:25things because they like this battering ram style better.
16:28Great.
16:28And Danny,
16:29the poll of the day presented by metropolitan moving and storage,
16:31local long distance residential commercial three decades of best in class
16:35service and experience.
16:37Again,
16:37you're voting one of six,
16:38seven,
16:39the fans Twitter account early on first batch of votes in here.
16:44It looks like 80% of people,
16:4681% are saying running back 19% are saying wide receiver.
16:50The question being where would you rather the speedy weapon be added in the
16:53draft?
16:54If Washington's going to grab one early.
16:56The question being where would you rather be?
16:57The question being where would you rather be?
16:58The question being where would you rather be?
16:59The question being where would you rather be?
17:00The question being where would you rather be?
17:01The question being where would you rather be?
17:02The question being where would you rather be?
17:03The question being where would you rather be?
17:04The question being where would you rather be?
17:05The question being where would you rather be?
17:06The question being where would you rather be?
17:07The question being where would you rather be?
17:08The question being where would you rather be?
17:09The question being where would you rather be?
17:10The question being where would you rather be?
17:11The question being where would you rather be?
17:12The question being where would you rather be?
17:13The question being where would you rather be?