00:00This will be brief, but I just wanted to talk to him about the camp he's having
00:03and bringing Diggs into the room.
00:05This is what he had to say about what he's put on tape.
00:07I feel good. It's been a lot of fun.
00:09Yeah, training camp's always fun to kind of refine the fundamentals,
00:11master the offense, and then compete.
00:13In the David Blau offense, how much changes in terms of not only your role and usage,
00:18but just kind of being receiver-friendly here and how that affects you?
00:22Yeah, I think a lot of it changes.
00:23I think I've had a lot of fun learning it, a lot of fun now competing with it,
00:26mastering it, and we've got a great room with a lot of guys
00:29who can do a lot of good things, so we're having fun out here.
00:31Big story today, obviously, is Stephon Diggs joining the room.
00:34What's that like to compete with a guy with his resume?
00:37It's awesome. I mean, I've watched so much of his tape,
00:39so now to be able to see it in person, see it firsthand,
00:41and then learn from him and have another weapon in the room is awesome.
00:45A lot of people feel like maybe for you, you're having a good camp.
00:48It's not ideal because there's another receiver here.
00:50Do you view it that way, or how are you looking at this?
00:52I mean, I think every player wants to be on the best possible team,
00:55so anytime you can add a weapon, it's good.
00:58And so I think our room has a lot of guys who can do a lot of good things.
01:01Adding another one is only going to help the team.
01:05Luke McCaffrey after practice today.
01:08A lot has been made about this Diggs move and how it's going to hurt McCaffrey,
01:15Williams, Lane, some of the other younger guys on the team,
01:18and I think in the grand scheme of things it does.
01:20There is an added value and a benefit, though, to getting a guy who, by all accounts,
01:24is a pretty good teammate into the room to show them the ropes,
01:26especially Antonio Williams, who's a very similar skill set, redundant,
01:30kind of a twitchy guy, Danny.
01:31Having Diggs around him, and Diggs talked today about wanting to help mentor him,
01:35can actually be a really good thing.
01:37For this season, are they all going to perform less?
01:40Are you less likely to make the roster?
01:41Sure.
01:42But the football team is better, and you've got to look at,
01:45if you're Antonio Williams, the silver lining of,
01:47let me just be in his pocket and learn everything I can.
01:49Well, the context matters to me more than anything else.
01:51So, in a Case Keenum year, a Carson Wentz year, a Taylor Heineke year,
01:56I'd be screaming from the heavens about a team that's not going anywhere,
02:00and they're not playing their third-round pick,
02:02or they're not playing some of the younger pieces.
02:03You have an ascending superstar quarterback.
02:06That's what matters.
02:07So, it trumps anything else in terms of priorities.
02:10I would love a world where every young kid gets a chance,
02:13and maybe they turn into something.
02:16You kind of don't have time for that with a star quarterback on his rookie deal.
02:20So, to me, that sort of takes a back seat in terms of precedence.
02:23And you have to look at it the way you just referenced as well,
02:25which is, yeah, the best thing for Antonio Williams,
02:28the best thing for some of these young guys would be to play.
02:31The second best thing is to play some,
02:33but you get some of that mentorship kind of angle that you're talking about
02:36and help them come along a little bit slower.
02:38It's a really hard needle to thread.
02:40It is.
02:41The Caps have done it very well.
02:42In fact, when we had Spencer Carberry on the show this offseason,
02:45I was kind of pumping his tires and complimenting them.
02:48I don't remember a team that's done a better job essentially rebuilding on the fly,
02:52taking some of the playtime away from the kids,
02:55giving them tiny little bits to chew on,
02:57but also you've got the veterans that you're trying to placate and appeal to
03:01and appease as well.
03:03Dad, grab cut 14 from Dan Quinn.
03:05He was actually asked today in his presser about playtime for the younger guys,
03:10how digs coming in is going to potentially negatively affect them,
03:13and also just the competition.
03:15I don't want to say Dan Quinn went full, I'm not really concerned about that.
03:19This is the big boys league.
03:21Someone's going to get cut, and we're going to have to see who the best players are.
03:25But I do think that Dan Quinn essentially is like, yeah, you're right.
03:31This is going to be harder now for them.
03:34And that was kind of how I took it.
03:36Let's play the cut from Dan Quinn today.
03:38Yeah, so we'll work through that over the next month, Ben.
03:42And he won't exclusively play just the slot.
03:46But that does bring up the question of how we'd feature guys, two receivers, three receivers,
03:51who'd play in, what down and distances.
03:53So we'll work through that.
03:54That's why it is nice to have him here today and begin that process together.
03:59But it's also kind of like ramping up our competition in a group that I like, who they stand for.
04:04Like, you know, I like what that feels like, you know, to see where it plays out, so to speak.
04:09So as the competitor coach in me, like, it's good.
04:13And so those are good things that you want to figure out.
04:17We've talked about this, Danny, and I do believe, like,
04:20this is bad for the Antonio Williams business in the short term, for sure.
04:24And, you know, maybe the point is who cares a little bit, right?
04:27I mean, the goal this year, you've got to win football games.
04:29Jaden Daniels has to thrive.
04:31This offense has to excel.
04:32And Dan Quinn's trying to save his job.
04:34So I'm sorry, Antonio Williams.
04:37If you've got to wait until next year to really get a true shot, then that's how this has to
04:40be.
04:41That's my view.
04:41It's tough all over.
04:42It's hard up here to borrow from so many different people that have said as such.
04:47Didn't we have a producer in A.J. Ataye who used to say that?
04:50No, he said it's hard out here.
04:51But he normally would talk like this.
04:53But then when he said that, he said, it's hard at you.
04:56And I'm like, are you?
04:58Yeah, why did he say that again?
04:59It was really embarrassing.
05:00It was super embarrassing.
05:01Was he talking to Fred Smoot?
05:02That's what I remember.
05:03I remember Fred Smoot was in studio with us or something.
05:07And A.J. was talking about either going out or whatever he had been doing.
05:11And he just said to Fred Smoot in this voice that he's never used before.
05:14He's like, yeah, man, it's hard out here.
05:17And we're like, we just both looked at him like, what in the hell was that?
05:20That was really, that was hard to listen to, buddy.
05:23That was not good.
05:24I was still loving this, but man, that was, I still think about that sometimes and I get
05:28a little shake.
05:29Still my guy though.
05:30I still love that dude.
05:31But man, that was tough.
05:31But the point of the dude story is the, again, I sacrifice all things at the altar of, of
05:38the quarterback, right?
05:39I don't do that when I've got a journeyman Jag that's on his third team in three years.
05:43It's just a fill in Freddie or, you know, you're not going anywhere.
05:46You're on the hamster wheel.
05:47That's not the point of having a superstar in Jaden Daniels.
05:50If it means my third round pick has a tougher time acclimating.
05:53So what we're on a limited window shot clock here to make sure we maximize and protect
05:58the QB.
05:59Cause that's, that's where we're going.
06:00If he's great, this whole operation's great and no one will care if they win 12 games
06:05that Antonio Williams didn't get as many looks as he should have.
06:09No one will care at all.
06:10I care when they're six and 10 and playing, uh, you know, uh, 37 year old journeyman that
06:16drives me crazy.
06:17That's not the goal for this year.
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