- 20 hours ago
The Washington Commanders are in the middle of preseason and early hints from Dan Quinn point towards the starters not getting much or any playing time before week 1, specifically Jayden Daniels. Kevin Sheehan gives his thoughts on if he agrees with Dan Quinn's approach on not playing starters in the preseason despite fielding a new offensive and defensive scheme.
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00:00what Quinn said a little while ago. Why don't you play it again, Max, for those that are just
00:07tuning in? He was asked about Jaden playing in these preseason games. Here's what he said.
00:12You've seen with Jaden Daniels. Would you be comfortable if he plays zero preseason snaps?
00:17Yes, I'd be comfortable with him and other veterans that have played to go. But yeah,
00:22we haven't decided in terms of will we or won't we. We had a joint last week. He got a
00:27lot of
00:27reps. He'll get a lot today and tomorrow going against our defense. So I'll have a better sense
00:32for where everybody is before we make any of those decisions. But
00:36he's thrown like an incredible training camp, his accuracy, his command
00:40of it, a new system. You wouldn't feel like that for him.
00:44But I've been certainly impressed by what I've seen so far by him.
00:49So, I mean, I think it sounds like he's not going to play. He's
00:53said immediately he would be comfortable with him and other veterans.
00:57Not playing. I mean, Jaden is a veteran, but really, he's got one season under his belt
01:03as a rookie season. He barely played last year. I understand the fear. I understand the risk.
01:11But so do other teams. And they're trying to get their starting quarterback and their starting
01:17offenses and defenses into a little bit of rhythm. Look, this is one of those things that
01:24I, we, when we talk about these things, we're probably in over
01:29our skis. With that said, if they come out and
01:34lay an egg against Philadelphia on September 13th and they get
01:39pummeled by the Eagles and none of their starters played in the
01:43preseason, we're going to point back to it.
01:48You know, they didn't have a great first game in Tampa
01:51two years ago, but to be fair, I mean, it was his first game.
01:56They played well enough. Openers are weird, but they didn't play well in week two at Green
02:01Bay on a short turnaround. I mean, they don't have that short turnaround this year.
02:08Maybe playing a little bit more would have helped with the short turnaround going into
02:12Green Bay after the opener last year. You don't have that this year.
02:14Um, but it does open him up to criticism. If they look like they're not ready to play in the
02:23opener
02:23and you know what they would probably say is playing a series or two wouldn't have made a
02:30difference. And that's probably true. It would have made a difference in the reaction and they
02:37shouldn't really care about the reaction. At the same time, if he were to play the starters and a
02:43big time starter went down, God forbid, it was Jaden in one of these preseason games, he'd be
02:51massively open to criticism from the other side that said, what are you doing? But it wouldn't be
02:59unique to play the starting quarterback. You know, the Sean McVay, um, trend of basically not playing
03:06any starters in the preseason. It's easier for him because of the track record.
03:13Like they've won a Superbowl. They've been a great team. He also has a 38 year old starting
03:21quarterback in Matt Stafford who really doesn't need preseason work. I personally would love to see
03:30with, you know, uniforms on against an opponent in a stadium with fans, with a scoreboard,
03:40with a clock, with a play clock. I'd love to see two series. And by the way, if you're going
03:47to do
03:47it, I don't just want to see the ball getting hand handed off three times to keep him safe.
03:52Let him, let him throw it around a little bit. Let him get into rhythm, throwing the football around
03:57a little bit. You can do some quick game stuff.
04:03301-230-0980. 301-230-0980. Are you okay if Jaden Daniels doesn't play at all in the preseason?
04:15By the way, it goes beyond Jaden Daniels for me. I think all of these starters with two new
04:21coordinators, it just seems like they could benefit from playing. It seems like at the very
04:27least, the downside is nothing. Well, the downside is not nothing. The downside, of course, is risk of
04:33injury. But they could get injured in the first quarter of the season opener. I would like to see
04:40the starters play against the Lions personally. What do you think? 301-230-0980. 301-230-0980.
04:48It certainly sounds like if he continues to practice well this week in these two padded practices
04:54today and tomorrow, that he and probably many of the other starters are not going to play against
05:01Detroit on Saturday. That game, by the way, is a 12 noon kick on Saturday, if you didn't know.
05:08All right. Question, not about Sam Hartman. Are you okay if Jaden Daniels, and I'll just say the starters,
05:16both sides of the ball, are you okay if they don't play in the preseason? I don't love it.
05:21I wish they would play football because it's been a long time and you got a lot of new players
05:26and
05:26you got two new coordinators. How about just getting, you know, are they going to be okay
05:31with Alec Reddy and Jaden in the first time they're snapping, you know, under center or shotgun,
05:38doesn't matter. In a game being the Philadelphia game, I don't know. Max, what do you think?
05:45Do you want Jaden to play? You want the starters to play? Yes or no?
05:48Yeah, absolutely. I mean, especially like with the installation of a new offense, I selfishly,
05:54I want to see what it kind of looks like. I know dip blouse.
05:56We won't see what it looks like. We're not going to show anything, but I also want to see Jaden
06:01out
06:01there just looking the part and going back to what he was in 24, at least just looking good.
06:09That's all I want to see, but I understand the other side of it with how last year went injury
06:16wise and especially with Marcus getting hurt in the first preseason game. You don't want anything
06:20bad to happen to Jaden. So I get the protecting element of it, but at the same time, I, you
06:27got
06:27to get some game reps on the field, at least in my eyes, you know, so last year, if you
06:34recall,
06:35um, Jaden Daniels played one series against Cincinnati. That series was a four play 74 yard touchdown
06:45drive. Ran it in himself. He, he, there was a reverse to Debo for 19 yards. Uh, Chris Rodriguez
06:53ripped off a 40 yard run. Uh, then Rodriguez went for one yard and then Jaden on a drop back
07:01on second
07:01nine scrambled and ran for a touchdown. And remember Cincinnati's defenders basically could
07:08have hit him and chose not to in the end zone. And they weren't thrilled that he took off and
07:14ran
07:15in that spot in traffic up the middle of the field, not towards the sideline, not sliding.
07:21Maybe they just don't trust him in a preseason game. You know, seriously, it could come down to
07:27that. The more that I think about it, it's like, you know, we'd like to get a series or two,
07:33but when
07:35he's out there, he's competing at a level that we're concerned with considering the circumstance
07:41I've said with respect to Jaden, the number one, I think thing you've got to see in terms of growth
07:48is he can't treat first and 10 in the first quarter, like it's fourth and five down six
07:56in the fourth quarter. You know, you can't take on a defense in a preseason game on a 14 yard
08:04touchdown
08:04run. All right, let's start with Stan in Sterling. Stan, go ahead.
08:10Yeah. Thanks, Kevin. Just to expound on it. So I believe that they should definitely play their
08:17starters at least a series or two. You know, you have two new coaches basically on the offense
08:23and defensive side. So, you know, if we still had Kingsbury and Witt, you know, and we're in a third
08:29year of a system, I could see why they wouldn't play familiarity. You know, they don't really need the
08:33reps. It's familiar, but since you have two new coaches, you know, you got to get some reps that
08:37I think at least play a series, in my opinion, you know, you don't want to, you know, not do
08:42that and
08:42then look rusty to start out in the opener. So especially with some tough opponents coming up,
08:48you need some of the reps in practice. So. Yeah. You know, by the way, in looking up last preseason,
08:55what I discovered is, yes, he played, but he did not throw one pass because he only was in there
09:01for four snaps against Cincinnati. He didn't play the first preseason game against New England
09:06and he didn't play the last preseason game against Baltimore. And maybe they're like, well, what's the
09:10point if we're going to put him in for one series and, you know, and we'd be concerned that under
09:17pressure he might take off. And maybe they're concerned about pressure in particular without
09:23game planning for the pressure. Maybe that's part of it too. You know, they don't game plan.
09:28They're not scheming up protections. They could if they wanted to, but because you're not game
09:35planning and you're not planning on helping Brandon Coleman or helping, you know, against, uh, you
09:41know, an Aiden Hutchinson, if he plays, I don't know if he is or isn't for Detroit. Maybe they're
09:45like, yeah, we just, we, you know, the two padded practices and the, uh, Ravens, you know, uh,
09:52joint practice with yellow jerseys on is fine for us. Uh, thank you, Stan. Let's go
09:58to Mark in Glen Echo, mild stomping grounds. You're certainly near mild stomping grounds.
10:03Mark, go ahead.
10:05I agree with you, Kevin. I think he should play. Um, and I, you just said something about
10:11and that kind of triggered me a little bit, not far negatively, but just, you know, far
10:16as Jaden with these competitive juices. I mean, if that's, that's the only comparison that
10:22I would have with him at RG three, do Dan Quinn trust him enough to, to stay within, you
10:28know, himself and, and not just, you know, you know how these athletes are, they get
10:33competitive and they might do a little something, tweak something, but injuries are part of the
10:37game. Uh, I would love to say on play, but if he's meant to be locked in and they think
10:42he's mentally locked in based on these next two practices, padded practices, then, uh,
10:47Hey, I got to roll with it. I'll, I'll give them a pass, but I'll be watching. Yeah. Look,
10:51I mean, we are, we're, we're, we're stretching beyond our capabilities here, um, and trying
10:57to give them direction on playing players in the preseason where we're not stretching is
11:02understanding what the reaction will be if they don't play them in the preseason and then
11:08they go out and play poorly in the opener. They shouldn't care about that at all. Shouldn't
11:14bother them at all. I'm just saying that there will be a lot of criticism from many
11:20corners. If nobody plays in the preseason and they don't appear ready to start the regular
11:26season. Uh, let's go to Peter in Wilmington. Peter, go ahead.
11:32Good morning, Kevin. Listen, I'm not happy about the quarterback situation. The backup quarterback
11:37situation. Marietta didn't play that well last year. Sam played okay. Good. Yeah. He played
11:44okay. But what I'm saying, he's hurt. If I want him to play, be nice. If he, if Jane gets
11:50hurt in this game and for any game in the beginning of the year, and we have no backup quarterback
11:57other than Mariota, which I really don't trust him. If they lose seven games in a road, Dan
12:03Quinn will be on his way out mid season because the fans will go crazy. This is a bad situation
12:10that they got themselves in. They really don't have, they have a backup, but he's hurt and
12:15he didn't play that well. In my opinion, last year, Marcus Mariota is a, is, is a top. We
12:22looked this up. I mean, I thought he would be top five, but he was like 11th or 12th. Marcus
12:26Mariota is a solid veteran NFL quarterback who plays similarly to the starter. And look,
12:34he wasn't great last year, but he gave them a chance in a lot of games. He absolutely gave
12:41them a chance in a lot of games last year. How many games did he win last year? Well,
12:47that's, that's beside the point, isn't it? Um, he didn't have like Jaden, when Jaden played
12:52a few games, there wasn't a whole hell of a lot around him, but you know, he played,
12:56he played well in that Denver game. He was excellent in that Denver game that they almost
13:00pulled off a big upset. He played well. There were a couple of games. He was okay. And what'd
13:06you say? That was a one good game, but I'm telling you, this is a, this is a disaster waiting
13:13to happen. If they don't straighten this out, because they have no real backup now only with
13:18Mariota and he's hurt. And how, how long is he going to be around it? Well, they say
13:22he's apparently going to be ready to, to back up Jaden in the opener. So we'll see. Thanks
13:29Kevin. Great show. Yeah. Thanks Peter. All right. Mark in Largo, Mark in Largo has the stage
13:35that he so desires on a twice or three times a week basis. Go ahead. Oh boy. Here we go
13:44with this crap. Uh, he, I think he should play, but I can understand why Dan doesn't want
13:50him to play. And I, I don't think it's more about Jaden. I think it's more about Alec
13:56Reddy. And what I don't understand, Kevin is why we haven't gone out and got a center.
14:03Um, because there aren't any right now to go out and get, well, you can't get the, I know
14:08there's a guy who's available that one of somebody in the front office used to play
14:12with, uh, some, uh, some, uh, see who's the summer. I forgot it. He played with the
14:18lion, play with the lion, not Decker, not Decker. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I thought you were
14:24talking about Decker. Cause he's not too. It's another guy that plays with, uh, that
14:28plays center who's available. He played with the lions last year. Um, and I know
14:34he's six. Yeah. Graham Glasgow, Graham Glasgow. I don't know anything about him.
14:40Yeah. But you got to get depth and see, I think what Dan is concerned is not so much
14:47about Jaden. Well, you could say Jaden, it's the center position. And here's the other thing.
14:52I think the first, the first series last week, that offensive line got beat up again. And I
15:00don't, is there anyone else that could play left guard outside of Chris Paul? I saw a rating
15:05of him last, uh, yesterday, which was not good. A rating for what? A preseason game
15:11for a series? No, no, no. I'm talking about last year. He was like, he had some good games
15:17offensive line in 25 than we did in 24. It's truly amazing when Brandon Coleman didn't play
15:23and I'm not talking about learning. But I mean, the coaching staff made a big tip of replacing
15:30Coleman with Paul, which turned out actually not to be a good idea. Uh, that's, that's
15:36debatable. Um, I, I, I know that some advanced numbers didn't necessarily evaluate Chris Paul
15:43that well, but there were plenty of people that thought that he was a road grader at times
15:48in the run game and was better than Coleman was early in the season. I mean, they obviously
15:54felt like when Coleman got injured that they, he never, uh, that Paul was, was more than good
16:00enough. At the same time, they were willing to let Paul go into free agency, uh, before
16:05realizing he didn't get a deal and they brought him back and now he's got to start because
16:09Coleman's got to start for tons.
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