Commanders training camp starts

In this episode, I discuss the start of Commanders training camp, the overall vibe, comparisons to last year, and my general feelings about how the roster was constructed, as well as how Jayden is the offense's only true weapon. I also discuss the national sports media's grades for the Wizards' offseason and my overall thoughts on it. Lastly, I discuss the Nats, their pitching, and my hopes for some extensions. 

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Overreacting Since Kickoff Podcast, your place for DMV sports conversations and discussions about all things DMV sports. In today's episode, I'm going to discuss the beginnings of Commanders Training Camp, Wizards News, and the Nats bullpen blowing game. The first thing I want to talk about is the beginning of training camp for the Commanders. I know this is a big day for everybody. Football season's back in tow. Everybody's happy in the DC area. It's our favorite sport. And I think we're going to see a little bit different training camp than last year. I think there was a lot of lessons that were learned from last year in terms of the softness of training camp. At least that's what you heard from all the reporters that the training camp last year they didn't really do anything in terms of toughness for the players. It was more just sort of like it was more player friendly. And it was player-friendly because they were so successful the previous years. Year, not years. And I think that played a huge role in how flat they came out at the beginning of the season. Now it didn't help that Terry McLaurin basically sat out because of a contract dispute. And that sort of set the tone for the entire season last year, where just everything was just off, and that sort of spiraled into all the injuries. And I think there was a big admission to that when we saw the changes that they made, at least on the defensive side, they got rid of the defensive coordinator, hired a new defensive coordinator, of course, and they really spent a lot of money on the defensive side of the football. Now they didn't spend money on the offensive side of the football. However, I think with Terry McLaurin back as a full training camp participant, and as a lot of the reporters have noted, that he's happy Terry. He's chatting with the press. He's working with the receivers. And I think that's very important. I think a lot of what we missed from last year's training camp, especially from the defensive players, is that when they were going up against the offensive players, they weren't going against competition. So their practices, it didn't matter. Like there was no wide receivers that were really going to cause them any problems. There was no real tight ends that were going to cause, you know, it was very easy for the defense to think have this fake assumption that they were actually doing well because they were really beating up on subpar and borderline NFL players. Whereas this year, at least you do have Terry McLaurin running around. And so that's going to push everybody down, meaning the number one is now facing a number one and then the number two and so forth. Whereas last year, it doesn't matter what quarter cornerback you had, the number one cornerback was facing a number four wide receiver. And it didn't matter how subpar, like say Mikey Sanders still was, or Trey Amos is a rookie, it made him better because you're not going against qua I don't want to say quality, but you were going against a number one. You're going against a number four wide receiver. And I think this year, with the health so far, and we'll talk about Trey Leon Burks in a second, you definitely are going to see a change, at least in the competition. And you saw some reports out that at least the defense seems to be ahead of the offense. I'm not going to take as, oh no, the offense is in trouble. I'm going to take that as a good sign that the defense is better. It's better coached and it has better players, more quality players than we saw last year. And I think that's really important when you're facing quality opponents in the practice field. Because then when you go up against NFL talent, at least you have some sort of baseline that you can rely upon. The offense, it's the offense is 100% on Jaden Daniels' play. If Jaden Daniels plays more like 2024, the offense is going to be very good. If he plays like 2025, which means he's either injured or just mediocrity sneaks up, they're not going to be very well on offense. They don't have the offensive firepower. Terry McLaurin is not a number one wide receiver. He's just not. You know, Trelian Burks on paper is a number one wide receiver, but he's always injured. And so it's really a Jaden Daniel or bust. The tight end room, I kind of think the tight end room's a little bit better than it was last year. I know Zach Ertz was a great tight end, but he's not a yards after catch guy. And I think that was a big problem. They didn't have anybody who could do yards after catch. And I think that's the big thing with this team. They need to be able to have yards after the catch. I know that's some of the things that you were hearing if you're listening to some of the interviews and some of the questions, that yards after the catch has come up a lot. I think that's really important because they do not have a wide receiver who can run down the field consistently and catch these deep bombs. They're going to have to work at it to get large chunks of plays, which is fine. You don't need to have a massive wide receiver to get 60, 70 yards in a bomb. You can be very successful not doing that as long as yards after the catch. And I think that's part of the reason they went with Chig Oconquo for the tight end because that's that's sort of his bread and butter. He's not going to be able to break away from coverage, but he can bulldoze his way if he catches the ball. And that's what the offense is. And I think that's another thing with their running back room with getting uh Rashad White. He's not a running back anymore. He never really was a good running back, but he can catch the ball and he can move in space. And that's going to help a lot. And Bill, you know, he seems bigger. He seems uh, you know, put on some weight. We'll see, put on some muscle. We'll see if he'll be able to do anything. But I don't think they're counting on a number one running back. I think this is going to be a big running back by committee with everybody being given a shot with Rashad White. He's probably going to get some carries. You need to give him some carries. Because if you don't give him some carries, it's going to be pretty obviously obvious when he's on the field. Oh, it's a pass. And you're going to see that with Bill. You're going to see that with Jerome Ford. You're also going to see that with Keatron Allen. I think it's just going to be a big running back by committee, which is terrible for fantasy football owners, but probably good for the Washington Commanders offense. I think for an NFL offense, I think unless you have a Bijan Robinson or Saquon Barkley, running back by committee is probably your best way forward. It allows you to mix things up a little bit more than one bruising running back. And I think that's what they're going for in the running back room and the offensive side. But as I keep circling back, and it's Jaden Daniels or nothing. If he does not play like the 2024 Jaden Daniels, they're not going anywhere. It doesn't the defense is going to be light years ahead of what the defense was last year. But it's Jaden Daniels or nothing. And I don't understand. I just don't understand that in terms of you see that with all the other big name quarterbacks. Like one of the biggest complaints that you heard from Aaron Rodgers is they never gave him a big wide receiver consistently. You know, uh Pat Mahomes, same problem, didn't really have this big time wide receiver. Uh Josh Allen, they never do. I don't understand why you, when you have this big quarterback, you don't pair them with great wide receivers. I I just I just don't understand that mentality. There are wide receivers out there. I know you can make the argument that this offseason there really wasn't any big-time wide receivers unless they were to make a trade, but the Eagles weren't trading AJ Brown to the Commanders. That that's trade will never have happened. And the same thing with Dallas' wide receivers, you weren't gonna get, even if they threw everything for George Pickens, that that wasn't happening. So I know there wasn't any big-time wide receivers out there, but I don't know. It just seems like we're going to be a little too dependent on Jaden Daniels to be successful. But you know, he's proven that he can do it. So I'm trying to have a little bit of hope that he can reclaim some of his rookie season, especially with the wide receiver room they have, is better than last year. I mean, you do have Treyleon Burks, who could be a big-time wide receiver if he stays healthy. You have Terry McLaurin, who's the he's the vet. He's really good at what he does, and he's happy, and he's there. He's coaching up some of the players, which is good. I don't know about Antonio Williams. I don't know the rookie wide receiver, more like a slot guy, which I know we sort of talk, oh, he's just a slot wide receiver. That's a very important position in any offense. Like, that is incredibly important to have a wide receiver in the slot that can go right down the field as well as go through the middle of the field. So I'm not going to disparage a slot receiver. I think that is important for an offense. And I think that's the way the offense is going to be built because they don't have a big-time wide receiver, at least a large, tall wide receiver that they can trust. He can't trust Treleon Barks. I don't care how many videos I see of him making great catches. He cannot stay healthy. It's just the luck of the draw, and he just can't stay healthy. Uh so I just I think I'm more hopeful than I was last year. I think I sort of had this fake confidence last year that the team was going to be good, and I was trying to ignore when some of the reporters were saying the vibes were off. Some of the reporters were talking about how it just seemed discombobulated the whole offense and defense during training camp. I wanted to ignore that because they were just so good the uh previous year that how could they possibly? And we definitely saw that at from the jump. This everything was just off with them. And I think I hope they're getting back to what they were in 2024. I still have grave concerns about Dan Quinn. I just don't think he's he's not the head coach that you look at and you're like, that's the guy I'm gonna run through a wall for. I he's just not. There's just, I don't know, I kind of get Mike Smith vibes from him. And if you don't know who Mike Smith was, he was the former uh Atlanta Falcons coach, and he just there was like nothing, there was no enthusiasm or anything. I remember watching hard knocks with the Atlanta Falcons, and he was talking to his team trying to pep them up, and it was just like, go get him, guys. And there was like no energy with him. And it just kind of just everything just felt flat with him, and that's what I get with Dan Quinn. Like, I just I don't know. It's just something about him, he just he screams mediocrity when I listen to him. And I I don't know, I think he might be holding the team back now. Maybe he's learned that lesson and he won't be in control as much, and he'll make some of the decisions, like go for it or not, and so we won't have to worry about it, but I definitely think he's on the hot seat. If they don't come out guns ablazing, if they have a mediocre season, like if they win nine games and miss the playoffs, or actually, I honestly I think if they miss the playoffs, I don't know, he's gone. I I don't I don't see him staying after this year unless unless they rebound to what they were in Jaden's rookie year. I just think he's gone. I do. I I think he's gone. And and honestly, if if the offense is pretty good, but the defense faltered, I you could see David Blau getting the head coaching job. They're grooming him for a head coaching position. And I think we don't want to lose all of these coordinators that the commander/slash Redskins had that have become successful coaches. So I think Dan Quinn is gonna get pushed if they're not like they were in 2024. And honestly, I I could see David Blau just jumping up and becoming the head coach. I I really do. And I think that's I think the writing's on the wall for this. So but that being said, I'm still pretty hopeful with them. I I just I I know it's been two days for training camp and you can't really make any judgments on it, but I definitely think that the lessons were learned from last year. I definitely think that it's going to be a much tougher training camp. And I think with the better coaches that they have, at least on offense and defensive side, I definitely think you're going to see improvements, especially since the quality of the offense is higher this year than it was last year. And I think I think that's going to serve the defense very well. I I know we saw some, if you were watching some of the highlights from uh training camp the last few days, the defense has been playing pretty well. They're getting pass breakups, interceptions, so they're much more aggressive. If you listen to some of the answers that the players are giving, there's like this underlying theme that I at least I'm picking up. I don't know if they're trying to put that down, but I'm getting coaching is better. We are being put in spots that we can be successful compared to last year. And I think that's going to be a huge thing, obviously, if you have if the coaching is going to be better. It is a shame that uh Nick Allegritti uh went down for an injury. I hope it's minor. But that was the other problem that the commanders had last year, and this is why I'm really down on Adam Peters and the coaching staff, at least Dan Quinn now. They sort of got rid of the other two guys that were problems. Is they had nobody prepared to step up when get when they got called into action. And so that's that's one of two things, or three, one of three things. One, Adam Peters did a terrible job picking backup players. Backup players are important. That is the bulk of your roster is going to be your backup players, and nobody stepped up. So is that Adam Peters just doing a terrible job at talent acquisition? Or was it the coaching was a problem that they did not get their players prepared for when they needed to step in and take over? Or of course it could have been a combination of both. So this is going to be really telling. Are the backups NFL quality? Because they were not NFL quality last year. Absolutely not. And maybe it was coaching. I'm really hoping it was coaching because they changed coaches. They changed the offensive coordinator, they changed the defensive coordinator. So I'm hoping that it's coaching and that there should be a realization. You do need to coach up your second string tackles, your second string centers, your second string linebackers, you know, the rotation guys. They need to be coached up too, because if there's an injury, they're coming in. And that was a big thing. Nobody stepped up. You can argue Marcus Murriota stepped up, but he's the number two pick. He's a quality player, so you didn't have to worry about him. You knew what you're gonna get. He's shown that before. But everybody else, all the wide receivers they brought in, terrible. Just awful. Everybody was just bad in the backups. I know the starters weren't that good, but nobody stepped up. And that's going to be the big thing. Because as I mentioned before, and I own I mentioned it today, is that yes, this is Jaden Daniels' offense. It lives and dies with Jaden Daniels, which is good. It's fine. We've seen that before with uh teams having these hero balls. I would prefer not to have that. We don't have the offensive players to not have hero ball from Jaden Daniels. But what we need is a couple players to step up and take over a game so that it can relieve some of the pressure off Jaden Daniels. That's the biggest thing. We can't I just I don't like having all the pressure on one player. And so we need somebody on the offense, running back, tight end, wide version, to step up and just take over a handful of games, like two or three games, and that will be perfect. And so I'm hoping that we see that because we definitely didn't see it last year. Like nobody either was willing, wanting, or capable of stepping up in any of the games last year at all. And so it basically was Jaden Daniels' team or not, and he was injured for most of the year. I'm thinking I still am thinking that they're probably unfortunately only going to win between I'll say eight and ten wins, which is not great. It's borderline second wild card, unless, of course, the NFC East is horrific, which you never know. I I keep hearing things about the Giants, like John Harbaugh had a weird introductory meeting with his players. You never know with the Dallas Cowboys, they can be hit or miss. The Eagles, I mean, Nick Siriani's an idiot, so you have no idea what's happening. And of course, you have all the stories that Jalen Hurts is uncoachable and all that stuff. They could implode at any minute or not. So outside of the NFC East imploding, I really think it's going to be a struggle for the commanders to make the playoffs. And what does that mode for Dan Quinn? My personal opinion, I don't think he's up for the task. I just don't. I replace him. Honestly, if the offense is above average, I replace him with David Blau. What's the worst thing that can happen? He's a terrible head coach? Find a new one. Like we need to get out of this sunk cost fallacy. We've invested all this money in this player, or we invested all this draft capital in this player, or invested in this coaching staff. I think that doesn't work. If they don't make the playoffs outside of catastrophic injuries, Dan Quinn goes. And you just find somebody else. And if that means plucking David Blau and putting him there, I think that's a good decision. Same thing for the players. If Jaden Daniels plays more like 2025, where he's just mediocre, you don't think about giving him an extension. I I know that sounds crazy, but we need to move on from players quicker rather than later because it's gonna cost a lot of money to sign Jaden Daniels, regardless of how well he plays or not. It's just well, quarterbacks cost a lot of money. And so if you have like a Jared Goff-style quarterback, and let's say Jaden Daniels falls to Jared Goff levels, which you can still win with, the problem is then you have to invest a ton of money on the offensive side. And so now that you're investing a ton of money on the offensive side, you're going to have to let the defensive side slide. And so then it comes its defensive coordinator up to coaching up players. So it is a balancing act. And right now, I'm assuming that's what Adam Peters is doing. Adam Peters is constructing a roster which is top heavy on the defense, not so heavy on the offense, because the hope is Jaden Daniels is the savior and he brings everybody's talent up. And I'm I'm assuming that's what he's doing. My optimism would say that's what he's doing, and that's that makes perfect sense. But the problem is what if Jaden Daniels needs more help? And so you're investing a ton of money on Jaden Daniels, and then you have to invest money on the offensive side in terms of you need bigger and wide receivers, stronger wide receivers, and that causes problems in the salary cap. So I think as dumb as this is going to sound, the season hinges on Jaden Daniels. Rookie season Jaden Daniels brings that horrific defense, drags that horrific defense from last year into the playoffs. So that's sort of why they're banking on Jaden Daniels. Don't worry about the offense. We got Terry McLaurin. We got a couple good players, good pieces. Jaden Daniels will rise their talent level up because he's that good. We need to make sure that the defense at least has the capability to make a stop. And if they're doing that, that's smart. That's what you need to do. But if it doesn't work in terms of Jaden Daniels is unable to do it, then you have to sit down and have a discussion on what are you going to do moving forward? My thinking is take a hard look at extending him. You definitely give him the fifth-year option. There's no point to not give him the fifth-year option. But then you might need to start having discussions on do we want to sign him. That's a long way from now. My hope is, my dream is he comes out like the 2024, they make the playoffs, they have 11 or 12 wins, they win a game in the playoffs, successful season. They don't need to win the Super Bowl to be a successful season. Obviously, I want them to win the Super Bowl, but there are other football teams out there that could do that. So I am hopeful. I am hopeful. I think the training camp seems a little bit better. I know there's some Debbie Downers talking about how, oh my god, the defense was so much better than yes. I always think the defense is going to be at least at the beginning, ahead because you have to throw the ball to a wide receiver and they have to catch it. There's timing. Defense is a hundred percent reacting. You're reacting to Two things on the ground. So you're always reacting. Offense, it's a timing thing. It's just like at the beginning of the baseball season, generally pitching is head of batting because you're doing the same motion over and over again in pitching. You're just throwing your pitches. The batters need to get timing and get comfortable with the types of pitches. So I'm okay with the defense being ahead. I would be a little concerned if the defense wasn't doing well and the offense was smoking the defense because the money was not spent on the offense. It's Jaden Daniels. If Jaden Daniels plays well, we're fine. If Jaden Daniels plays poorly, it's over because there's nobody on the offensive side that you can count on to take over a game except for Jaden Daniels. So that's where I personally stand at the beginning of training camp. Again, I'm hopeful. I do have my concerns, but I'm hoping that my concerns are overblown. And but we'll see. We'll see how things turn out. So now I want to turn my attention to the old Washington Wizards. I don't know if you've all saw some of the power rankings or some of the off-season grades that some of the great websites have uh brought out for them. Um I believe, I think it was ESPN said gave the Wizards a D plus for their off-season rankings. I have no uh moves. I have no idea how that's humanly possible. I really don't. I think we're still back in the low Wizards, they're bad. Whatever they do is dumb. I would view some of the off-season moves they made started with the Trey Young, and I think that's where the big they're dumb comes from, because again, he signed the worst and largest contract in the history of the NBA, which is not true on any avenue. It was a large contract for a player that would have gotten that contract if he did not sign with the Wizards. A hundred percent. I sound like a broken record when I say this, and I'm gonna say it again and again until people start to understand this. Who are the free agents that are banging on the door to sign with the Washington Wizards? Who? Nobody. And that's just the way it is until they start winning. If they start winning. So did they overpay? Sure. Does it matter that they overpaid? No. It does not matter that they overpaid for Trey Young. It really doesn't matter. As I keep saying, because they need a point guard. He's a point guard. He's not that old. See how all this comes together? There was nobody else they're gonna sign. DeMar DeRozan. I know there's some uh reports that the Wizards were interested in him. He's like 40. I don't want somebody that old. I really don't want them to sign it. I would understand if they were to sign him to a contract, but I don't want them to. But Trey Young is not this awful player. They make it seem like Trey Young would struggle in a Y League in basketball. He is fine. He doesn't need to drop 50 and 30 every day, every game. It's just not it doesn't matter. If he plays and he averages, I'm gonna lowball his averages right now. If he averages like 17 points and 10 assists, perfect. That is great. That is that is acceptable. Yes, are you paying a lot of money for somebody only doing 17 and 10? Yes. But you know what? That's 17 points, that's 10 assists. That means the offense is humming. Okay? He has not been brought in to score 40 points every game. He has been brought in for veteran leadership, he's been brought in to distribute the ball, and he's been brought in to score a little bit. That's what he's been brought in for. Nothing else. Again, I'm gonna talk about the defense. Defense doesn't matter. His defense is completely irrelevant. All we need out of him is to try, give a little bit of effort. Now, unfortunately, we we heard the news that Jameer Watkins tours ACL, which is bad because he's not playing this year. But I am gonna point to a Jameer Watkins style player as the reason why Trey Young's defense is irrelevant. Because if you have one or two Jameer Watkins on your team, you can put them in the game for like five minutes. And if they lock up somebody for five minutes, it doesn't even matter if they pick up 6,000 five minutes because their job is to do just that, to discombobulate the other team's best offensive player. That's all you need. And let me tell you, they are lots of uh fringe NBA players dying to get onto a roster. And the way to get onto a roster, there's really two ways to get on a roster if you're not like a superstar or one of these players that we're talking about, if you're fringe. And that's to be a good three-point shooter and play defense. I would argue defense is more important than the ability to shoot a lot of threes just because of the way the NBA has evolved. You have a lot more starters, hidden threes. Defense. There's plenty of guys out there who will be willing to play defense. You need a handful of those guys on your roster to get in there, play a couple minutes on rotation, play solid defense. Doesn't matter if they foul. That's sort of irrelevant as long as they're not doing stupid fouls. But as long as they are locking down their man, that's what you need. And so that's why I'm not worried about the defense with Trey Young. The other move that they made that was criticized was DeAndre Aiton. I think that was a good trade. That's a great backup center. He was traded to be a backup center. He was the number one pick. All right, this is not an Anthony Bennett number one pick. He has some talent. He has demonstrated that he can play minutes. He has demonstrated he can score. He has demonstrated he can play defense. He is not starting for the Wizards. That's a great backup. And well, what is the negative? It's only for a year? Like it's just mind-boggling. If they sign a player, ah, it's a terrible signing. If they don't sign a player, why didn't they sign him? It's ridiculous. All right, I know I'm sounding like a homer, but come on. Like, that was a good trade. He is a solid player who's going to play solid minutes as a backup role for the Wizards. That is great to have somebody like DeAndre Aiden coming off the bench and maybe starting a few games. That is fantastic. He was pretty good with the Lakers. I know he's not, you know, Shaquille O'Neal numbers, but he was pretty good. They did well with him as the starter. So he can handle that. He can come off the bench. It's fine that he was only for a year. It doesn't matter. All right. And then of course AJ Devonta, like it's sort of like, well, they should have picked him, so it doesn't count. They still picked him. He's still on the roster. So yes, it does count. That was a good sum. That was a good pick. He played very well in this two summer league games. Yes, I know he missed a lot of threes. But you know what? He still put up a lot of points while shooting one for 11. So he has shown his versatility, that he can get to the basket. He can score. He can make free throws. That is what you want. You need the versatility. He can go inside, he can go mid-range. Hopefully, he gets his three-point shot a little bit better. And boom, that's fantastic. You have good things right there. Will Riley played very well in the summer league. He's demonstrated growth. He could actually play a little bit of point guard from that. Trey Johnson played pretty good too in the summer league. You see this development of the players. So I don't like grades. I know why they released the grades out. They released the grades out, and I'm example why they released the grades out. Because I'm talking about it with you right now. But I just it gets kind of annoying with the oh, the wizards are bad. So any decision they make is bad. Like I've seen other media types talking about how bad the wizards' history has been, and it's been pretty bad. But Tommy Shepard is not the GM. Ernie Grunfeld is not the GM. They have a different crew. So anything that Tommy Shepherd did doesn't count right now. Anything Ernie Grunfeld did doesn't count. New group. And I think with the limited avenues of acquiring players they have, they've done a really good job. They can really only acquire players two ways. And that is through the draft and through trades. They can develop, but it's a little harder to fully develop players from fringe to superstars, and it just doesn't happen. And I think they've done a really good job of acquiring talent. I think honestly they have too much. And I think they're going to have to make some moves to actually rid themselves of some of this talent that they have, which is a good thing to have. You kind of want that. I'm way more hopeful on the Wizard. I think their offseason was really good. The biggest thing in the room right now for the Wizards is Anthony Davis. That's a tough one. I'm not for signing him. I just think he's too old for what the Wizards want. He's too injury prone for the Wizards, and he will cost a lot of money. And I think he does have this year and next year under contract. So an extension potentially could start eating into the extension windows for some of their younger talents. So I'm torn on this. At one end, I don't want them to be signed because of the things I just laid out. He's too old and injury prone. On the other hand, he's still a dynamic power forward. He's still an insanely talented guy who could drop 20 and 10 very easily without even breaking a sweat if he stays healthy and he's engaged. The only problem is he's gonna cost a lot of money. They're gonna have to give him the full max if he's going to stay, which, oh my god, can you just imagine the pundits on that one? I can't imagine if they sign him to that kind of contract. But I would understand if they were to sign him to that type of contract. I just would. He's quality. And so I think it was some I forgot who was summarizing it, talking about players like Anthony Davis. They have two choices. Do they want to try to win a ring or do they want to get as much money as humanly possible? If they want to try to win a ring, he needs to be off the wizards. It's just, I don't think the wizards are not, I they're just not ready to win today or tomorrow or next year. So, but if he wants to make as much money as possible, it's us. And so we'll see where that goes. I'm not for the extension, but I would understand why they would do it. And then it the other thing we saw is some of the power rankings. Again, they're stupid, but yeah, they're pretty much bottom of the barrel in the east. And I get it, they haven't shown anything. But I I just they haven't shown anything because they were trying to lose. So yeah, they were pretty bad last year and the year before. They've been trying to get the number one pick for the past three years, and they haven't been successful. And I think we saw Vegas give up their win total, which I think was, I want to say was 35 and a half. It's like in the mid-30s. I think for me, that's their floor. I think their floor, I mentioned it before, I think their floor is 32-33 wins, which wouldn't be great, but it would be okay because they're doubling the win total. And I think their ceiling is still the sixth seed. So anywhere in between. But yeah, that that it's no respect for them from uh the Vegas odds or whether it was DraftKings or whatever, I can't remember. I think that's a little low, but I I could see why you wouldn't necessarily think because the narrative and the regency bias is Wizards are terrible. No matter what they do, they're terrible. All their decisions are bad, all their players are bad, all their coaches are bad. It doesn't matter. They're bad because of the wizards. And, you know, they haven't really shown anything in a number of years, so I can't really argue with anybody. But it would be nice if some of the national pundits actually spent more than I don't know, three seconds looking into the wizards. I know they don't want to, they'd rather talk about LeBron. They'd rather talk about LA, you know, they'd rather talk about all that stuff. They don't want to talk about the quote unquote poverty franchises, so that's sort of why we have this narrative. And I don't know if it'll even break, even if they play well, they'll be like, oh, it's a fluke, you know, things like that. But it does give us something to talk about before training camp starts for them in in late September and October. So in that regard, the net the national media never ceases to disappoint me with the Wizards coverage. But I disagree with the rankings. I think their off-season, I'm not gonna say it's an A plus. I'm not that much of a bomb. I think it was a I think it was a solid B. I think it definitely pushed them from the doldrums of being awful to being a playoff team right now. I think their moves are good. I think their signings have been good so far. The talent is there. We don't know about Brian Keefe. And the reason we don't know about Brian Keefe is because he was told to lose and he lost. That was the job. Lose and he did. So we don't know, but I definitely think they're a lot better than the National Pundits have been talking about. So yeah, gives us something to talk about when they uh go after the Wizards. Alright, so the last thing I want to talk about is our friends, the Nats. Bullpen is terrible, pitching staff is terrible. I don't think they expected to be this good this year. I don't think they expected the hitting to be this good. And so I think it was they were caught off guard that the hitting, the offense has been very good. And the pitching just hasn't come around. And I don't think there's any amount of development with these pitchers. They're just not good pitchers. They're borderline MLB pitchers, and this is what you're gonna get. I think they've blown like 30 games, or at least they had they blown 30 lead, 30 games, which they had the lead and they've blown. And it's really it makes them a frustrating mess to watch, especially last night. They had a 3-0 lead against the Braves and they blew it, you know. And so I I I'm just disappointing watching them. I do have they did make a trade. They got rid of Curtis Meade for Connor Early, Connolly Early, uh, pitcher from uh the Red Sox, which Paul Taboni was in the Red Sox organization. So he knows Hurley, young pitcher. I think he's under team control till 2031, which is insane to have to be able to trade for a pitcher that is under team control for that long because we're all in the learners don't like to spend money. That's pretty good. Um, the national press, they they were begrudgingly gave the trade good scores. I think it was a very good trade. I the one thing that the Nats have shown is that they can develop hitting. They also have a lot better minor league system or farm system than they had in previous years. So they sort of have a glut of position players. And so what do you do when you have a glut of position players? You trade your M you're like your borderline MLB players for pitching, and that's what they did. I think it was a great trade. Now, obviously, it looks even better now that on the unfortunate news that uh Meade broke his wrist, but can't really expect anything like that to happen or not to happen. So I think it was a great trade. I don't think they lost out much offense. Um, we definitely see them. I think they were working at Brady House on first base. So I mean they just have a lot of position players that are borderline major league ready. So these are good trades. I think their farm system has much improved since Taboni took over. I think they've really cleaned it up. They developed players a little bit better. They've made some trades previous before the season. So I think they've moved up their uh farm system that will allow them to trade for upside pitching. I think that's a good sign. The other good sign is there are there were two reports. One was they tried to initiate contract extension with Foster Griffin, and that fizzled immediately. And now there's reports that that contract negotiations has begun. So I I don't know which one is true or not. Um again, I think we're still in the uh you know the bias of Nats are terrible. DC teams are terrible, so obviously they're dumb, they don't know what they're doing, and so that might have played a role in it. But I yeah, I think Foster Griffin's young enough that you can sign him to a three-year deal. I think that's fine. I think he's 30 now, so up till 33. I think that might be the sticking point. Obviously, you would want a much longer contract if you're in Foster Griffin shoes, but I think that's good. I think he would be a good addition long term for the for the Nationals, a couple more years. I think that'll be good. I think he would be a big signing for the Nationals if there was a report that he signed an extension. Because one of the things that we haven't seen is the willingness of the learners to spend money. And so I do have some fear that they're not going to sign James Wood or CJ Abrams. I think they should sign both of them. I think they are candidates that you can win with. I I'm tired of this. Oh, you can get a haul for them. Of course you can. But then we're back to square one, where we are developing borderline major league players, borderline players that can be superstars, and then in four or five years, when they're ready to explode, we're trading them again for a haul for players that were just going to develop again. And it's sort of like this endless cycle in which we are now a farm system for the better franchises. And I don't like that. I don't want to be a quadruple A team for the Yankees, for the Padres, for the Dodgers. I don't want that. And I really wish somebody would scream at the learners not to do that. Because if they want to sell the team, you have to have a good product on the field. And that's going to get you a better selling price if you want to sell the team. If you don't want to sell the team, for the love of God, please sign some players so that we can be successful and when we have demonstrated the Nationals can win a World Series because they won a World Series by, yes, spending money, but that's what you have to do. You have to do two things. You got to do a little money ball approach to, you know, use the analytics to get some players, but you still got to sign some of these players that maybe are negatively analytics, but they do play very well. And I'm just hoping that somebody has gotten to them and they've said you need to spend money, and they are going to spend money. I don't know. I'm getting a little afraid when I hear some of these rumors. And I know we definitely see this that the sports punditry now, the sports reporting now is sort of different. It's more of a PR thing for the players. We definitely seem see this with some of the NBA and the NFL where the reporters have relationships with the players, with the agents, with the teams themselves. And so now they just are glorified press releases for the players or the agents or the teams. And so I'm wondering if some of the reporting that you know the Nats and thing are and other teams are salivating over trying to trade for CJ Abrams is that sort of a push from the sports reporters from ESPN to try to get the players from bad franchises, nationals, to better franchises. I mean, we definitely saw a report that Sean Sharania withheld information that LeBron met with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Like, isn't your job to break news? Isn't your job to report things? And yet you're not? You're holding it back because you don't want to ruin your relationship with the player, with the agent, with the team. And so now you're just glorified PR machines. And so I think some of the reporting I'm hoping is sort of based on that, that they're trying to push a narrative to get the Nats to trade. I definitely believe that, and I'm I know I'm switching back to the Wizards real quick, that all the reporting of AD going to Golden State was a narrative push by ESPN to get AD off the garbage wizards and onto Golden State so they can have a super team with LeBron. I really do think that's what that reporting was. Because all the local reporting was nope. They had brief discussions with them. Wasn't gonna happen. Wizards wanted too much, which is right, they should. There's no reason to trade A D. They still have him under contract. No reason to trade A D. I know I was for the trade for A D. I wanted him off, but I understand why they didn't trade him. But, anyways, back to the Nationals. I I definitely think that some of the narratives that's being pushed is based upon we want these superstars on the Yankees, on the Red Sox, on the Columbus. On the Dodgers. Like there's reports that the Dodgers are going to try to trade for Tariq Schoolbook. Just, I cannot have the Dodgers have everybody. It's going to be sickening. And it's going to be frankly boring if it's just the Dodgers continuing to win. And I really, this is why I am pro salary cap. Because it's going to do, I think it's going to do two things. I think it's going to stop these super teams from being formed. And I don't want a super team. And the reason I don't want a super team is I think that's part of the reason why the NFL has become as popular as it is. Because it because of the salary cap, which by the way, you can manipulate and do whatever you want with it, it has allowed for parity. And parody is good because it allows the bad teams to become winners. I know the Jets are never going to win. All right. But you do have other teams that you wouldn't think of winning. And you always have a chance to win because it's very difficult to build a super team because you have that salary cap. And it's there's a salary cap and a salary floor, and it makes it difficult for bat teams that don't want to spend money. They still kind of got to spend money. And yes, I know the argument is, oh, they could spend all the money on one player. Sure. They most certainly can. I know there's some there was some reporting on the um NBA team, I forget which one, when they signed Gary Trent to this stupid contract. But yeah, you can still get that. But I think it's going to increase parity and it's going to uplift. It's going to force the Pirates, the Tigers, the Nationals to spend more money. And if it forces them to spend more money, they're going to have to spend more money on mid-level talent, which is going to make them better. That's what we want. We want teams to be able to compete. We don't just want, I know ECPN just wants the Dodgers and the Yankees. That's not fun for, I don't know, 98% of the country. If you're a Kansas City Royal fan, how does the Dodgers versus the Yankees every year help you? It doesn't. How does the Kansas City Royals being a quadruple A farm team for the Dodgers help you? It doesn't. And I think it'll be much better if the salary cap. That's where I'm pro-salary cap. Alright. And I definitely think it'll uplift the salaries of the mid-level players. It's going to hurt your Juan Sotos. It's going to hurt your Aaron Judges because not everybody's going to be able to get that same contract. Only one or two of those players are. But your mid-level players, you rank and file MLB players, are going to get more money. And I think that will help a team like the Nationals. They'll be forced to spend money. And by spending money, they're going to have to spend money on better players, better pitching, better hitting. And I think it'll be a net positive for everybody. I really do. I really think it'll be a net positive for the MLB to have that when you're sitting looking at the playoff hunt, and it's not the same six teams. That there's teams that you wouldn't normally see at the top be at the top. And I think it'll be a lot better. But anyways, I think I've droned on too long about uh some of the things that we talked about today. Just a quick wrap-up. Uh, I think I'm cautiously optimistic after the first couple days of training camp for the commanders. I think it's a much more competitive training camp. I think it is clearly demonstrated that the defense is going to be a lot better than it was last year. Not so sure about the offense. I definitely think the offense is going to be better, but the offense still hinges on Jaden Daniels. He plays like his rookie year, playoffs bound. If he doesn't play like his rookie year, it's going to be tough. And I think that puts uh Dan Quinn straight on the hot seat and he should be gone. And we should replace him with David Blau if the offense is mediocre or better. You just don't want to lose him for that. Uh Wizards ignore the national media. I think the Wizards on a correct, right trajectory. They have a lot of young talent. I think we should be hopeful. I think the offseason for the Wizards have been a B, which is pretty good. They made some good acquisitions. AJ DeBonsa was an A sign A draft, perfect pick for them. Very versatile. DeAndre Ayton trade was great. They gave up absolutely nothing for him. Nothing. He's on a one-year contract. If it doesn't work out, he's not on theme next year. And if it works out, great. He's a backup. Trey Young, I still think that's a solid signing. I would give that a B plus signing. I think he's going to be better than people think. But my expectations for him are not 30 points and 10 assists. My expectations for him is between 17 and 22 points and 10 and 15 assists. Perfect. Is that an overpay? Yes. Do I care? No. The AD situation is still fluid. I know there's some negotiations going on. I wouldn't sign him to a long-term deal based on his age and his injury history. But let me tell you, a healthy AD, they go places. He's that good. He's still that good. So I wouldn't sign him. But if they do, I'll try to make lemonade out of it. The Nats, they're still where they are, but I the the trade for early is good. It demonstrates two things. One, that they're willing to give up some major league hitting for some pitching, but it also demonstrates that their farm system and the developmental system, at least for the hitting, is good, is up to snuff, which is what we want. So I think this was a neutral trade, meaning they didn't give up any assets that's going to hurt harm them in the future, and they didn't really gain anything that's going to help them necessarily today, maybe down the road. So maybe just a net positive trade. We'll see what they go with some other trades. I hope they sign Foster Griffin. That would be a good gesture to the fans. I hope they are thinking about and will sign CJ Abrams and James Woods to extensions. I think we can win with them. But the learners be the learners. So we have no idea. And with that, that is all I have today for you all. Hope you have a great rest of your day. Until next time.