- 1 week ago
Grant & Danny are concerned with the center situation, as Nick Allegretti continues to battle injuries.
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00:00We used to do a segment called Someone Explain to Me on Grant and Danny.
00:04I'm bringing it back right now.
00:05Someone explain to me why Nick Allegretti playing or not playing in a preseason game
00:10has anything to do with what happens with Jaden Daniels.
00:14Nick Allegretti has practiced for like 14 minutes since the start of training camp.
00:20Julian Goodgrief has been their starting center for the entirety of training camp, essentially.
00:27And as of this moment, is their starting center.
00:30Julian Goodgrief is the guy.
00:33If week one comes, if they were playing the Eagles tonight, Julian Goodgrief is their starter.
00:39It's not like they're on center four.
00:41It's not like you're telling me, well, Rashad White's hurt and German McNichols is hurt
00:46and Bill got something tweaked today, so maybe he doesn't play.
00:48So now you're down to running back four, which is the case, by the way.
00:52This is the guy that they said was competing with Allegretti for the starting job when camp began.
00:57That was their words, not mine.
00:59Now we can all acknowledge that this guy's played two downs in the NFL, but I keep hearing
01:04that if Allegretti's not playing and he's already been ruled out, Jaden Daniels shouldn't play.
01:08So just a quick interjection.
01:10Everybody's doing that like, oh, well, of course.
01:13Like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
01:15There's a correlation.
01:16If the starting center can't play, you can't play the quarterback.
01:17And everyone's kind of moved, and they've already moved to the next thing.
01:20When, by the way, the rest of the offensive line would be playing.
01:23Brandon Coleman is healthy and ready.
01:25I talked to Josh Connerly today.
01:27You'll hear that interview on Grant and Danny, on the fan.
01:29You got two Joshes, Josh Connerly, Josh Josephs coming up on the show today from training camp.
01:34Connerly, locked, loaded, ready to go, wants to play in the game.
01:37You've got Sam Cosme ready to push people around and maul people.
01:42Chris Paul.
01:42I mean, four of the five from the first team group are out there.
01:48The one guy that wouldn't be is Nick Allegretti, and he hasn't been the entirety of camp anyway.
01:54So someone explain that to me, and we can open up the phones on this at 800-636-1067.
02:00Like, should the Allegretti status, he's out and he's not able to play because he left practice again yesterday.
02:07He still hasn't gotten through two straight training camp practices yet.
02:11But should that affect Daniels at all?
02:14I don't think it should.
02:15It's one guy out of five, and you're down to the dude that we were told was going to push
02:21him.
02:21The guy that's going to compete with him.
02:23Like, their words, not mine.
02:26So what I encourage folks to do, and if you get to the same conclusion, I suppose,
02:33but the idea that this is the plan at center, everyone should be panicking if this is the case.
02:42Like, do we realize what it means to say that our starting quarterback, now, obviously, it's a different way because
02:48it's a preseason game.
02:49We wouldn't be saying this if it was week three or whatever.
02:51Like, if Allegretti doesn't play, you're not having Jaden Daniels stay home and not play in the London game in
02:56week four or something like that, right?
02:57I understand that.
02:58But if the Daniels consideration should be the Daniels consideration, that should be the beginning and the end.
03:03Can he play seven snaps?
03:04Can he do that this week?
03:05And does that behoove us?
03:07That conversation, I think, is a good one.
03:08We can have it.
03:09If it's because Allegretti can't play, then everybody should be freaking out like their hair is on fire.
03:17Because what's going to happen is Julian Goodgrief, which is a great nickname, I'm stealing that, we're going to use
03:22it, has to play football games.
03:24Toby gets credit for that, by the way.
03:25Yeah, tip of the cap, told Tobes.
03:28That's going to happen because Nick Allegretti's been healthy for 17 seconds and then had to go to the blue
03:3210 again.
03:32This is the plan at center.
03:34I don't understand how it was the plan at center.
03:36I will not let it go.
03:38I am a dog with a bone on this one.
03:41This, then they go, ta-da, year three.
03:44This is the line.
03:45This is the center plan.
03:47Look at us.
03:47And everybody's panning it.
03:49Now, it may turn out the team is right and all these rankings are wrong.
03:52Fine, but do you really, are you going to argue that it's a top 10 offensive line?
03:55If you are, you know, let me borrow your burgundy glasses.
03:58No way.
03:59I can't believe it's that dire of a situation at center.
04:03If that's the case, that Allegretti can't go this weekend, which is understandable.
04:07He's been banged up, and I want him to get healthier for the season.
04:10If he can't go, then Daniels can't go.
04:12Then we can't have games.
04:14So I can get behind the Dan Quinn commentary that whether or not Daniels plays is dependent
04:20on who else is able to play, because I think that does make some intuitive sense.
04:26There's no reason to send him out there with the second team, because to some extent, what
04:30is the point of those reps?
04:31Like, if he's throwing to Jaden Bradley and Jacoby Jones, and he's not going to be throwing
04:36to those guys in games, then you're not getting any timing.
04:41You can make the case that there's less value in him playing, right?
04:45Fine.
04:46But he's not.
04:47Terry McLaurin is healthy.
04:49He will play.
04:49You would imagine.
04:50Stephon Diggs is healthy.
04:52He will play.
04:53You would imagine.
04:54So you've got your top two receivers.
04:56By the way, that triumvirate, Diggs and McLaurin and Daniels have never played together.
05:00Might as well take the training wheels off in a simulated, you know, exhibition setting.
05:07And the offensive line, in its entirety, sans center, is ready to go.
05:12If we found out today, part of the reason that they have paused is that Coleman and Connerly
05:19are both not going to play because they're banged up, okay, I'm not a crazy person.
05:23You have a backup left tackle already in Coleman, and the backup to the backup now has to start,
05:29so you're down to left tackle three, Wiley, Trent Scott, whoever that is, and they've
05:34got to block Aiden Hutchinson or something like that, and you've got a backup right tackle,
05:38and you've got a backup center, it starts to be a little bit too risky and dicey, but
05:42that's not what's happening.
05:44It's one dude who hasn't practiced at all.
05:47It just, it doesn't make any sense to me.
05:50In fact, we talked about this on a Take Command episode we just recorded after practice today
05:54that's going to drop tomorrow, myself and Logan.
05:56Logan made an interesting point.
05:57I'm going to grab this audio, we can play it next segment.
06:00But Logan's take was that the center position should have very little to do with whether
06:05Daniels plays or not, which I happen to agree with.
06:07But he made an interesting point I did not consider.
06:09He said the running back position is the one oftentimes that you might tie directly to the
06:15quarterback.
06:15He didn't say this, but I would add the tight end position, and the reason is pass protection
06:20and blitz pickup stuff.
06:21Second preseason game, teams dial it up a little bit more, Lions might run a couple of things
06:26defensively, ramping up, and so do you trust your running backs to hold up?
06:31So you already know that McNichols isn't playing, you already know that Rashad White isn't playing.
06:35Today at practice, I saw something happen, I don't know exactly what it was, could have been
06:39a momentary nothing burger, could also mean he doesn't play, but Bill looked like he tweaked
06:43something running and started favoring his leg a little bit coming off the practice field.
06:47So let's just hypothetically say Bill doesn't go, because they don't want to push him two
06:51days later, got some minor ding.
06:53Then in a world where Bill's not playing, McNichols isn't playing, and White's not playing,
06:57you have two rookie running backs in Catron Allen and Robert Henry Jr., and a guy who's been
07:03here a couple days in Craig Reynolds.
07:05Jaden Daniels is counting on them to not get him Jackson darted.
07:09Like you saw the blitz from the Vikings where the running back didn't pick up the blitz
07:13and Jackson dart got annihilated.
07:15That, to me, Logan made this argument, I hadn't thought about it, but I go, way better
07:19point.
07:20Or the tight end situation, where as a tight end, if you're John Bates or you're Colson
07:26Yankoff or you're this dude number 40 more who's good in line blocker apparently, you're
07:31picking things up.
07:32You're staying in and pass pro.
07:33I think there's more of a link to how many backs and tight ends are healthy to protect my
07:38quarterback maybe than one center in a group of five who oftentimes gets guard help anyway.
07:43But again, this isn't rookie free agent Freddie that didn't even get drafted.
07:47This isn't some jag.
07:49This is the guy that was supposed to be part of the competition.
07:51We don't need Tyler Biotis, remember?
07:53We have no need for it.
07:54He's not going to play.
07:56Not only is Allegretti going to beat him out, but we like Julian Good-Jones.
07:58We've got options.
07:59We've got options here.
08:00Again, if it's that level of we can't have an offense on Saturday, we can't do this.
08:06Again, if you want to make a decision about Jaden Daniels independent of the center spot,
08:11be my guest because of practice or whatever.
08:13And we can have a fun debate about that.
08:15But to me, I like Logan's perspective an awful lot.
08:18But the part I keep coming back to is this is and was the plan at center.
08:24It's already not working very well.
08:27And if it's not working so well or to such a huge degree that the backup that is absolutely
08:32going to play this year, Julian Good-Grief is going to play football this year for this
08:36team.
08:36I promise you.
08:37That's how it goes.
08:38We had a year a couple years ago where they played five different centers.
08:41Things happen.
08:41You get rolled on.
08:42Good luck.
08:43Bad luck.
08:43Everything in between.
08:44But you don't understand, in week 11, when Julian Good-Jones is starting, they're just
08:47going to say, Jaden's not going to play this week because Nick Halligretti's not.
08:51That's where we are.
08:51We're talking about, again, a dozen snaps, maybe.
08:55Last year it was less.
08:56Last year it was what?
08:57Five?
08:57Four?
08:58If you go two possessions, you can't do that with a guy that you told us was going to compete
09:04at the center spot.
09:06That's all I care about with this discussion.
09:09That's the beginning.
09:09That's the middle and the end.
09:10This is the plan at center, and it's already a disaster.
09:14Or maybe that shouldn't be a consideration at all.
09:17Maybe the guy that is absolutely going to play is fine, and they'll be fine for a dozen
09:21players.
09:21Yeah, so we can have the center conversation, too.
09:25That's the part you're hyper-focused on, and that's your prerogative, and I get that.
09:28I don't disagree with that, by the way.
09:30It was weird to me when they cut Biatish.
09:32I understood that they liked Allegretti to be a starter.
09:35It was then even weirder to me than cutting Biatish that they didn't bring anybody else in
09:40who's ever played center in the NFL.
09:42They just decided not to after they said there's going to be a competition.
09:45There is no competition.
09:46It was very strange.
09:47I don't think they handled it particularly well.
09:48I agree with you.
09:50I'm just saying, in a vacuum for this game, that can't be the excuse.
09:56Give me another one.
09:57Yeah, we're getting to the same spot.
09:58I mean, I'm going, then you're admitting to me that this plan was so horrendous that we're
10:03already broken.
10:03The season's already over.
10:04Give me another excuse why you wouldn't play him.
10:06Now, I will say this, I have been zigzagging back and forth like an Indy car on Pennsylvania
10:12Avenue this weekend for the Grand Prix 250.
10:16On Tuesday, I thought Jaden Daniels was going to play in the preseason game because they
10:20had such a nothing burger of a practice that I thought there's no way they're going to
10:26have this practice and not play in the game.
10:29Yesterday, they got after it, padded practice.
10:31All the rumblings out at the facility were, Jaden's not going to go.
10:35So he's getting all these first and second team reps.
10:37So we did the show yesterday and I'm saying, I don't think Jaden Daniels plays in the preseason
10:41game.
10:43The winds are blowing a different way today.
10:45At practice today, they were using like carded period.
10:49Do you know what I mean by that?
10:50When I say that using cards, basically, how would I just like instead of Durante Jones calling
10:57the Washington defense into Washington or them running their own defense, they're doing
11:02in a bit where they're all gathered around looking at the images of the Lions alignment
11:06as a scout team to give the offense a look at how the Lions operate.
11:10Do you understand what I'm saying?
11:12So basically, they're doing a scout team defense, a carded period where they're running some
11:17Detroit stuff.
11:19Jaden Daniels was on the field during that.
11:21Now, not gospel, but that would typically tell me, my spidey senses, having covered the league
11:26for a long time, if Daniels is getting reps against a scout team that is giving him Detroit
11:31looks, I would now be surprised if he didn't play.
11:36It would be strange to do that and then to not play him.
11:39But they could say, hey, there's just too many injuries.
11:41There's just too many guys.
11:43Guys, we're not going to have him go.
11:45You'll hear what Dan Quinn had to say about playing Daniels and why it is tied to other
11:49players, including Nick Allegretti, I guess.
11:52Want to get your thoughts on that, though, next.
11:54800-636-1067.
11:58You're listening to this.
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