- 2 months ago
Grant & Danny grade position groups for the Commanders now that the initial 53-man roster is set.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Coming up at 5 o'clock in 30 minutes, you will hear from Adam Peters and Dan Quinn.
00:06Press conference out in Ashburn.
00:08Roster is formed.
00:09We do know Nick Allegretti is expected to return to the practice field today.
00:13Also found out that Adafi Owe will not practice this week.
00:17Now, that doesn't rule him out for week one.
00:20I guess it's possible.
00:21But the odds go down.
00:22He could be back on the practice field to start next week.
00:24But remember, next week's a game week.
00:26So that's where you get into your,
00:27did you practice on the injury report on Wednesday?
00:30If it's a no, then you're trending in the wrong direction.
00:33You need to be practicing by next Friday.
00:35So that gets a little more bleak.
00:37No update that I've seen on Caleb on chase on.
00:39We'll have the whole press conference for you coming up in 30 minutes.
00:43But I wanted to delve a little deeper into the roster with you, Danny,
00:46and areas where we feel really good, areas where we don't.
00:50First thing we should do, though, is let's just run through rapid fire
00:54all of the position groups here.
00:56And then we'll come back to where they're best built and worst built.
01:00So why don't we start at quarterback?
01:02I know you don't love keeping three,
01:03but I will say from the traditional sense from like 10 years ago,
01:07this is kind of exactly what you're looking for.
01:09Franchise quarterback, Jaden Daniels.
01:11Yep.
01:11Veteran backup, Marcus Mariota.
01:13And then the project in-house prospect that you drafted in the late rounds
01:17to be your long-term backup.
01:18That is a well-built position.
01:19You could do a lot worse than Daniels, Mariota, Kaliak, Manning.
01:23Yeah, that's the envy of a lot of teams in this league, I would say.
01:25Because you have a young superstar in Jaden Daniels,
01:27and the priority, of course, is maximizing him and keeping him upright.
01:31And that's something we'll come back to in a second.
01:32But Mariota, very capable backup, and that's a perfect role for him.
01:36And then the developmental project, who's shown well in the preseason
01:38in Kaliak Manning.
01:39Speaking of positions where they only have three guys running back,
01:42and this one's a little more surprising just because of health.
01:44Yep.
01:45Bill has not been practicing.
01:46Rashad White has not really done anything over the last few weeks.
01:49And Katron Allen's the one bell cow from the preseason rookie.
01:53He's got plenty of work.
01:53Sixth round pick.
01:54He was carrying the mail in these preseason games.
01:58But Ja'Cory Krosky, Merritt, Rashad White, Katron Allen,
02:02they did not keep Robert Henry Jr.
02:03He's been placed on the practice squad.
02:05He'll be the fourth in the organization.
02:07I don't have a problem only keeping three.
02:09Remember, Jeremy McNichols also placed on injured reserve as well.
02:12I take this to mean both that White and Bill are likely to be healthy
02:17in full go by week one.
02:18They're confident in that.
02:19I also take this to mean we could see Bill getting a lot of opportunity here
02:25as something of a workhorse.
02:27I mean, I don't think you only keep three unless you feel like Bill can do
02:32things on third down as well.
02:33You would think he could do more.
02:34But I also take the other side of that coin and think it might mean a lot of
02:37work for Rashad White as well.
02:39As somebody, you know, if they don't trust Bill early in pass pro or to catch
02:43passes or you want to kind of keep him fresher and you have a third down back
02:47or a guy that can act as one even on first and second down in Rashad White.
02:50I mean, I think it's a big vote of confidence to him too because, as you said,
02:52there's only three guys there.
02:53It's definitely a vote of confidence in his health.
02:55I just didn't see a lot from him in camp at all, so I've been kind of down on him,
02:59but they're not.
03:01I mean, they signed him, and to your point, he's one of the three.
03:03Let's go to tight end where they're four deep.
03:05This is one of my favorite spots on the roster.
03:08Chigakonkwo is going to be their lead pass catcher.
03:10You've got John Bates, who's one of the better blocking tight ends in football.
03:13Ben Sinnott can do both pass catch and block.
03:17Neither at an elite level, obviously, but a tick above average or average in both capacities.
03:22And then Colson Yankoff is super athletic, helps you in space, can play special teams,
03:27and I think he has better hands than Chig or anybody else in the tight end room
03:30watching him out at practice every day.
03:32All four on the roster, Sinnott and Yankoff, probably going to play teams.
03:37That's a good group, and this is now, you'll notice, we'll come back to this theme,
03:41I think, a lot.
03:42But it's a puzzle for David Blau to kind of solve, and there's only so many mouths to
03:47feed, only so many footballs to go around.
03:49If the offense is good and it's humming, you get more plays.
03:51Everyone eats more.
03:52There's more chances.
03:53Whereas, if it struggles, which it might, who knows, for first-year coordinator and offensive
03:57line influx, then you can find uses.
04:00You can find some plays where you feature Yankoff up, maybe against a linebacker, where
04:04you force a team to go big against you, and then you have guys that can run away.
04:08Or, you know, the team's in the nickel, you can check to a run on first down.
04:11If you're moving the chains, there's just more opportunity for these guys.
04:14But it is a good problem to have when you are four deep at tight end with guys with
04:18slightly different skill sets.
04:19Yeah, I'm glad that all four made it.
04:20It felt like Colson Yankoff had kind of made it a formality by the end of training.
04:27He's good.
04:27Wide receiver.
04:28They did elect to keep seven.
04:30I think you can do that with Jalen Lane as a punt returner.
04:32Maybe Luke McCaffrey starts out as their kick returner.
04:35Yep.
04:36Based on last season, he should get a chance to be in the conversation.
04:39He was one of the best in the National Football League.
04:41You got Terry McLaurin, Stephon Diggs.
04:43The news today is that he'll officially wear number three.
04:45Antonio Williams, the rookie slot, number 14.
04:48Twitchy showed some wiggle at practices.
04:51De'Ami Brown, Traylon Burks also in.
04:53So the seven, McLaurin, Diggs, Williams, De'Ami Brown, Traylon Burks.
04:58And then McCaffrey and Lane.
05:00No surprise here.
05:02Came down to McCaffrey versus Van Jefferson for the seventh spot.
05:05I do think Van Jefferson's a better wide receiver right now.
05:08But Luke does more.
05:09He plays on special teams.
05:10He's younger.
05:11He's under contract for longer.
05:13All reasons why you break the tie with him.
05:15I didn't really have a problem with that.
05:16But I know there's seemingly, I've seen in the fan base, I mean, everyone hates everything
05:21on social media, but there's been some vitriol toward Adam Peters for keeping McCaffrey.
05:25I don't really get that.
05:26I understand if you're a little frustrated that he hasn't delivered the goods as a third
05:30round pick.
05:31But as the seventh wide receiver, it's perfectly fine.
05:33Yeah.
05:33To me, it's a, as you said, it's special teams.
05:35So he may be a better wide receiver, but he's still seventh in the pecking order or sixth
05:39or whatever you want to call it.
05:40I don't care about that very much, respectfully.
05:42Meaning Van Jefferson.
05:43Yeah, I like Van Jefferson, but let's say he's a better wide out.
05:46I think I'm with you.
05:47He's a better wide out than Luke McCaffrey is.
05:49Okay.
05:50He's still not getting targets.
05:51He's still not getting receptions.
05:52He's still not a featured part of the office.
05:53He's inactive on game day.
05:54There's four or five guys ahead of him, whereas McCaffrey will play and contribute in different
05:58areas.
05:59So yeah, if it comes down to it, God forbid you have a bunch of injuries at the receiver
06:02spot.
06:02I would rather have Van Jefferson as my number two than Luke McCaffrey, but that's not the role
06:07right now where they are relatively healthy, knock on wood, at that spot more so than
06:11anywhere else.
06:12I also wonder if Luke McCaffrey would have cleared waivers.
06:15Van Jefferson obviously did.
06:17I think McCaffrey would, because I just always assumed that everybody would, but he was a third
06:21round pick.
06:22There's the bloodlines and kind of the name that got him a lot of attention during the
06:26draft as well.
06:26At a minimum, as a returner.
06:27And that's what I'm saying.
06:28His kick return numbers last year were outstanding as well.
06:32So there's a world where I think claiming him would have made a little bit of sense, and
06:37Van Jefferson, I'm not as convinced anybody was going to, and they didn't.
06:41All right, offensive line, this is obviously where they've been in shambles on the interior
06:45for some time.
06:46Tunsell gets hurt, so you're Brandon Coleman, your left tackle.
06:49Chris Paul at left guard.
06:50Allegretti back to practice today at center.
06:52Sam Cosme, right guard.
06:54Josh Connerly, right tackle.
06:55They then, I was kind of, I found this curious what they did behind those guys from a depth
07:01standpoint.
07:01You knew DJ Humphrey was going to make it, especially as soon as Trent Scott didn't.
07:06Humphreys was going to be in.
07:08Matt Golbin, who they drafted in the sixth round, if they draft you, they're keeping
07:11you, it seems like.
07:12But Tanoa Togiai making the roster was fascinating to me.
07:17I didn't think he had to do that at all.
07:18College free agent, UDFA, thought he could have been cut, go to the practice squad.
07:23That leaves you a spot to add an offensive lineman later.
07:25My guess is there's another O-lineman coming in here in the next day or two.
07:28I know I keep saying that.
07:29And when that happens, Togiai is off the roster.
07:32Yeah, so that's not my guess.
07:33That's my hope.
07:34I just, I'm putting, you know, I'm with you.
07:36I'm putting rationality on that where I'm going, this has to happen.
07:40So that's got to be a placeholder.
07:41So we'll see.
07:42But it's the weakest group on the team right now, in my view.
07:45This is the struggle.
07:46I think 60% of this line is either a huge question mark or not that good.
07:50All right, so let's go letter grades for the position groups as it pertains to like
07:54where you would stack them up on the grading basically is what it should look like in
07:59the NFL.
08:00So quarterback, I'm going to give them an A.
08:03Running back, I'm going to give them a, I'm going to give them a B at running back.
08:09C plus for me.
08:10Okay.
08:11Tight end, I'm going to give them an A.
08:13A.
08:16Wide receiver, I'm going to give them a B.
08:19B plus.
08:22Offensive line, I'm going to give them a D.
08:25F for me.
08:27Yeah, and if I had to go minus or plus on my D, I might trend toward minus.
08:32Of the offensive positions, what do you like better?
08:35Quarterback?
08:36Tight end?
08:38Quarterback.
08:38Those are the two you like the most.
08:39Yeah, those are the two the best.
08:40It's quarterback because you've got Daniels.
08:41I mean, it's, I can't remember who it was.
08:43Maybe it was Kevin Sheen with us moments ago.
08:45But it's the whole point here, this whole, all this exercise.
08:48And yeah, we work ourselves up, rightfully so, about things we've seen, not seen, etc.
08:52This is the thing that we have been searching for our entire lives.
08:56Even when it was good here, it was still, you know, a handful of games of Doug Williams
09:00down the stretch.
09:01And it was still a position battle with he and Jay Schrader.
09:04It was Joe Theismann until he hurt himself.
09:05It was Mark Rippon, a guy that was an afterthought.
09:08It really wasn't about the quarterback.
09:09I've never had the thing that Green Bay gets out of bed and has every day, always.
09:13The superstar franchise guy, I'm not taking it for granted.
09:16So that's the offensive side of the ball.
09:19We'll get to defense on Grant and Danny next, going through each position group after the
09:24rosters were formed.
09:25Remember, 5 o'clock, the presser, Dan Quinn and Adam Peters, who we're going to be with
09:30on stage Thursday night.
09:32Tickets available, ArlingtonDrafthouse.com.
09:34Come on out and chat with Adam Peters.
09:38Should be a fun evening for our listeners.
09:40You're listening to The Fan.