00:00from the commanders and the eagles in philly odyssey sports coverage of football's opening
00:07week right here on 106.7 the fan is presented by hands-free sketchers slip-ins just step in
00:15and go welcome back g and d on the fan what side of the ball do you feel better about
00:22as
00:22washington embarks on a new season the offense under david blau the defense under durante jones
00:29i think the eagles game is a pretty easy one for me to answer so i kind of want to
00:34make this a bigger
00:35conversation i think the defense has a chance to have a really good day against philly i'm really
00:42worried about the offense against the eagles but i don't know that that necessarily means the answer
00:46should be the defense over the offense permanently because the following week you're playing in
00:52dallas against the cowboys where i feel like every time you go you get torched and you give up 40
00:56on
00:56carpet and dak throws it all over the place and you're dealing with cd lamb and george pickens and
01:01you don't have trey amos and it's basically russell douglas and amik robertson against the best wide
01:06receiver tandem in the league with a little bit of mike sandra still mixed in he's been there for some
01:12of the debacles in the secondary in dallas over the last couple of years so right away i'm worried
01:16about that defensive matchup with dallas whereas that's a bad defensive team over the years and i know
01:22they made a good hire in christian parker their new coordinator they brought in some new pieces
01:26but in that game you would think the offense indoors might have a better chance to do something
01:32than the defense so i guess we should just take it not just about the eagles but going into the
01:37year
01:38who's got a better chance five games in to have put up some good numbers the offense or the defense
01:43so i think this is my opinion i think is crazy given the recent history of this team they have
01:50finished 32nd in uh yards finished 32nd in points before finished you know in the late 20s defensively
01:58they don't turn teams over they've been horrendous on that side of the ball and yet i think i actually
02:04feel a little bit better about that group i don't think it's world beating i don't think they're going
02:09to be outstanding i don't think they're the broncos or the or the texans or uh you know the maybe
02:14the
02:14rams potentially if everything goes according to the plan there i don't think they're a dominant
02:18juggernaut like the seawks were last year i think they'll be much improved i think they'll be middle
02:22of the pack and fine not to the point that they are literally costing the team game week in and
02:27week out games week in week out rather i don't know about this offense i'm hopeful right i mean
02:33you got the pieces they got things that i'm excited about digs a con quo mcclorn being healthy etc
02:38these are all things i would sign up for like antonio williams to me it's the offensive line injury
02:44risk of daniels i don't know i don't know if i if you promise me you can't but if you
02:50could hey you
02:51get 16 healthy weeks of jayden daniels and the line is no worse than 25th in the league depends on
02:58your on your metric i would go then it's the offense but i don't know and that's where i'm at
03:03so i feel a little bit better strangely about the defense that has no deposits but i think your build
03:07up as if to say this is so crazy in a while that i feel this way i think most
03:12people probably feel
03:13better about the defense than the offense going into the year you think so even the think of the
03:17huge number of people that are going if jayden daniels is awake it's the offense i mean that's
03:23what do you mean it's the meaning the offense will be fine yeah the offense jayden daniels man and
03:26that's that's the only discussion anyone wants to have i think there is a faction of the fan base that
03:31feels that way mostly loud people on social media with jayden daniels as their avatar but i i don't think
03:36that's the consensus opinion per se and that isn't to say that people aren't high on jayden daniels they
03:41should be high on jayden daniels but i don't think most people feel like if he plays dot dot dot
03:46like
03:46now it's over and you don't have to worry about anything else the other thing is your top 10 pick
03:51was a defensive player before you signed digs during camp 10 of the first 13 free agents that
03:56they signed that are meaningful players that will play a lot were on the defensive side of the ball
04:00they are better built on defense when we go through the position groups and the questions
04:04like the de-tackle position they've got a 28 million dollar guy and a 15 million dollar guy
04:09and an 8 million dollar guy and uh at edge they signed a 25 million dollar guy and a 12
04:14million
04:15dollar guy and they still have armstrong who's a double digit million dollar guy and they drafted
04:18joshua josephs at linebacker you've got frankie louvu and you drafted styles and you signed chanel
04:24other than corner and i know that's a pretty big other than but that's the one question on the defense
04:29where they're pretty deep in a lot of positions like they've built this thing up pretty well so
04:34i don't know i kind of think defense as well i i it's hard for me to envision the answer
04:40being
04:40offense unless the argument is and maybe that's the better topic we could do how do you make the
04:46argument for offense you've mentioned the daniels part of this where people could just say he's so
04:51good people have forgotten as long as he's healthy he's gonna run around and make plays and make
04:56everybody right and they'll score 37 in the opener because he goes off and if that happens we're gonna
05:00come in here on monday and be like it's happening again it's that you've got number five nothing else
05:05matters like that could be our storyline right on monday if they go torch the eagles but you're right
05:10it is weird because the defense last year was dead last in yards per game 384.3 allowed they i
05:17think
05:17yards per play is the better metric because it's just everybody lines up you run a play who gives up
05:21the
05:22most yards and for washington they were 30th at 6.02 yards per play last year they were so bad
05:2727th against the run 30th uh 31st against the pass 27th and intercepting passes 31st at first downs
05:34per game i mean they stunk up the joint but it's a completely different thing the scheme is different
05:39the players are different they've changed almost everything i don't know how relevant last year is
05:44to even look at those numbers now i don't have delusions of of being the best defense in the league
05:49but i've said a couple of times i could see a path to i think there's a world where
05:54they are a top half the league defense i think they could be in the 12 to 15 range and
06:00that would not
06:00shock me i wouldn't bet on it but i think there's a reality where that happens where
06:06durante jones is that dude he's brian flores 2.0 they need him to be by the way yeah certainly
06:12do you
06:12still have to make some some magic potion out of that right because it's not as if again you got
06:16the
06:16legion of boom at the secondary the you know the this unbelievable juggernaut established linebacker
06:22group now i like the pieces i'm excited about it but you know you've got 50 million bucks in salary
06:27cap for javon kinlaw uh tim settle and deron pain that hadn't been tremendously productive at some of
06:34those you know interior spots now maybe they're not asked to be you never know what's asked what's not
06:37but you're paying a lot of money for guys just occupy some blockers so do you are you able to
06:42ramp
06:43those guys up if we get contract here deron pain then maybe all of a sudden the defense is a
06:47totally
06:48different animal and maybe it can be uh that's something that you're kind of talking about and we
06:51see a lot more from styles again i'm not ripping him it's just all we saw in the preseason was
06:56a
06:56read and react off ball linebacker which is not worthy of a seven overall pick that's not exciting
07:00what's exciting is him being a heat-seeking missile flying around over the place covering one play
07:05blitz in the next tfl's uh sacks fumbles interceptions you know game changing drive changing
07:11type plays you're hoping that he's unleashed it's all on jones though to kind of make sure that those
07:15things are happening not at the sacrifice of the defense not just because you got a new toy
07:18but that they're that they're actually you know producing some of these things because again it's
07:23a wire thin secondary group and it's a yeah it's fine better be fine because it relies on pressure
07:31and that's not always easy to get let's open up the phones on this for listeners at 800-636-1067
07:40800-636-1067 i think it goes without saying against the eagles who have one of the great defenses in
07:46the
07:46league and have a new offense that jalen hurt struggled with at training camp the matchup is
07:50better defensively than offensively right but take it beyond just the eagles matchup early this year
07:55what side of the ball do you feel better about or don't even worry about the opponent just take
08:00washington into the conversation in a vacuum are you higher on the defense entering the season
08:06which may be without a dafe oa initially will be without trey amos or the offense where there
08:12are some interior offensive line questions 800-636-1067 if you want to join us on grant and danny on
08:20the fan
08:20you
08:20you
