If New Vergine new Quarterbacks in the building. A new podcast is hitting the Washington Commanders podcast network. What's going on, y'all? I am Zach Selby, senior writer for the Washington Commanders, and this is the Beatdown where we do one thing sports fans love to do, argue and like to pretend which one of us is right with me?
Is?
David Harrison and Lake Lewis Junior, they cover, They cover the beat for us for the Commanders and guys like y'all the first first guests on this podcast, how a were feeling right now?
Feel special?
Man?
Big love? Yeah, Man, appreciate it. Should it should be a lot of fun.
I'm looking forward to uh to handing Lake and old fashioned big ten style beat down.
Here.
Love it, okay, love love the trash shock.
I love hearing it.
It's like, just within like five seconds, y'all already had each other.
I mean, you bought a ringer in man.
David covered the bucks before, so he's a ringer.
You know.
It's almost like I play that out almost. Of course you give too much credit, but I feel like maybe that was in the cards. So I'll give you a little bit of what I expect out of this podcasts, I haven't given me too much. So we're gonna answer three questions over the course of the next thirty minutes. Y'all gonna each present your cases, and we're going to provide some points sort of like around the horn, but almost like who's on it anyway, where the point doesn't
necessarily matter how much Bay. It's my podcast. I can decide who's right and who's wrong. Right, So, and obviously we're gonna focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers since it is our Week one opponent. And guys, if you're ready, we can go ahead and get started.
We'll start.
So there's a lot of new stuff that's going to be happening with the Commanders this this this weekend, new defense,
new offense. But we're gonna talk specifically to starting with the defense here, and the Tampa Bay offense led by Baker may Field kind of came on there near at the end of the year with canals there as the off the cordior now obviously the head coach of the Carolina Panthers, but there's going to be you know, a playoff team on the other sideline there for the Commander's defense, Lake, I'll start with you, what do you think is the
biggest challenge is commander defense, which really struggled last year but seems to be a little bit on the up. So based on what we've seen in training camp, what is gonna be their biggest challenge heading against the Tampa Bay offense. I'll give you two minutes to respond, starting right now.
Listen, the biggest challenge for Washington obviously is going to be a guy that I think is a Hall of Fame player in Mike Evans. You know, if you look at what Mike Evans has done against Washington and five career games, you know, including a playoff game, he has twenty six receptions for over six hundred yards. So he's a guy that obviously is a focal point for the Buccaneers offense. Baker Mayfield looked for him quite a bit last year. So Washington's gonna have their hands you know,
you know full with him. You know, he's averaging one hundred and twenty one yards a game against Washington. It has four touchdowns, so again, you know, possession god. You know, at the same time he moves to chains for the Bucks, so you know who's going to cover him. Is it going to be you know, Emmanuel Forbes, Is it going to be you know, Benji Saint Juice. Well, whoever's going to cover him is going to have to do a good job and get some safety help on top of that.
And then I think the other thing is is that Chris Godwin, you know, and I need not say where he went to school, David Harrison, but Chris Godwin's a guy that's going to be, you know, eating underneath, which he always does. And it's going to be interesting to see how Mikey Sanders, still you know, rookie from Michigan, can fare against the Chris Godwin because I think he's going to be on him quite a bit underneath. So I think that those are going to be the focal
points of the game. I don't see Tampa running the football too effectively against Washington. I think that's going to be a strength of Washington is the run, their run defense, and so I'm not sure for Sea White, you know, has a big game in store for Tampa as far as the run game. So I think if Washington can take those two guys out on the on the edges on the outside and god Winning Evans, they have a great chance to win this football game.
You know, you bring up Mike Evans, and that's an excellent point because Mike Evans has been in the league for ten years now, going into eleventh. How many one thousand yard seasons he's had in his career? Ten Like every single game hit up a thousand yards and last year he had twelve hundred and fifty five, one of
the most productive of his career. Actually, not David your response to that, because he did bring up the receiving game for Tampa Bay, which is a pretty good point, and that seemed like to be their bigges strength on Tampa Bay offense.
Yeah, I know that that's certainly a good place to start, and I think Mike Evans obviously deserves all his flowers and he's going to be a big part of this contest. But I'm actually going to take something that Lake said and kind of expand on it because I think Lake, you were close to hitting the target. Unfortunately I got a zero in just a little bit better. And it's
a Chris Godwin slot match up with Mike Sanders. Still like Mike Sandersoll has done a lot since he's joined the Washington Commanders, and gotten in to the NFL obviously in a short period of time to really impress a lot of people. Right, very mature, very skilled player, always around the ball, never looks to be out of position. But there are just some things in this game that you can't scheme for and you can't you know, mentally, just be in the.
Right place to do. And that's a size difference.
And Chris Godwin is significantly taller than Mike Sanders. Still now Mike sanderstill plays bigger, and certainly that's going to be a part of this. But the question is going to be how much can the Washington Commarors defense leave Chris Godwin in the slot alone against Mike Sanders or how much do they have to give him help because of that size deficiency. It's not, you know, there's no
skilled deficiency. They're involved, but the more that this commander's defense has to kind of shrink into the middle of the field to cover that, And then also how that opens up opportunities for Kate Otten, who's not a Rob Gronkowski,
right but certainly capable in his own right. And then the trickle down economics of that is that could potentially to your point, like create opportunities for a guy like Rashad White or even Bucky Rein, the rookie quarter running back out of Oregon in Sampa who's made a lot of plays in the preseason. Like all of that kind of how it trickles down to each other, it all starts with Mike Sandersil.
If Mike sanders So can hold his.
Own against Chris Godwin, which I think he certainly has the capability of. It is just that veteran craftiness and size according or compared to that rookie size and lack of experience is going to weigh big.
And if Mike wins that matchup, it really.
Opens up the commander's defense to be more creative, more aggressive, and have more opportunities, maybe go over there and put more guys over Mike Evans to keep him from doing all the damage on the perimeter.
But the tighter they have to shrink.
In to help out that inside competition again underneath of the running backs. Over top of that on short routes by Chris two guys like Kate Kate out and over the middle, it's going to be problematic if they can't win that matchup with their with their organic design.
Yeah, and you know, we'll with zero in on Mike Sanmersol for a minute because this guy really seems like already one of one of the one of the Commander's best cornerbacks, just just based on what we've seen in training him so far. Yeah, he's a little bit smaller, but he already plays like a veteran. I mean, there's so many times during the preseason where it seems like he's he's really already already in such good, good positions.
I mean, I'm thinking of that play against the Jets where there was like almost like end around a little bit and then santam SiO was right there, uh to help love and make the tackle. Now, now, Lake, I'll give you a minute to respond to that, but I think we'll focus in on the corners because you know, and you mentioned the passing game, but like, do you know,
like what what this was committed passing defense? Whether it was one of the worst and it was the worst in the league, I as you know, you know, the last in the league and yards allowed, So how does Mike sammer still maybe like give you a little more confidence in what they're gonna see based on you know what, how he formed up the last month or so.
Well, I mean, I think David hit on it.
I mean it's a it's a great point, you know, as far as you know, and he showed my Penn State got some love you know on Godwin. You know, he's you know, we know he had an injury, you know, two years ago, you know, so he should be even better now coming back from that. You know, that second year back from those type of injuries, you get better.
But I do I think that, you know, I agree with David that samram Is still is going to be a key proponent to what this defense can ultimately do, not just you know, you know Sunday, but going forward. You know, if he can lock down the middle of the field, you still have guys behind him, you know, and a Kawan Martin and a Jeremy Chen, guys that, you know, versatile type players that can move closer to the box, even if they have to go back sometimes and play a cover too. They can do those things.
So I do think that that is important. But again, you know, I still greave what I say as far as just Mike Evans. He's torched Washington over the years, He's torched a lot of teams, but specifically, the commanders have struggled with him, you know, as far as just you know, bottling him up. And I think that, you know, Baker Mayfield is going to look for the guy. You know, why wouldn't you look for a potential Hall of Famer.
You know, Uh, He's going to look for him. The other thing I would say, guys, is a pass rush. Washington has to get a pass rush. They have to make Baker feel uncomfortable because one thing about Baker Mayfield, he's the confidence quarterback. When he's feeling good, he actually is good, you know. But but if he has some heat on him, you know, sometimes he can put some
things up for grabs. And that's where you know, Washington's corners and safeties might have some opportunities to jump on some passes and you know, some routes and get some interceptions out of that and turn the football over, something Washington's defense has not done over the years. And that's one of the reasons why Joe Whitt was brought in by Dan Quinn, you know, because his defenses in Dallas, you know, created lots of turnovers and that's what they're
gonna need. So again, I do think sanmrums still is one of the top two or three components for Sunday's game as far as him covering Chris Godwin in the slot. But I also think again, whoever's going to be on Mike Evans is going to have to have one of those one of those coming out games to signal that they can be a first first rate corner in the NFL. And then obviously pass rush if they can get a pass rush. You know, now we're talking and not just
straight here. But another thing that's going to be key too is that this revamped linebacker room Frankie Louvu, you know, Bobby Wagner of course, and then whoever else is out there with them. You know, I think that they can control the middle portion of a field as well, which also could help Mikey Sanders still, you know, as far as kind of like you know, putting you know, Chris Godwin and in certain areas of the middle of the field.
You know, So if they can ship them and do things like that, that'll be integral as far as their success.
David real Quick responded to before we move on, because you know, league where I brought with the pass rush, and this team really just struggled in terms of generating sacks. Once Chase young Monte's foot, we're out of here. I think they had forty backs the bottom third of the league. So and you know that, you know this, this Buccaneers top of the line probably better than anyone on the beat. So tell me, like, how do you think this is really gonna fare against this Buccaneers off of the blind?
Yeah, you know the Bucks offensive line is they've got good amount of talent. I mean, they're left tackles, all Pro caliber, Pro Bowl caliber, Tristan Wurz, Like, that's gonna be kind of a spot where you just kind of go into this game. I think, can you understand We're not gonna win a lot here against this dude. So it's more so how do we get around him?
Like what games do we.
Play to occupy him so we can get somebody behind him, or getting inside leverage against him so that he just can't elevate against and then take advantage of that lesser experienced interior offensive line where they've got a rookie center getting ready to make his first NFL start. I think that's where Deron Payne and John Allen are really going
to be able to make a difference. And for fans of the Commanders, like they're a little bit concerned about this path rush because in the preseason, you know that Jami and Davis had the strip sack and that's great, but like not a whole lot of generated pressure compared to why I think fans have been expecting. But they also haven't seen Bobby Wagner, John Allen, Deron Payne.
On the field all the same time.
But we've seen them in the joint practice, right and against the New York Jets, against the Miami doll and those joint practices, they were getting after it and they were getting pressure. And so I think you're going to see a little bit more of that than maybe fans have seen in the preseason, and certainly that's going to be huge because to Lake's point, like a guy like Baker Mayfield actually asked Emmanuel Forbes about this on Wednesday, Like,
that's a dude who loves to take shots. He loves to take risks, but he also loves to toy with corners. He wants to give you a look to make you think something's happened, almost like the quarterback running a double move, like the receiver may just be running a straight up route, but the quarterback almost is going to give you a double move, especially if he knows you're watching him. Baker Mayfield loves a toy with people's minds. I remember him
playing the flag you know, in Columbus, Ohio. He he loves to play those games. So that's absolutely going to be an impact here. But yeah, that commander's pass rush against this. This Buccaneer's offensive line very highly untested in its current alignment, and with Joey Junior and his creativity, potentially could wreak some havoc. But I think something both sides of this cause this contest have to their benefit is they're both practicing against defense coordinators I don't know,
for being insanely creative and insanely aggressive. So they're actually both kind of coming in against defenses that they've already been training against all training team.
Yeah, and you're right. I mean, Baker Mayfield had the best year of his career last year. We'll see if it's actually going to be a blip and more of a trend for what he's gonna have for the rest of his career in the NFL. So we're gonna move on to the next question, but I will give you a little bit of a score update. It's really close between you two, but it looks like David is head by one point. Let's go like he got a little
chance to gain some ground here. The second question is we've all seen what Jane Daniels has done over the last month, right, He's looked more so, you know, like he's a player beyond his year in terms of his poise, his commandity, offense, his knowledge. But at the same time, he's going to be a rookie going into its first a real live NFL game against a Deemster Cordner who
loves to bring pressure, really experienced play caller. So question we'll start We'll start with David this time is what do you think that if Kingsbury can do to protect Jayden Daniels and try to get the most out of his skill set.
I think you got to do something that I've been asking offensive coordinators to do on this team since I started covering this team.
Zech move the pocket. You drafted Jade Daniels.
More so than anything like that, the biggest discriminator between Jade and Daniels and the other quarterbacks available to this team.
Were was his athletic ability.
And his decision making. Those are the two things that separated himself. Like when you look at Drake May and you look at Jayden Daniels, and I don't mean.
To disparage Drake.
I hope he has a great career, all that good stuff, But when you look at the two, Jade and Daniels clearly the superior athlete compared to Drake May. Both of these guys put the ball everywhere on the field, everywhere you need them too.
And then the decision making.
And this is where I say, I apologize any Drake May fans out there, but there's a moment in his tape and it's not the only moment, it's the biggest moment in his tape where North Carolina's got a first and goal.
Or they're in goal to go.
I can't remember his first now, but they're in goal to go situation. They're lined up heavy and they're miss their right tackle and Drake May snaps the ball while his right tackles trying to run onto the field behind him, doesn't realize he's short alignment in a big set. That's a problem we saw in the preseason game. How many illegal formation penalties they had while Drake and May was in there. That's something you need your quarterback to do. Jayden Daniels
better at that. He's also the better athlete. Use those advantages to your advantage. Here at Stampa Bay Buccaneers, their pass rush is really interesting right now because all the dynamic ability they did have where they're making their Super Bowl run and even trying to make their follow on runs a couple of years ago, a lot of that is kind of gone right now. Their best pass rusher on the edge off the defensive line is yah YadA Yadi.
He's had a really good season last year, a lot of potential, but he is not ready to be that main pass rusher for an NFL defense. I don't believe. Maybe Hope surprised me. But on the opposite side outside lineback, you had Joe Tryon.
Schuenka, who a lot of people think is basically.
On his way out of tamp after not proving himself after being such a high round draft pick.
So, if I'm Cliff Kingsbury, ya Yadadadi's.
Honestly the guy, and he's gonna be going up against rookie left tackle Brandon Coleman if he can go this weekend, or Cornelius Lucas the backup.
So that's kind of if I have a biggest.
Concern in the outside linebacker realm, that's gonna be the guy roll the pocket.
To the right. Just so happens.
That's probably James Daniels the most comfortable side to roll to anyway. And you put Joe Tryon Shunka in very problematic situations where he's got to make a decision. I'm either gonna run with the super athletic quarterback ort and leave potentially a tight end or running back or a crossing wide receiver open behind me, or I'm gonna try to stay in my coverage assignment and the I'm gonna watch Jadan Daniels skirt up the sideline.
To me, that is an.
Opportunity rich advantage at this commander's team has, and this offensive line that hasn't gotten any active reps against or against a live opponent, and they're in they're organic starting five. Again, if Brandon can go this weekend, that helps them because you make that defense run, you make them get, you tire them out, and again ya ya yabi, like the more he runs, the less effective he's gonna be as the game goes on. So I think that, to me, is the biggest way you protect Jayme and Daniels.
I'm so glad you brought up the pocket movement because it's something that Washington didn't really do all that much at all last year because when we knew that the same show wasn't necessarily the scrambler that some of these other quarterbacks. But he did have some mobility to him. He seemed like he's doing his best whenever he was kind of getting out of the pockets, scrambling away from the pressure that seemed to always be coming at him
on the middle. But but Lake, I'll throw this to you, Like, I mean, is it as simple as that is? Its simple as letting Jaden get out there and run with us. Some people are really hesitating about him him sliding and getting out there and avoiding contact, But like, is it really as simple as just getting him out of the pocket and letting him do what he does best with his legs or there's something more to it thin that.
Well?
No, I mean I think then that's the that's the irony to this, And I agree with David one hundred percent that you know, the pocket didn't move at all in the past. Well, I mean if it moved, it was going backwards. So you know, now, I just think that you have to let Jaden be himself, you know, not overthink this, not you know, situations that he wouldn't be comfortable with. If he spoke to you know, us yesterday and he said, you know that he's he just
wants to play football, and that's the whole point. You know, he's going to have some input with Cliff Kingsbury as far as things that they can do it against this Buccaneers defense. That's going to make him comfortable. And he said that Cliff will will listen to guys. So I'm if I'm Washington, I'm turning this guy loose. We all know what he can do. He showed everything possible as far as you know, all the tricks in his bag
in the preseason. You know, deep ball, you know, elusiveness, running the football, command of the line of scrimmage, as far as what he saw on the other side of the ball, to audible out of a play. I mean, these are the things that you want from your young quarterback.
So you know, I think for Washington as far as moving him around, I think it would be a big, big plus for their offense because let's face it, when you look at Tampa's defense, you know, naturally upfront you have that monster Bavay, who you know, a lot of commanders, fans will remember him because they wanted him to get.
Drafted a couple of years back.
You know, he's a stout guy that can hold up the line. But I feel really good as far as the interior portion of Washington's offensive line, you know, with the additions of Beatas and then Nick Alagretti and you know obviously Sam Kyles mean you just got the bag yesterday on the contract extension, I think that that interior portion of Washington's line is clearly going to be their strength, and that helps them against a guy like vi to Bay.
But I think if you look at Tampa's defense, you know, the two guys in the back to me a really good George whitehead man, Antoine Winfield Junior. You know, those guys are to me the glue to Tampa's defense. And it's ironic because those are the guys that Jaden's going to have to attack with the deep ball to keep them back, you know, to open up the run game, do different things like that. So again, should they move the pocket, Absolutely, I think they will, think David hit
on that right on the head. They're going to utilize Jaden's strengths. But let's not confuse ourselves, guys. He's not a running quarterback first. He's a pocket passer who happens to have dynamic wills and he does take off and I think if they give him the green light to take off when he needs to, you're you're going to see this dynamic player that everyone's looking forward to watching.
Yeah, And I think that's one of the things we've seen the most in training camp was, Yeah, we all knew that he had his disability. We still haven't really seen what Jane can do with his legs because he's been so conservative with that. But who he is as a passer has been just so impressive, and you saw as training can't progress, they kind of let him uncork
these passes. It's a little bit more because he does he didn't have the strongest wrong in the world, but he does have a pretty decent arm to go to to launch these passes down field. We saw a little bit of that with theanmy Brown against the Jets. But you know, david'll'll pose this to you. And I mean, Cliff obviously wants to make sure that he has some easy reads, right he doesn't. You don't want to throw
all these compcit looks at him immediately. But to to Lake's point, at some point, you do have to let him do what he does best. So how do you think Cliff is going to balance the terms of Okay, we need to give him some easier legs versus okay, let's just go ahead and let's let's let's let him try this contested pass downfield of Terry, Like, how do you balance the conservative versus just letting the guy loose and letting him play the way he wants to play.
Yeah, you know, I think, honestly, I think Jayden has kind of proven himself to be a smart decision maker to the point where he kind of has.
That ability to make that decision for himself.
And then you go back to that first preseason game of the year, and granted, he wasn't supposed.
To check out of that screen that he checked.
Out of, but obviously he felt like he could get away with it if he did it, and he did check into the big shot, he took it. Deanmy Brown was able to come up with the pass smile into the to the zide line. Now, I'm sure you know, there was a little bit of a conversation probably had, you know, later on, like hey, this is why we want you to do this stuff and all these things.
But I think that that just kind of shows you how much Jaden has confidence in himself and his teammates, but also how much he understands what he is allowed.
He has left and right limits, so to speak, within this offense.
So I think even the Cliff is coming out there and calling a conservative, you know game for Jaden initially, you know, to get the rookie comfortable and all that stuff that Jayden sees a shot or sees an opportunity that he is comfortable. Again if the if the entire mindset is, let's make sure our quarterback is comfortable. If he if he looks down the line of scrimmage, and
you know, don't want to give away too much. We we't see in training camp, but if you see seventeen lined up across from Bucks twenty seven in single high, in a single high look in pressman coverage, I mean, I don't gotta tell you in lake what probably is gonna happen, but it's gonna it's probably gonna happen.
Uh. And my guys, I am a calm over there. You know. I love that dude, but it's it's that's not a good that's not a good situation for him in that in that look.
So you know, if my quarterback is comfortable checking into something, uh, that that takes advantage of that look, then I would be comfortable with him, you know what I'm saying, if I trust him, and I think every sign we've seen from this staff, again, he checked into another play against the Miami Dolphants. So it's not like he checked into the play against the Jets that he wasn't necessarily supposed to check into and then got his hands flapped and
then didn't check it in anymore. So whatever conversations happened behind the scenes, it didn't result in, Hey, dude, you're not allowed to check out of these things because it's part of the design. It's all built in there, and it's I think it's I don't know, I can't quantify, right, I don't. I can't tell you how many teams out of thirty to do this, But I feel like it's it's fairly rare for a rookie quarterback to have that kind of decision making leeway, and I think it's really cool.
I think it's really cool, and it's it's indicative of how much they trust Jane to make those calls when when you need to, and the better they are, Adam, I think the more Cliffill dial up himself.
Yeah, you know, I really do like that event. Jayden and this coaching staff is like they're very collaborative with with him. They're not lessarily saying Okay, you have to do this our way or it's not going to work. They're very much less saying, Okay, if you see a look, you know, don't be afraid to check into it. And they trust him because he's he developed that trust with him, like he's shown that he knows this system. And again, on top of that, we haven't really even seen what
this system is going to look like completely. We've seen a lot of the vanilla stuff, but at the same time, we haven't really seen all that Cliff Kingsbury is going to throw out throw the Buccaneers for obvious reasons, so I'm really excited to see what they do what they do with that. All right, guys, we have five minutes left in this thing and the score is tied between US ten ten, and we're going to keep this. This question,
this last question is really simple. Give me your base best case for one player who must have a good game for Washington to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. David, we'll start with you first.
I'm gonna I'm gonna stick in the big ten here, and I'm gonna go with Kwon Martin. And I know the quarterbacks, the low hanging through the O line as a group.
Is obviously going to be important.
But I look at this Buccaneers offense, and I've said this on some other podcasts in my years of covering or writing about or talking about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, this is the most dynamic offense I've ever seen in Tampa. It's not the best quarterback ever, so the best tight end ever. It is the best wide receiver group ever. And the offensive line isn't, you know, even as good as the old line they had when they made the run of the Super Bowl.
But all the pieces together holistically.
And with what Liam Cohen, their new offensive coordinator, has done historically in his time with the Rams and even the one you're spent in Kentucky.
This is the most dynamic offense.
And the thing that you can't prepare for the most in training can preseason defensively is tackling.
And that's usually in the beginning of the season.
If you see like this great defense falter against a lesser opponent, it's usually because the tackling is not on point yet because they can't practice him as much. Right, So, I look at this commander's defense is Buccaneers offense, and guys like Rashad White, who comes out of Arizona State, who I consider the Penn State of the Big twelve.
If he gets loose, if he's allowed to shake that first.
Tackle attempt, Kwan Martin's gonna be a guy that's gonna be back there to help clean that up. You look at the pass game, Mike Evans on his deep shots. A lot of people look at my get him just a big, tall, long dude. He's got deceptive speed even at his agent, even as his experience.
We already talked about the slot. If Chris Godwin's able to get free.
There's got to be that last line of defense to make sure that fifteen yard games don't turn into big touchdowns. Eight yard games don't turn into fifteen yard games. The Buccaneers are going to make some play. So this is a playoff team, back to back to back division champion. Yes it's the NFC South, but still hard to win your division in the NFL. I don't care what division you're in. They've got talent. We know that they're going
to do some things. We know that, but the Washington commanders that they can force them to stend drives like your goal needs to be no drives less than eight plays minimum.
That's minimum. You have to make Baker maybe go in there.
Because the thing about Baker too is even in his career year last year, he'll throw some mistakes. He'll make some mistakes. He'll give you opportunities, and Joey Junior is going to lose his mind if they don't take advantage of at least two or three of them.
But those opportunities are gonna come. To get off the field, they've got to do that.
But it starts with making the Bucks stay on the field in the first place. For those opportunities to come, and I look at Kwan Martin as that last line of defense back there. So I think if he has a best game of his NFL career, you know, it's relatively short, so I think we can go that far.
If he has the best game of his short NFL career, this team has a chance to contain the Buccaneers offense, which will help the Commanders offense and allow them to be more comfortable with what they're trying to do.
All right, Lake, give give me your best take. Who you think is gonna have the best game to beat the Buccaneers on Sunday.
You know, this is kind of a you know, an obvious thing, and I agree with David. You know, I do think Kwan Martin is huge. Actually, was gonna go Jarem on the defensive side for the overall the overall thing. For me, I think Washington has to be able to run in the football. They have to, So I'm gonna go with Brian Robinson and Austin Eckler. I think, you know, as a dual threat, you'll finally get a chance to see both these guys in action and how they can
compliment each other's games. Both can catch the ball out the back field too. Surprisingly, Brian Robinson showed that last year under Erik the Enemy that he could catch the football at a high rate. So I think as long as Washington can run the football, it kind of takes some of the pressure off Jadan in his first ever start. You know, I think it can open up things for Jaden as well, because obviously, if you're running the football effectively,
you're kind of controlling the line of scrimmage. And let's face it, you guys, if you're going to start a left tackle, and Brandon Foeman his first ever NFL game, if he does start at left tackle, which I think David and myself in you'sac think he will, you know, that's something that can help his game too, because face it, if you're asking rookies and you know, these younger players to go immediately in the pass pro, you know that stuff kind of can mess them up early in the game.
But if you can get them lathered up and get them a fill for the game by running the football effectively, it can open up things for the past game. So for me, if Brian Robinson can have one of these games where he doesn't have to get a hundred yards, but if he can get seventy yards on the ground, you know, an additional twenty plus, you know, as far as dump down or something like that in the past game.
I think obviously with Austin Eckler, Eckler can get you twenty five yards running and maybe you know, on the other end, gets you thirty yards in the past game. I think this fares very well for Washington in a game that I think we all think is going to be a close, closely for football game. That running game could be the catalyst that as Washington leave Tampa with the w You.
Know, normally I would knock you for giving two answers at once there, but I think the way the way that they've the way they've pretty much propped up b Rob and Eckler at the duo is so appropriate because like they very much are a one a one beat just because they offer something very different. You know, you have Eckler with with the outside runs, but you have Irob who can who can do that, but more of a bruiser can can hit those of those holes down downfield.
And David, I love the point that you you you brought up about Kwan and tackling I think it's gonna be so key, especially what the Steven showed last year. And I love the way Kawan Martin has developed this offseason. But I gotta get I gotta go with Lake here with this is it was it was so so it was so excellent. Bit a point considering that this is Jimmy Jaden's first start, you need to establish a solid run game. So Lake, you are the first winner of
the beat Down Podcast. Do you have any any any victory words that you'd like to to part on this here?
Well, listen, man, David's my brother man and and and you know, literally one of the best out out there doing this thing. So you know, it's it's all love as long as I know, uh, you know, he's gonna wear some blue next week.
We're good. I'm actually wearing blue today. Bro Okay.
And you know what, for the record, I agree b Rob and Austin Eckler. That's one a one like that is that is like that's the running back position group. But don't sleep on Jeremy McNichols. He was drafted by Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It's not it's not a revenge game. Like the staff is gone, that drafted him, all that
kind of stuff. But you know, for a guy that has ended up being a journeyman the way that Jeremy mc nichols has been, you know that there's just there's got to be just a human part of him that wants to win. Whatever opportunities he gets to play, even if it's on special teams, make a splash play out there, just go out into Raymond James Stadium, in the stadium that you started your career in, and then have a
good day and help your team win. So you know that running back group as a whole certainly going to be critical for this game.
And it seems like they've been hot in Austin all summer, just just waiting for this type of game where you know, he's a veteran, he's been around, he knows obviously. Coach Lynn is his coach here now his position coach. So you just this game reeks of an Austin Eckler red zone touchdown somehow.
Yeah, you bring up Jeremy mc nichols, I will point out the day one I said, the Jeremy mc nichols froster. Just just just go throw that out there for you, all right, guys, you know, we're gonna see one unfolds in week one. I feel they've been waiting this for years, but finally we're gonna see Jade and Daniels inaction in a real game where the bullets are gonna be flying. It's gonna be fantastic no matter what happens. I think
it's gonna be very competitive either way. Uh but but guys, I really appreciate you coming on.
Lake.
You will have a chance to keep your title, David. You will have a chance to get some revenge here later on the season. We'll have a rotating cast of all the beat requarters over the next you know, a few months or so. But it's gonna be a great season either way. But guys, I really appreciate you coming out and this has been the beat down