Coming up on this exclusive edition of Booth Review. I'm Bram Weinstein with London Fletcher. Where just watched the Commander's practice against the Jets.
What stood out to you?
Well, you know, obviously I wanted to watch the quarterback Jayden Daniels and he made some plays. Also, man my Man, Dianmy Brown, he was out there looking good. And you know the defense. I love those guys defensive front. They were in the backfield of the New York Jets. Make us of plays. I love watching what I saw, Love what I saw in practice.
Yeah, you're worried about that pass rush. You saw it today in a first go against somebody. It's something we're going to talk about today on Booth Review. Welcome into this exclusive preview edition of Booth Review. I'm Bram Weinstein, play by play voice of the Commanders with the legendary linebacker London Fletcher joins me in the booth for all of the games. Will be joined by Logan Pulsen this year. But this year, London, you and I are going to
be doing a podcast together. We're doing it today off of the joint practice with the Jets. So it's our little warm up. This is our preseason for the regular season, I'm doing a podcast together because we're gonna be doing one every Monday after every game.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to this, you know, just to be able to kind of review the game, you know, talk about what we see from our dvantage point in the booth. And it's exciting, man, you know, the whole podcast epidemic, so to speak. I'm looking forward to doing this with you. I know we're gonna have a lot of fun.
It's gonna be fun. August twenty sixth as we're going to debut the first official one, which will be after the last preseason games. We'll be getting into cuts. We'll have seen all of the preseason, but we wanted to do a special preview one because we're up in New York with the team. We just got to go see the joint practice today against the Jets. Unfortunately, the weather was awful. It was pouring the first hour of it
and then drizzled throughout the rest of it. That led to the Jets not even putting Aaron Rodgers out there, so we didn't get to see Aaron Rodgers against the defense. Let me just get your general takeaway of what kind of stood out to you today.
Yeah, you know, the first thing you mentioned the weather, and with it being a consistent rain throughout the practice, at times pouring rain, I thought ball security was great, you know, all things considered. I didn't see a lot of balls on the ground, a lot of fumbles or drop pass and things like that center QB exchange. Those are things that you concern yourself with anytime you have weather issues. So from that standpoint, I thought, I thought the teams, both teams handled that well.
Just give me your general sense of Jayden Daniels. What did you see today and what was the first time he's been up against another opponent.
Well, you know, just looking at the way they started off the practice. They started that period off with like a seven on seven period and they were going against a lot of man man coverage against the New York Jets and Jay and I thought was on time and on target with a lot of the passes. He had a beautiful deep ball throw down the sideline to the dam Brown and Diamy made a one hand to catch the ball. Accuracy, the ball play where you wanted it to be, I thought him And first pass was to
you know, zach Ertz. Nice pass, Zach has been a great target for Jayden. You can see him being like a quarterback's best friend. Him and his knowledge of this offense is starting to shine a show.
So I was.
I was impressed with the way Jayden performed, especially in that let's call a seven h seventh period where there's no pass rus things like that, where you truly just working on your chemistry and your time in with your receivers.
When it got into eleven on eleven, at least early, from what I saw, and I saw honestly, more of they were on separate fields, So I actually saw more of the first team defense than I did of the first team offense. But from what I did see from Daniels and from what I kind of heard and gleaned from everyone else who was paying attention, the offense collectively as a whole had a hard time moving the ball here early. Again, that goes back to I think the
offensive line is shuffling things around. This is all new, and we had an opportunity to talk to Cliff Kingsbury, you know, a few days ago, and he is open saying we're not gonna show anything, right, Yeah, we're doing And I think that that's part of this here, So I wonder how you view that knowing they're not really they don't want to show anybody what they want to
be a secret. I don't I don't blame them. No one knows what their formations are gonna be, No one knows what kind offense they're gonna run.
But you saw, and I don't want to say too much because I did see a couple of things where you can tell, Okay, this is something that they're saving for Tapa Bay Week. One that you know, I saw that we hadn't seen out in Ashburn, especially with the fans being out there. So there was some wrinkles that they did offensively that you can say, Okay, I really like this, this aspect that I don't want to share
too much on the podcast. You know, you and I can talk off air, but when you look at it is really about just being able to compete against another team, compete and making sure is he making the right decision and not just him, but the quarterback in general. Are
they making the right decision? Does the pass pro are they are they calling making the right cause I saw Tyler biadis you know, making making the right calls from a from a protection standpoint, You want to see those guys making sure they're operating in the right manner.
And doing the things that they need to do.
And you know they know the offensive line is what it is in terms of injuries right now, So I think from nest standpoint there, they're happy with that aspect of.
These practices feel and most of the players and coaches seem to say it these days, the way the preseason is treated more important. It's a better learning environment. There's more corrections to be made out of it.
You want to you want to have mistakes happen in practice or corrections happen in practice as opposed to a game. You know a great, great coach, Hall of Fame coach that I play for, Dick lebau. You know, a lot of times when you're in the practices, especially if if you're on defense and you give up a play, something happens and you know, everybody, all the coach are in
the uproar and things like that. Coach Leboul was like, Man, I'd much rather have those things happen right now unless get them corrected that happened on Sunday or doing a real game. And I'm sure you know you're not happy when they happened on a practice field at that moment, but it's an opportunity to coach, correct and not just correct the guys who you know may have had the situation that made a mistake on the field, but you're also coaching their backups and other guys as.
Well, so you know things that happened.
You're happy when they when you're able to have those mistakes happen and correct them up, coach them up.
And I know that everybody was paying attention to Jayden obviously because they wanted to see him first go against an opponent, But we had talked to Kingsbury a couple days earlier and he had pointed out to us he really actually wanted to focus on the run game. He wanted to see it specifically against I think this defensive front because I wanted to see how they would handle
against something like this. I don't know if you got anything out of the practice there, because I know it was important to the team to see how the run game was functioning as they had towards the regular season.
Yeah, it's still a work in progress. You know, the ruck I thought, you know, Austin Eckler, he popped a couple of times, and b rob showed his toughness broke tackles, even though it's not they weren't tackling tackling, but there were some times where Yeah, but the defender may have been there and tried to like thud him up, knowing b Robb he was breaking those tackles. So you like to see the physicality of the running backs and those
things like that. Anytime you work in with a office line that hasn't had a lot of time together, you're gonna have some mishaps that take place.
Yeah, it's interesting with the two of them. I didn't see be Robin Eckler. I didn't see a lot of them today, But how they're going to be utilized together is going to be very interesting. How they utilize their formations will be very interesting. And I'm with you on Eckler. Actually, I don't know if I saw a ton of it today. It was wet and it was sloppy outside today. But he looks as quick as he's been in the past, like we've seen now that they've started to ramp up
to more of a game speed. And I still like, and I'm gonna ask you about this in a minute, because I haven't seen game speed yet through since the started camp, and I see it again today. But when it gets up to a certain point, you're starting to see the Eckler that quick twitchy cuts that like kind of made him what he was with the Chargers. You're seeing that here now.
Yeah, I think it's a good time.
You mentioned, you know, wanting to see game speed or haven't not seen it yet. You can tell that the coaches really emphasize, hey, we want to we don't want to have a bunch of fistic cuffs and fights, and we don't want the inticity so high that we're not able to accomplish what we want to accomplish. But there was some physicality that took place at the line of scrimmages and things like that, and I saw guys running to the football saw you know, that's what you want
to see. Definitely on the defensive side of the ball. You mentioned Eckler, there were some times where where he just he's he's he's stronger than what he looks, and we've seen videos of him in the He's not a big guy, but he breaks a lot of tackles because he's just he's stronger than what he appears to be. They're gonna utilize him and be Robin in a variety
of different ways. Both of them obviously can run the ball out of the backfield, but also being able to catch the ball and being able to do some things in that manner. I'm looking forward to seeing seeing how his offense operates.
Yeah, So the other couple of guys that really just stood out to me through camp and to this point, they went and drafted Luke McCaffrey. But Alamode alamidez A Kias has really stood out here as someone who has really emerged I think into camp to the point where forget just making the team, he may have a prominent role if you were watching closely, and today he was featured in the offense today as well, So I think he's a name to watch here.
He's a VET.
I'm not surprised considering depth at the position group. I'm not surprised that he's an easy ad to the fifty three, but I think he might be a bigger role play if I'm guessing right now, by the time we get around to the regular season, he's got a bigger role in this team than I think people might have thought when they first brought him.
In here, well, he continued to show up and continues to make plays, and you want you want that to happen. When he was signed as a free agent back in April, you know, it was kind of an under under the radar sign and only had what ten catches a season ago, and and Philly, so he's like, okay, not not that big of a signup. But then you continue to watch the practices and he's the one who continued to show up,
continues to make plays. I'm not the biggest guy, but he makes plays and he's making the most of it of his opportunities as well. It was a couple other guys, the tight ends. I thought the tight ends looked really good. Yeah, saw saw being sent and make some plays. I mentioned
Zach Ers making some plays as well. So I thought the tight ends shoot our other tight end, the big uh No, bas John Bates, he made some plays as well, and he well, there was this one time he caught a pass and the defender safe he was looking to come up and thut him, and next thing you know, it was like he was a speed bumper.
Yeah, basse man, it was. It was pretty big, pretty.
Nice offensive lineman. Yeah, in a tight ends body. That's what they love about him. And Zakias seems to bring the attitude that they're looking for. This coaching staff is looking for a I want the ball, it's mine, yeah, you know. And on defense, they want the guys uber confident, go get the ball, turn it over, play really fast, which is when I'll get into the defense in the practice in a minute. But I want, I want to stay on that thought for a minute with you, which
is they keep talking about Dan Quinn, Joe Witt. You know, this is what we're about. Your friends and family gonna watch us. You're gonna like what you see. We're gonna play with a lot of intensity. We're gonna bring it like those type of things. And the other day, like to the point about they haven't shown game speed yet. We haven't seen it yet. We've not seen it yet. And it's not to suggest that like they're not doing it.
It's purposefully they're not going at the speed and intensity that they intend to have at some point, which is gonna have to obviously change on Saturday when they play a game.
I'll say this when you and I don't know if you're just talking, and you may be talking mainly intensity within the trenches. Yeah, like offensive linemen, I mean receivers, cornerbacks like their game speed because you have to run full speed routes. You have to run at the cover guys at the at the game speed. There's no like, all right, we're gonna be eighty percent you you need to run these routes full speed. So a lot of
the perimeters those that's full speed. That's game speed. There's no gonna there's not gonna be a all of a sudden we turn it on once we get into two. You know, preseason games or the regular season, finishing plays may not be at the level that they will be at once. Finishing plays from an offensive stamp, offensive line standpoint, you know, de keeting, decleting somebody really uh, you know, pancaking somebody in the in the whether in a run
block or perimeter, play screens and things like that. They're not doing those things yet, not in the not in the practice setting. You just don't want to do those things, but you want to make sure you're in the right position first and foremost, and then once once the games really ramp up, you'll see those guys being finished.
With the other day in the press conference said you know, we're living that mantra. This can't be bs. Yeah like that, it has to be that. And so I've been waiting to see because listen, I've been around a long time. I'm covered you as a player. That is a long time ago. Man. You know, teams before you were even in Washington. This is not what training camp was. It's just a different time.
It's a different it's a different time. Just that's just the way it is. And and and even within that, I think coaches have certain ways that they want to go out go about getting their teams ready to play. Where you're going to have some coaches they're going to have full paths every day, yeah, you know, as much as they possibly can. And then you're gonna have some coaches who may take an approach where hey, we're gonna be full pass this day maybe and shorts the next day.
Back in full past, things like that.
It felt like in the back of the day, he was like, let's see who can survive you.
Definitely there was a survival mentality, and it's it's not that we just got embrace it.
Bra times have changed, man.
I'm not suggesting they're the only ones doing this. The Jets were holding up too. I mean, it wasn't like there was a lot of physical There were no fights today. There was no reason to have any today. It wasn't like anybody was taking any cheap shots. So the message you got to cross on both sides today.
Right there was there were a couple of shots that were taken where I thought this could lead to a kind of a fistic cuff and it didn't happen, didn't take place. So, you know, guys were conscious of the message that was delivered to them from their head coach. I know, Coach Quinn obviously let his players, hey, we don't want those things, and I'm sure Robert Salad did
the same thing with his players. But there were some times where I saw a couple of hits and I was like waiting on this to be, you know, to escalate to something a little bit more than and it didn't happen.
All right, let's talk about the defense a little bit. I actually saw more of that in the joint practice than I did of the offense today. If you see some clips on like Twitter from early in practice, you'll hear all these ooze and odds and jet scoring and all that stuff. I want to go back to what we were just talking about. People were holding up. There
was no full tackling or anything like that. And there were plenty of times where guys were would have been teed up but weren't and allowed to keep running in the fans might have been confused with what they were watching.
Or a quarterback may have gotten sacked, and you just don't never you never know. The big takeaway, actually, I thought was a really good first sign. One of the big questions about this team is are they going to be able to generate a consistent pass rush?
And in a first go today they did. Actually, in my viewpoint of what I saw from the sideline, George Armstrong had a couple of good rushes. I think Frankie Luvu is a very interesting movable part for this team. Again, probably someone Joe What doesn't really want to show what they're going to do with him. He was in the backfield a couple of times. You know, I think you're gonna have your moments with Dante Fowler for sure. I
think you're gonna have your moments with Cleveland Ferrell. I think they're hoping Jamie Davis is gonna be somebody that can count on there. But I saw some of it today. So with the offensive line juggling and we're worried and the corners you all get to in a minute. On that question of can they generate a consistent pass rush in the first real test of it, which is just a practice, it was actually pretty good.
Well.
I think that the question was will we be able to generate a pass rush from the edges?
Correct?
Because we know we have an interior we have you know, Jonathan Allen and Doron Pain, two of the best interior pass rushers in the NFL, and then you add Johnny Newton to that mix, one of the most disruptive players in college football from the antirior. So you know, if that pressure will be there the edges, are we going
to be able to have pressure out there? So it's a I'm happy to hear that report from you about what those guys were able to do in that practice against the just being able to get some get some pressure off the edges. And you mentioned Doris Armstrong, you
mentioned uh shoot a Dante Fowler. Yeah, those guys being able to So that's that's music to my ears because you want to be able to do it with four and not have to you know, blitch the quarterback, not have to bring a fifth rush or things like that. So if you can do it with four and just have those that seven concentrate on coverage, that's great.
Uh. I mean I came into this feeling like Armstrong is gonna be steady. I mean if I don't know if he's going to give them huge numbers, but he's gonna be steady. I think, you know what you get. We've seen him, We've gone up against him for a number of years, and obviously he knows this defense. It's that other side where is the question. Farrell's a very good player. Fowler situationally has been very very good.
Still have some juice.
Yet you have this consistency at that other side, and at least for day one, they found a way to kind of work around it.
Yeah.
I was talking to a couple of scouts about, you know, just some of those guys, and they, you know, they love how hard Armstrong plays. It's like he's gonna he's gonna make plays just because of how hard he plays. And you know, a Foler still has juice coming off that edge and a situational player. As you mentioned, he's
not gonna be a every down player. But when you get when you get in third and obvious passing situations and you're able to bring him in and let him, you know, work, attack and do those types of things, I'm i'm I want to see what he's able to do. And those guys will benefit also from the from the interior pass rush.
Yes, I think so. With Fowler, I didn't see anything specific from him today, but there's a hope that it will be there. And with Jamon, there's a hope that there's going to be able. They're gonna find some situational plays for him on third down where he's going to be hopefully effective for them. All right, let me get to the corners. We had our first unofficial official depth chart crowd.
Yeah, when you see that, it's like, okay, all right, well, this is a competition, you know, Forbes, this is a you got to build him back up after the last season and what he went through. It was just a situation where you have to restore his confidence. Let him understand, hey, you are that guy that we drafted number one, and you have traits and skills and and there's a reason why you were so successful at that playing in the SEC. There was a there was a sequence and I'm sure
you remember this when they were working. I think it was moved the ball or two minute drill whatever what they threw. Seemed like four out of the first six plays end up going to his side, and he stood up and he made some plays, made some plass deflections, and he was sticky and coveraging. You love to see that for a guy trying to regain his confidence.
Yeah, I think that's gonna be key for him.
Yeah.
I mean you played so maybe you know. I'm sure you played with guys his confidence were shaking it at some point in time.
Oh yeah, yeah, I've had had my confidence shaking a time of too, not often, but.
At that position, in the receiver position, you gotta have them.
You gotta have athletic arrogance. It's because especially I think cornerback is the position. I think it requires the most confidence because of you, because of what you're required to do. You're oftentimes covering the best athlete on the football field with minoi mono no help a lot of times, and you against me, so you have to feel like.
You're not gonna beat me. I'm gonna be here.
And if you do beat me, it wasn't something you did it with something I did wrong. That's kind of how you have to have the mentality you have to have at the cornerback position.
I think this weekend, next week's practice the Dolphins, next week's game against the Dolphins is the huge part of the summer for Emmanuel Forbes. I think he needs to show them and prove to them that he can be trusted to be out there. Yeah, prominently right, right, there's no danger of him not being here or anything like that, but prominently playing. I think he needs to prove that. But next week to a Tyreek Hill Jalen Waddle, it's going to be a heck of a test for this for the commanders.
It will.
And you know, again this is this is an opportunity for and not just not just not just Forbes, because all those guys have, you know, something to It's an opportunity to get better, to compete at a high level, whether you're Benjamin Saying, Jews, Michael Davis, Emmanuel Forbes, Mikey Samasteel. You know, even though he's a rookie. So these are opportunities. Every time your cleats touched the grass, it's an opportunity for you compete and get better.
And I'll say this too, Michael Davis came here to play for these coaches because he believes that they can elevate his game. And if he becomes the guy who has the six to eight interception season that commonly has occurred under Dan Quinn and Joe Witt, he knows what that means on the other side. So he is here and motivated in the middle of his career to hopefully
be elevated. So he's motivated to win the job. And then the guy I love that I think is very under the radar is Igbinoghany, who's a former lot He's bounced around a little bit, so he's a high level athlete. Though he's a former first round pick. This is his second year with those guys. He was in Dallas last year. He pops in here with an opportunity. They've already kind of they're given him kick return roles. I think you
go see a lot of him on the field. So I don't know, because I know people are worried about the quarters and I am too. I don't know. That they're weak. I think the depth manned up surpassing the players who are currently in front if they don't win their jobs back. And that's why it's on Forbes and Saint Jus to hold these guys back that they want to be on the Yeah.
Absolutely, coaching though too, and the coaching matters. And I've I've been so impressed with these coaches and the practices that I've been able to attend. You've you've gone to you know, basically every practice. Yeah, you've gone to.
All all the Yeah, you've gone to all practices.
I've been I've been able to see maybe four practices, I believe, but the four that I've seen the amount of the attention to detail the coaching and just the coaching and the individuals pre snap and then also on the sideline after plays happened, the details of the in the coaching that they a getting. I've been extremely impressed. Guy wanted me mention Jeremy Chen. Yeah, there was a player that you probably remember he caught a there was a ball tight end was catching across the middle and
it was in a real gay. They probably would still be picking him up off the ground, man, I mean the ball it was a bang bang play and chain he held up a little bit. I actually thought he was going to intercept the ball. He ended up tight an caught it, but he I mean it was he would have been decapitated.
Listen, they did a great job in Dallas with Quinn and Wit with jarn Curse. Yeah, that's the position is gonna play here. He's a bigger he's bigger, bigger player at that position. And if this goes well, this will not be a one year relationship. And not only is it not only is it a bigger player, he has a more instinctive, I want to say, more instinctive mentality in terms of stopping the run. So just he's comfortable being in that box and being kind of a hybrid linebacker.
Long he wants to hit people, see it.
I like, I love anybody who likes to speaking of hit people, like to hit people. Frankie lous He talked about wanted to hit people. There was a there was a run play that a little inside zone playing alive and it's trying to try to, you know, move Frankie Louvo and Louis was just throwing him out of the way and he's wrapping up the Ballcad He's just like he walks in back about three three yards.
He's just like ah. I was like, oh yeah, I love this.
All right, Well we have a few minutes. Let's talk about the game that's happening. This game happened this week The game happened this weekend. Most of the starters got a lot of the reps that was promised by Dan Quinn in the practice, which is gonna flip in the game. So you're gonna see Jayden Daniels, is gonna see Marcus Mariota, but probably for a series or two. That's probably it. And then they're gonna turn it over to some of
the younger guys. So who are the younger guys you're thinking about that could make a name for themselves this weekend because they're gonna get real opportunities.
Yeah, they definitely will give real opportunities. You just sticking to the offensive side of the ball. Thinking about Luke McCaffrey, you know he's gonna he's gonna be out there a lot of I imagine him being out there. Senate Ben Senner's gonna be out there kind of showing what he can do. Flipping over to the defensive side of the ball. Man, somebody the young safeties hamped him. There was Owen you know, yeah,
just really stood out. He's an undrafted rookie, but he's looks like Chin actually, Rangey's very tall, Rangey fast, and he has really really stood out and the coaches have talked about him a lot. So he could be one of the surprises this year that emerges a Bryson Tremaine. Yes, yes, he's he's uh, he's gonna make a play. And then it was a tight end and I and I had my who made a great play. Yan Koff, Yes, he made an impressive.
Now that Herminie Rodgers isn't here anymore, there's a chance for him.
Right right because he had a jersey switch. Yeah, Yankov made an outstanding play. I don't know if you saw because this was this was during the time that defense was on one field and offense, so you I don't know if you were looking, but there was a there was a They lined him up outside and he'd beat a he was a safety on a go ball. Oh man, yea perfect throw, but the catch over the shoulder can't show.
And showed great skills and the way his teammates reacted and you know, running and jumping up congratulating him.
Just a great catch by him. He popped for me. Yeah.
I think the receivers over the next couple of weeks is a spot that I'm watching really closely here because look, Terry Johan, Zachias McCaffrey is a high draft pick. That's four they're making the team. So that leaves you one to two spots, probably two, right, Tremayne who you mentioned, who's made a ton of highlight worthy plays in practice, Mitchell Tinsley, who is very twitchy, good young receiver. And
then you got two veterans. Jamison Crowder who right now leader in the clubhouse to be the primary punt returner. Byron Pringle, who they brought back, is a dog. Okay, plays hard well, he can cut, he can he can cover kicks. Two that's right. Of those four, only two are going to make the team. So this is a very interesting week for veterans and two younger players to try to impress everybody. I didn't even named Diami Brown yet, and you'd think at this point.
The Army popped a couple of times a day. Yeah, he popped.
They've talked about him too. So there's a heavy competition at the bottom of the wide receiver position.
Yeah, very heavy. Looking at defense and going back.
And as we're talking, I'm thinking about guys that kind of are under the radar. Pittman, Yeah, linebacker, he's he's he's made some plays, having a really good camp. I'm sure they're excited to see him when the lights turned on. You know, how's how's he performing? He's a VET, he's a pro, Yeah, exactly, a guy who else pop for me?
Walker?
Yeah, Michael Walker. Yeah, yeah, he's he's another VET. Yeah, he's done some good things as well. So then you got the young pup Jordan McGee, fifth round draft pick. I mean physical specially you look at heavy You're like, okay, so seeing seeing what he looks like when the when the lights come on?
All right, last thing, Uh, Jaden makes his debut. Yeah, you know, I don't believe he's gonna play very much. But what do you want to see from him over the next week the Jets and the Dolphins.
We just first and foremost in terms of or a rookie, especially you know, a quarterback, you want to see him kind of go through his routine. Figure out what he wants to do from a pregame routine, getting himself ready to play a regular season game, so, you know, kind of figuring out his routine, being decisive with the football,
making great decisions. You know, we don't know how much we'll see him in this ball game, so just during the during the time that he's on the football field, making sure he's making the right decision with the football.
All right.
Booth Review will officially debut on August twenty six. This was our exclusive preview version of it. You'll be able to see it on the Commander's YouTube or wherever you get all of your podcasts. Maybe we'll let Logan bye. Every one same, I'm excited to get the season going. I'm excited to do this podcast with you.
We're gonna have a lot of fun.
Were all right, everybody, enjoy the game against the Jets. We'll talk to you soon at the content control and at the cont