Tag: The Al Galdi Podcast

Wow! Commanders romp Cardinals 42-14

Some facts and numbers from the Commanders’ win vs. Cardinals.

The Washington Commanders are atop the NFC East after four games!

Washington has won three straight games.

Tress Way has punted once in those three games.

Might the Commanders now be the difficult game on the opponent’s schedule?

Washington scored 40 points for the first time since Thanksgiving 2020 when they routed the Cowboys 41-16.

This road win was the first double-digit win since the meaningless season finale in 2022 when they beat the Cowboys 26-6.

The Commanders ran the ball 37 times for a whopping 216 yards, averaging 5.8 yards per rushing attempt.

The Commanders won the time of possession of the football with 33:22 and the Cardinals only 26:38.

Jeremy McNichols came into the game with one career touchdown. He scored two touchdowns just today, including a 27-yard run.

The Commanders’ defense, which came into the game with the worst third-down defense by far, recorded four sacks of the very mobile Kyler Murray!

Can you believe Jayden Daniels? Today, Daniels did it again, completing 26 of his 30 attempts for 233 yards, one touchdown pass and one interception.

Washington scoring 42 points was the most for this franchise since “You know who” (Al Galdi) was quarterbacking the team up and down the field in a Sunday Night win over the Green Bay Packers.

 

Commanders hoping to break some losing streaks in Week 2

Commanders hoping to end multiple losing streaks on Sunday.

It’s not only Week 2 of the 2024 season, but the Commanders have some really discouraging streaks they need to break on Sunday.

In their home opener, Washington is trying to set a new path regarding home games for the Commanders. Did you realize the Commanders have not won a home game since the 2023 home opener? It was Week 1, and the Commanders defeated the Cardinals 20-16.

Since that 2023 opening-week win, the Commanders have dropped their last seven home games. Those last seven home losses were to Buffalo 37-3, Buffalo 40-20, Philadelphia 38-31, the New York Giants 31-19, Miami 45-15, San Francisco 27-10, and Dallas 38-10.

The Commanders lost their final eight games of 2023, many by lopsided margins. Coupled with last week’s 2024 opener loss in Tampa (37-20), the Commanders have not lost nine consecutive games.

As for the Giants in particular? The Commanders have not beaten the Giants in the last four games the teams have played. In 2023, the Giants won 14-7 at home and then at FedEx 31-19. In 2022, the two teams battled to a 20-20 tie, before two weeks later, the Giants significantly reduced the Commanders’ playoff hopes with a 20-12 win at FedEx. We must return to the 2021 season finale to find the Commanders beating the Giants 22-7 at MetLife in New Jersey.

Playing their NFC East rivals in a home-and-home set of games each year, it is hard to fathom that Washington has not even beaten the Giants at home in Landover since “You know who” was quarterback in 2017. Perhaps it should not be such a surprise, seeing Washington has not posted a winning regular-season record since “You know who” was the quarterback in the 2015 and 2016 seasons (Al Galdi last season began to refer to Kirk Cousins as “You know who”).

Washington trails in the all-time series to the Giants 108-71-5.

How wrong was Eric Bieniemy for the Commanders in 2023?

A lot of ugly numbers here.

By the numbers, according to NFL analytics expert Warren Sharp, Eric Bieniemy was a disaster for the Commanders in the 2023 season.

Sharp, owner of SharpAnalysis.com, was a guest of the “Al Galdi Podcast” on Thursday, providing some real detailed numbers regarding Eric Bieniemy as the Washington Commanders offensive coordinator. Here we go:

“You’re passing the ball a lot; you should be able to have some explosive plays. But the Commanders were terrible in producing explosive plays. They had only 19 plays of 30+ yards for the entire season. Even though they had 736 dropbacks (26th in explosive plays while #1 in dropbacks).”

“This is when, on occasion, you might want to run the ball creatively just because the defense is playing pass. And yet, despite those light boxes (defense playing less men in the box), they ranked 29th in EPA per rush on first down.”

“He used the lowest rate of play-action in the NFL (32nd), the 22nd rate of motion, the 5th rate of shotgun, and the 6th rate of 11 personnel. They have no disguises to the defense, they don’t do anything to help their young quarterback. The defense is already playing the pass…as much as we know that Sam Howell struggled and is now gone, Eric Bieniemy did absolutely nothing to help Sam Howell, in my opinion.”

“I know for a lot of years people were clamoring to give EB that opportunity, and it’s just a shame. I didn’t see him do anything with that opportunity to help a team. It was like he came in with the mindset, ‘I have to pass the ball, passing wins games, this is what we did in KC’.”

“But then he brought nothing else or no other adjustments to the Commanders to help raise the floor, and as a result, the floor was extremely low for your offense, and you struggled. As a result, you fell behind in games massively. You scored only 39 first-quarter points the entire season, which was the third lowest of any team in the NFL.”

“You trailed by over 5 points a game after the first quarter, which was the #1 largest deficit in the NFL. You didn’t make any adjustments in the second quarter, which means you trailed by the largest deficit of any team by halftime of 133 points.”

Sharp concluded that Bieniemy “got it all wrong in the process.”

Commanders minority owner does not like Commanders’ name?

What does one of Washington’s co-owners think of the nickname?

Washington Commanders minority owner Mitchell Rales is not a fan of the name “Commanders?”

Burgundy Blog (from X, formerly Twitter), as a guest on the “Al Galdi Podcast” this past week, conveyed to Galdi that Rales is indeed not excited about the name “Commanders”.

An acquaintance told Burgundy Blog that at a social event a few months ago, Rales asked a few attendees what they thought of the team’s current name.

The answer he got was extremely negative, and he (Rales) corroborated his feelings of not being excited about “Commanders” either. Rales reportedly then expressed something to the effect of we will see if we can do something about that.

No, this is not confirmed. Burgundy Blog continues to hide behind his anonymity. Nor did he name his acquaintance who conveyed the story to him.

The vast majority of the fan base would certainly love to hear one of the more visible owners (Josh Harris, Rales, Mark Ein) speak negatively about the current name.

But that is not going to happen—at least for a while. The Harris Ownership Group (HOG) wisely keeps its priorities in order and realizes it can wait and see if a winning team changes the fan base’s attitude.

There has been no season with a winning record since Kirk Cousins led Washington to an 8-7-1 season in 2016. The HOG understands this fan base most needs a winning team, period.

But also, Jason Wright’s terrible television rebranding announcement was executed horribly. How did Wright and Snyder not realize Julie Donaldson would have been so much more energetic, experienced, and attractive in front of television cameras?

Head coach Dan Quinn recently wearing the T-shirt containing the “W” logo while also adding the feathers from past Redskins logos ignited excitement in the fan base. Hopes were raised of a change from Commanders.

But for now, we wait…

 

Former Washington cap analyst praises Harris ownership group, Peters and other Commanders

Lots of praise for Washington’s offseason moves — on and off the field.

Former Washington Redskins salary cap analyst J.I. Halsell joined Al Galdi on his podcast Thursday, and Halsell had some direct comments regarding some current Commanders’ players and staff.

Josh Harris ownership group: “They have been willing to think outside the box in how they have gone about their process. To bring in Bob Myers was outside the box, but leadership is leadership, whether we are talking basketball or football. When you have a leadership group that is willing to think outside of the box, I think that is great.”

Jayden Daniels: “He is not much bigger than he was back then (Arizona State) and I know that is a concern around his NFL game, his stature, his frame. Look, the kid has a high ceiling. He has put up high numbers in the SEC, and it’s impressive…You take the guy with the high ceiling, potential (when drafting).”

Kliff Kingsbury: “That guy is a great OC (offensive coordinator). He’s proven he can orchestrate an offense. Now, if you want him to lead the entire team, he’s just shown mediocre results. But he’s shown he can orchestrate a high-powered offense. So, when you combine that with the upside of Jayden Daniels, you got to be excited as a Commanders fan.”

Brandon Sosna: “It’s been a very fast rise for him…his rise to this role has happened very quickly, over five years. Rob Rogers is going to be a tremendous resource for Brandon on the nuances of the negotiations and managing the (salary) cap.”

Adam Peters: “The end goal of cap management is to create enough flexibility so that you are not hamstrung in how you build the roster…It tells me they are thinking, ‘Let’s try to build this thing through the draft, cheap(er) rookie contracts and marginal to not expensive veteran free agent contracts’. Yes, I do like how they have gone about it, this first offseason.”

Jonathan Allen: “Roster construction, roster management is really an exercise in succession plan and risk mitigation…It’s not by chance that they drafted in the second round a defensive tackle out of Illinois…If we decide to move on from Jon Allen, then we already have his successor in place. We drafted him in the second round, so we think he can play.”

Samuel Cosmi: “If he is proven in the offseason weight program and as we go into training camp that he is going to be a scheme fit, then you do want to reward your young guy…but it is always cheaper to do the extension sooner, rather than later. ”

 

PFF analyst praises and questions Commanders’ QB Jayden Daniels

Some good analysis, raising some potential concerns until proven otherwise.

Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels has everyone’s attention this offseason.

Pro Football Focus college football analyst Max Chadwick was a guest on the “Al Galdi Podcast” this week. Chadwick made several comments that raised eyebrows. Here are selected quotes regarding Daniels.

“He loves to target outside the numbers. I think he has the arm strength to deliver the ball down the field with a lot of touch and arc. It’s just the velocity when he has to rifle one. He doesn’t really have as good an arm as some other quarterbacks.”

“Just because we have not seen him target too much over the field in the intermediate area, so I think the sideline throws (where he really made his money at LSU last year) that is probably going to be an important part of him. I am sure Kliff Kingsbury is going to be incorporating as much of that into the offense as is possible.”

“When everyone talks about how he (Daniels) can’t throw over the middle of the field, I don’t know if it is that he can’t. I don’t think he was asked to do that. Maybe he can’t, and that is why he was not asked to do it. But we don’t know.”

“He is probably the best rushing quarterback we have seen come into the NFL since Lamar Jackson. Yes, I think on day one, he will be one of the top rushing threats in the NFL.”

“A big reason he doesn’t slide is because he knows he can outrun basically anyone. A lot of quarterbacks can’t say that. Jayden Daniels doesn’t know that he will be caught…there is a lot of RG3 in his game…”

“I think Jayden Daniels if he does struggle as a passer, at least you have the added floor of him being a great runner, and that way, he can keep defenses honest.”

“He went from being a really conservative quarterback at LSU to being a flame thrower this past year. That’s the thing I would point to. This guy has gotten better every single year of his career.”

“He clearly wants to get better, and he has. Whereas some guys stagnate in college, stay the same, and think this is good enough.”

“Yes, I think it’s definitely a concern (pressure to sack rate). I think it is something they need to keep an eye on. He played behind a really good line at LSU, too…”

One NFL draft analyst is clear who he’d take if he were the Commanders

This draft analyst makes it clear who he’d pick if he were Washington.

Adam Peters has a lot of pressure to nail his first draft pick, the second overall in next week’s NFL draft…which quarterback will he select?

Pro Football Focus NFL Draft analyst Trevor Sikkema spent some time with Al Galdi on his podcast discussing UNC quarterback Drake Maye.

Here is yesterday’s summary of his evaluation of LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels.

Here are selected quotes from Sikkema regarding his evaluation of Drake Maye.

“I would be taking Drake Maye, I really would. He is my quarterback No. 2; he has been since last summer, even with what people are saying was a down year. I would push back on that as well.”

“I believe that Drake Maye gives you the ability to step up and hit every single throw in every situation that is demanded of it.”

“Drake Maye does it on all three levels of the field. I mean that he does it short, intermediate, deep, and I also mean outside the numbers, inside the numbers and outside the numbers. He can do everything.”

“Yes, he’s got to clean up some things with his fundamentals. He had some frustrating misses this past year. All of that is correctable.”

“The natural God-given talent he shows, that is the stuff you have to gravitate towards. That is the stuff I always keep going back to. The overall arm talent, it’s that mentality. It’s something I look at and say, ‘Yes, give me this dude to draft and develop and invest in.'”

“Because he has great mobility, I think Drake Maye is always a threat to take it outside the tackles and run…I am not saying he is a one-read quarterback, because he is not…but he gets a little bit of ‘happy feet’. The feet are always bouncing and light but not always married up with where his eyes and arm are going.”

“Sometimes his feet are moving, and there is not really a rhyme or reason to it, and then all of the sudden you get these moments where, ‘Oh shoot, there it is, there is the throw, and I got to get rid of this football, the throwing window is right here’. But his feet are not always married up to where he is releasing the football.”

“That is a habit you have to improve with Maye to stay light on his feet, but be more compact, more married up, be more ready to THROW with more consistency and accuracy.”

Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye? Many analysts have lined up on both sides of the aisle, and Adam Peters has yet to provide a clue. We may not know until the card is read on Thursday night.

 

Draft analyst weighs in on LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels

Daniels’ fundamentals are great, but his arm talent isn’t the same as Caleb Williams or Drake Maye.

What does one draft analyst think of Jayden Daniels?

Pro Football Focus NFL draft analyst Trevor Sikkema spent some time with Al Galdi on his podcast, discussing Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye. Today, what Sikkema said about Daniels. Tomorrow what Sikkema had to say regarding Maye.

“I just don’t think that Daniels’ arm talent is as good as the guys at the very top. He has the best fundamentals of anyone in this class. His throw is so repeatable and consistent that I totally understand why NFL teams go, ‘Give me that kind of consistency every single time.'”

“But I think that in the process of recognizing those fundamentals, recognizing how consistent that ball is every time it comes out of his hand, we have been romanticizing his arm talent a little bit.”

“He has a good arm, an adequate arm for the NFL level. But, it is not ripping through the wind like Caleb Williams and Drake Maye are able to show you on different platforms, off balance, scrambling, off balance, those type of things.”

You don’t have to make him be what he is not and say, ‘His arm talent is as good as Caleb Williams. It’s not. You don’t have to say he is this great scrambler, this great thrower outside of the pocket.”

“When you go back and look at his entire college football career trajectory, think about what he was at Arizona State. One read, I am going to throw a deep vertical, or I am going to take off and run.”

“When you get to LSU, you can tell in his first year he said to himself, ‘I am going to take care of the football.’ If I am going to be in the SEC and be a SEC quarterback, I cannot turn over the football.”

“He really honed in on lowering his turnovers and turnover-worthy plays. And he had one of the lowest turnover worthy plays in the country. The touchdowns went down, the big time throws went down. He was simply more conservative; he did not want to turn over the ball.”

“He really does not know how to protect his body. He is rail thin. And that is not a good combination at the NFL level. These hits are too hard; they are too fast. He is going to get hurt…”

What does Cowboys announcer think of Commanders’ Dan Quinn?

More praise for Quinn from Dallas as a coach and person.

With new Commanders head coach Dan Quinn leaving Dallas for Washington, what does Dallas think of Quinn?

Brad Sham has been calling Cowboys football games as their play-by-play announcer for 45 seasons. He was a guest on the “Al Galdi Podcast” on Friday.

Quinn the Dallas defensive coordinator for the previous three seasons, was named the Commanders head coach and promptly hired Joe Whitt Jr. as his defensive coordinator and Sharrif Floyd as assistant defensive line coach, both away from the Cowboys staff.

Then he signed four Cowboys on his Dallas teams when Tyler Biadasz (center), Dorance Armstrong (defensive end), Dante Fowler (defensive end) and Noah Igbinoghene (cornerback) each agreed to make the Commanders their new team.

Sham had high praise for Quinn not only as a coach but as a person.

“He’s a genuine people person,” Sham said. “He does have that kind of magnetic enthusiasm. And it is not just his players who love him. Most people around him enjoy being around him. He treats everyone with such respect that it is impossible not to return that.”

Seeing how Quinn had previous head coaching experience and improved the Cowboys defense, Sham was confident Quinn would soon be moving from Dallas.

“So, I think it was inevitable that he was going to get another opportunity as a head coach. I think it is a very positive move for the Commanders.”

Sham believes Quinn will be a better head coach the second time around.

“My guess is he is a better coach than the one who left Seattle several years ago,” Sham continued. “The experience in Atlanta made him a better coach. His last three years here (Dallas) made him a better coach. I think he is not just a defensive coach, though he is very much that. He is interested in the whole team, and it’s a very positive move for the Commanders.”

Though Whitt has not garnered much publicity, Sham believes in Whitt taking on this responsibility for the Commanders. “Joe Whitt is a guy who is kind of under the radar. He is quiet but a phenomenal football coach who has really great football intelligence.”

Sham told Galdi of how the Dallas defense was horrible in the 2020 season, and the hiring of Dan Quinn saw the Cowboys defense improve tremendously during Quinn’s three seasons as the Cowboys defensive coordinator.

“He will come in and look at the personnel following the free agency and the draft. He will then decide the best way for those players to play. He finds a way to maximize the players he has.”

Sham told of how Dallas defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence injured a foot during practice week of the second game of the 2021 season. Quinn went to Micah Parsons and asked him what he thought of moving around more on defense, being on the line in pass-rushing downs. And that is why we see how the Cowboys have used Parsons in multiple positions. It came about because Quinn saw an opportunity when one of his better linemen was injured.

Sham summed it up, saying about Quinn, “He’s pretty creative, inventive, and sees the big picture.”

 

Doc Walker: Some Commanders are ‘whiners, sissies’

Doc Walker pulls no punches, gives some outstanding analysis on what he’s seen this summer.

Rick “Doc” Walker was doing what he does so well Monday.

A guest on “The Al Galdi Podcast,” Walker, a former Redskins tight end (1980-85), was entertaining, daring and humorous. In other words, it was Doc Walker, as I’ve known him for 40 years.

Walker, as usual, did not hold back sharing his opinion of what he has observed thus far in the 2023 Commanders preseason. “Everyone could see Wylie (Andrew) was struggling at right tackle.”

Walker liked something he saw in returner Kazmeir Allen, “I saw potential promise in our return game if that young man will listen to Brian Mitchell…All that wide running ain’t gonna work in the NFL. But, if you got the guts to jam that thing up the pipe, you coming out of their brother. Because this dude can fly.”

“Doc” voiced his concern over the slow Washington starts during the Ron Rivera three seasons (2020-22). “This (preseason) is like a training session. I got to get you through this, to get you ready for Arizona. Because my target is Arizona in the regular season. Because we have been awful in September.”

Walker then naturally transitioned into Washington’s new offensive coordinator, Eric Bieniemy. “But now we have a new attitude, though some seem to have gotten their feathers ruffled over Bieniemy. I just hope he keeps doing what he is doing.”

Walker continued, “Anybody that has ever gone from bad teams to good teams understands why bad teams are stuck on stupid. If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’re going to keep getting the same results.”

The former tight end really appreciates the route running of receiver Jahan Dotson. “If they had a pay-per-view package just for me to watch/stay on him, I’d buy the package just to watch him. He is a superior route runner. I am telling you it is an art.”

How does Doc feel about the offensive line? “Here’s my deal, if you can’t run block or pass block, why are you on the team? Because you played for the head coach? We saw that crap last year with the two guards that were shot (Andrew Norwell and Trai Turner). So, it depends. Do you guys want to win, or are running a boy’s club or a professional football team?”

Walker again turned to Wylie in particular, “I expect him to play better next week because it is the test of a lifetime because he has the Ravens all week. So, if he has any fight in him, any dog in him, it better come out this week.”

“Doc” loves Sam Cosmi being moved from tackle to guard and looks forward to what he thinks Cosmi can accomplish inside.

Then “Doc” again turned his focus to the regular season.

“All I care about is if we are better in September than we have been since Ron Rivera has run the team. We have got to be better in September. In order to do that, it gets ugly in the process. It’s not going to be perfect. You have to go through some tough times.”

“I just want all the whiners that think EB’s practice…………EB is training you to be a champion. I know it is foreign to a lot of these sissies, but the bottom line is that was pathetic what went down.”

“It altered my demeanor all week. I could not believe it. I was shocked by that. But, you gotta move on.”