Tag: The Craig Hoffman Show

Joe Theismann: Jayden Daniels shouldn’t play in the preseason

The Washington legend spoke about Jayden Daniels and the preseason. He had some interesting thoughts.

How many snaps should Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels get in his first preseason?

Joe Theismann knows quite a bit about playing in preseason games. In fact, when Theismann entered the NFL with Washington in 1974, NFL teams played six of them.

On Thursday on “The Craig Hoffman Show,” Theismann said the team has so many new faces and “Jayden Daniels isn’t and shouldn’t play in the preseason.”

The former Redskins quarterback (1974-85) continued that he understands Daniels was the Heisman Trophy winner and had a great final season at LSU; however, the NFL is much more advanced than even the SEC.

“I’ve watched him work; I’ve been at practice. I’ve sat and visited with him. I like him a lot. But our business is a tough business to learn,” said Theismann.

Theismann knows Daniels will have his struggles when the regular season begins. He recalls his own struggles with inconsistency, which resulted in his losing the job to Billy Kilmer for two seasons before being named the starter in the 1978 season.

When Theismann said Daniels “isn’t” playing in the preseason, was he revealing that he knows something that coach Dan Quinn or GM Adam Peters may have told him?

This was probably nothing more than Theismann’s way of saying Daniels would see very little action. In fact, Theismann later stated he thinks Daniels might play only a couple of series in the first two preseason games.

The Commanders will face the Jets (Aug. 10), Dolphins (Aug. 17) and Patriots (Aug. 25) in the preseason before opening the regular season in Tampa against the Buccaneers on Sept. 6.

Longtime Commanders’ reporter deliveres a huge one-liner about the team

Some proper perspective after a hopeful June.

John Keim has been on the Redskins/Football Team/Commanders beat since the 1994 season.

That means Keim has reported on head coaches Norv Turner, Terry Robiske, Marty Schottenheimer, Steve Spurrier, Joe Gibbs (2.0), Jim Zorn, Mike Shanahan, Jay Gruden, Bill Callahan, Ron Rivera and now Dan Quinn.

The leading passers for those teams: Heath Shuler, Gus Frerotte, Trent Green, Brad Johnson, Tony Banks, Patrick Ramsey, Mark Brunell, Jason Campbell, Donovan McNabb, Rex Grossman, Robert Griffin, Kirk Cousins, Alex Smith, Case Keenum, Taylor Heinicke and Sam Howell.

Keim sat down with the Team 980 afternoon host, Craig Hoffman, on Tuesday, discussing this current Commanders offseason practices. Yes, practices have looked good under Quinn. Thus, at one point, Hoffman reminded himself and his listeners, “Of course, it’s June. You always want to put that caveat on it.”

To which the veteran Keim succinctly replied, “It was June last year.”

Wow! Did Keim ever pack a punch with so few words?

In addition, Keim though quiet, was so confident. “It was June last year.” Hoffman clearly got the message, following up with Keim that he thought the overall process was cleaner this June than in recent years.

Keim, again, echoed his earlier declaration with, “It’s been a better June than they have had in a long time (pause), for sure.”

Every offseason, NFL fan bases are optimistic.  But this was John Keim. “It was June last year.”

Keim saw Ron Rivera desperate to keep his job and hire an offensive coordinator no one else in the NFL pursued. He saw what happened to the offense last offseason. By training camp, Ron Rivera had already heard and had enough.

The Harris Ownership Group was not permitted to begin until NFL owners finally officially approved their taking over the franchise in July.

Just how bad was last June, according to Keim?

Keim had heard Rivera vault untested Sam Howell to QB1 and not adequately replace defensive backs coach Chris Harris. Chase Young actually thought he should have been extended the option year, and Keim was unimpressed with the four Rivera draft classes and free-agent signings.

Now, of course, in 2024, they are still in shorts, and no one is getting hit.

To which Keim might most likely respond, “Yes, and that was the case last June.”

Because of Keim’s experience, it’s safe to conclude the Commanders are trending upward this June.

Santana Moss likes what he sees in two Commanders rookies

Santana Moss already likes what he sees in a pair of rookies.

First impressions are important in life.

What did former Redskins receiver Santana Moss think this week when he first watched Commanders’ first-round draft choice, quarterback Jayden Daniels?

“First, things looked well. I don’t like to get too high on a kid,” said Moss. I don’t like to put too much pressure on anybody; it doesn’t matter who you are.”

Moss was a guest with the Team 980 show host, Craig Hoffman, on Thursday.

“Looked like a quarterback; looked like a second overall pick quarterback. Some of the things that was glaring was his footwork, how that ball jumped out of his hand. Those things like that, you either got it or you don’t.”

“When you look at a kid that they talk so much about, and that dynamic was because of how well he ran the football, they never try to highlight how well he threw the football.”

Moss told Hoffman he thinks Daniels has shown the ability to both throw and move well, and that is going to be so important because defensive pressure comes so often from those getting bigger and faster.

Hoffman added that he liked how the coaching staff efficiently used the time that all four quarterbacks were passing and how one phase of a drill led to another phase of the game.

With the Jets and Redskins, Moss recalled how he was coached well on some teams and not so well on others. He thought watching the energy and intensity of Dan Quinn might also help explain why the Dallas defense improved in 2021 upon his arrival.

Catching 732 NFL passes for 10,283 yards and 66 touchdowns, Moss knows how to play receiver in the NFL. He told Hoffman he liked what he saw from third-round pick, receiver Luke McCaffrey.

“Every cut, every plant is very violent.” Moss pointed out he could already see McCaffrey has a discipline and a motor. “He doesn’t look like a rookie right now. It’s early, I’m not trying to get too far ahead of myself, but I like what I see.”

Commanders should sit Drake Maye for a least a year

If the Commanders draft Drake Maye, should he sit for one season?

Thursday, Logan Paulsen said he strongly feels the Commanders should draft North Carolina QB Drake Maye if they keep the second overall selection in April’s NFL draft.

Should the Commanders start Maye at quarterback in 2024?

If not, would they start Sam Howell? Or might they start another veteran?

Friday, on the “Pat McAfee Show,” ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky offered his thoughts on Drake Maye starting in 2024.

“I think Drake Maye has to get the Jordan Love treatment. You have to sit Drake Maye for at least a year or two. Orlovsky recalled Tar Heel coach Mack Brown telling him, “Mechanically, Maye is so raw.”

Orlovsky continued, “If you sit him for at least a year, you have a chance to have a really good player. But you can’t play him early.”

Both Orlovsky and The Team 980 show host Craig Hoffman voiced on Friday that Maye really needs work on his feet. Hoffman went as far as to say that the UNC offensive line was not very good, and thus, Maye, unlike Jayden Daniels, couldn’t be as smooth due to the pass rush he was facing often last season.

Hoffman also feels that Love learned and improved his footwork, sitting, and learning from watching Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay.

Hoffman suggested that Maye needs a veteran (other than Sam Howell) from whom Maye can learn footwork. He suggested Ryan Tannehill, Jacoby Brissett, and Tyrod Taylor.

If the Commanders hope to get the most out of Maye in 2025, perhaps the most effective method will be to spend the 2024 offseason and regular season being prepped daily, on reading defenses, mastering his footwork, while avoiding the fire of NFL pass rushes and blitz packages.

Rodgers, Love, and Patrick Mahomes are very good examples of current quarterbacks who have sat for at least a season and reaped the benefits.

Commanders’ OC Kingsbury called ‘the biggest fraud in football’

One radio host seems to have issues with Kliff Kingsbury.

CBS Sports Radio show host Damon Amendolara apparently doesn’t like Kliff Kingsbury very much.

Amendolara was in Las Vegas Friday for the Super Bowl week and took a few moments to speak with The Team 980’s Craig Hoffman. Hoffman himself admitted initially he was not too excited about the Commanders hiring Kingsbury to be the offensive coordinator. However, since his initial reaction, Hoffman has “begun to warm to it a bit.”

Hoffman then asked Amendolara where he stood on the hiring of Kingsbury, to which Amendolara responded, “I think he is the biggest fraud in football. Because he has not succeeded anywhere he has been to any significant degree.”

“When he gets the head coach job at Texas Tech he never had a winning record within the Big 12.” Amendolara pointed out that even with Patrick Mahomes as his quarterback, the best Kingsbury could do was 7-5.

“Then he somehow fails upward to get the head coaching job at Arizona. Every year is the same thing: they start out hot and collapse down the stretch. The one year they go to the postseason they are completely ill-prepared. They take on that Rams team and were down 21-0 at the half, 28-0 in the third quarter.”

Amendolara continued to pile on Kingsbury. “His team is known for penalties, poor coaching and sloppy play and slow starts or fades in the second half of the season.”

Amendolara insisted that Kingsbury going to USC also resulted in Caleb Williams having a worse season than previously for the Trojans. That is actually not easily determined nor debated. For in fact, it was the USC defense who really struggled much more in 2023 than they did in the 2022 season.

“This guy has never proven anything. He just keeps getting plum jobs.”

Hoffman countered that at both Texas Teach and USC, Kingsbury was losing 50-48 games, and secondly, Kingsbury was not hired to be the Commanders’ head coach, but only the offensive coordinator.

We don’t know yet how Kingsbury will perform or function, but it is noteworthy, that many in the sports media field, have felt the need to criticize the Dan Quinn and Kingsbury hires.

How DC radio questioned Commanders’ Rivera again Tuesday

Ron Rivera has built a good roster. Can he coach that roster into the playoffs in 2023?

“You are good at building, but are you good at coaching?”

That was a question Craig Hoffman asked concerning Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera during the first hour of his The Team 980 Tuesday drive-home program.

Hoffman spoke of the dream of many Commanders fans being that Ron Rivera will not have a job at the end of this 2023 Commanders regular season. Couldn’t one respond logically and rationally that many more Commanders fans are hoping there is much winning this season?

If a winning season at, say, 10-7 would earn a playoff birth, resulting in Rivera returning for the last season of his contract, might the majority of Commanders fans take that instead?

Hoffman transitioned to how he likes assistant head coach Eric Bieniemy’s organizational skills and his attention to detail and thinks Bieniemy could really benefit as a head coach from those attributes.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, so back to Ron Rivera.

It is true since becoming the head coach in charge of football operations, Washington has drafted several very nice pieces to the puzzle of their roster. Kam Curl and James Smith-Williams were both seventh-round choices in 2020. 2021 brought Sam Cosmi, Benjamin St-Juste, Dyami Brown,  John Bates, and Darrick Forrest. And 2022 may become a very solid draft with Jahan Dotson, Brian Robinson Jr., Percy Butler, Sam Howell and Cole Turner all being selected.

Hoffman lauded Rivera as one who has drafted well, and Hoffman was also asking if Rivera can take this team to the next level. One step Rivera has taken is turning to a new offensive coordinator whom Rivera recently said knows how to get the ball to their best skill-position players quickly.

Both Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke really struggled at times in 2022. Is Sam Howell, the quarterback Washington has been desperately needing since Kirk Cousins led Washington to its last winning records in 2015 and 2016?

Howell has exhibited an ability to extend plays and throw on the move. But of course, this has been the preseason. It does us good to remind ourselves that though Washington won all three preseason games this year, they still don’t count. On the other side of the coin, I have always remembered how in 1982, Washington lost all four preseason games and then proceeded to have the best record in the NFC and win Super Bowl XVII.

There should be no debating that Coach Rivera has helped the culture of the team, the bonding of the team as they have played for one another as a united front behind Rivera. He is to be commended for that.

Yet, this is his fourth season, and not having a winning season record since 2015 and 2016 is frustrating and getting old.

It’s time for a winning season in Washington.