How much of an impact can Johnny Newton make this season?
Grant and Danny debate what level of impact Commanders 2nd-round pick DT Johnny Newton can have on the defense this season.
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00:00Everything that has come back on Newton from how quickly he healed to the actual story
00:05behind this injury.
00:06I think it makes you feel a lot better than where we were worried that this could be a
00:11dachshund or a Samuel situation that just lingers forever.
00:15It seems like he's blowing past that 100% and it's, it is a relief because I was basically
00:19the, as soon as you hear, yeah, he had a foot problem that everyone knew about.
00:23It's why I slipped in the draft, but we just discovered another foot problem.
00:26He's only got two feet and a guy of that, that size and that build, there's a lot of
00:31pressure that's going somewhere, right?
00:32For some guys it's knees, it's back, it's hips, it's, uh, and for him it looked like
00:36it was his feet and that was going to be an issue.
00:38It sounded like one of those overly optimistic prognoses where, yeah, he'll, he'll be back.
00:44We were going to, he's going to be dead today for a while, then he'll be dead today in December
00:47still and it won't have played.
00:48And you're going, oh my God, we're doing this again.
00:51That's not the case.
00:52It's the opposite of that.
00:53He has, he has breezed past every milestone to your point.
00:55And it sounded like they had to hold him back, uh, just to make sure, just to take
00:58kind of precaution, which is very, very different than we're used to seeing right here.
01:02It's welcome.
01:03So I want to revisit some of the discussions you and I had to set up some expectations
01:06for him.
01:07You know, I'm buying big time stock in the player, uh, wasn't overly familiar with him
01:11until after really went on the radar for Washington, right?
01:14I just didn't think they were going to take defensive tackle, so I didn't study the position
01:18that well.
01:19I knew him from watching a little college football, but I didn't give it much more thought
01:22than that.
01:23After they took him, you go back and you watch and you just fall in love.
01:27He is such a high motor effort at athletic freak, just a real impact performer who had
01:33over the last two years, you know, 22 tackles for loss and 16 sacks or so in college, but
01:39I'm buying big time stock.
01:41I just believe he's going to be a pocket pushing the, a defender who can create some havoc.
01:49We talk all the time about how quarterbacks, the most important position in football and
01:53that, but if that's true, it is also true then that right there below that should probably
01:59be the interior offensive line protecting closest to that quarterback and the interior
02:04defensive line affecting that quarterback.
02:07And I think he's going to be that kind of guy, but now that he is air quotes here healthy
02:12and he's got the clean bill of health and it sounds like he's on a trajectory to get
02:17some legitimate camp work in the next week or two, do you reassess how much you think
02:22he could help this team this year?
02:23Cause I know you've kind of thought it's a little more of a red shirt year for him, but
02:27certainly my, my Island for him or ceiling frame has gone up tremendously.
02:30Now I still think there's a, there's a limit.
02:32There are two guys that should play a lot of snaps.
02:35He'll give them a break and they can get more time off and pain and Alan, they were playing
02:3980, 90% of snaps a lot of weeks.
02:41That's just unsustainable.
02:42It's not the smartest thing to do 70% let's say to be fresher.
02:46Well that now creates 60% exactly.
02:48Yeah.
02:49And then you get to the high fifties, even, even North of that.
02:50And you start factoring in different packages where you, you can play that kind of, you
02:54know, five down linemen, that bear front where he could be moving around.
02:58That's more exciting and more enticing to me.
02:59So this has kind of gone for me from a luxury pick where I didn't think they had any luxuries.
03:03I mean, this to me was, was buying a Cadillac when you're, you're missing a roof.
03:07That's kind of changed now a little bit.
03:09If he's able to go from the get go and be impactful and you know, sort of now you've
03:13kind of layered talent behind John Allen, if you'd like him to move on and save some
03:17money next year for what that's TBD.
03:19But it's a little bit more exciting for me than, than a guy that was going to have a
03:23nagging injury risk that everyone else knew should fall.
03:26And you were the one that was so smart.
03:27We got it.
03:28We got something that no one else does.
03:29Well, it might gamble might work out for you.