Matt Harmon of Yahoo Sports thinks that the Commanders & Deebo Samuel would be a good pairing, do we think that?
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00:00But we got to get right now to the Rude Guest Hotline, because on the Rude Guest Hotline,
00:06the most reliable heating and air conditioning products in the DMV, Rude, we've got our guy,
00:09Matt Harmon, who I mentioned, has been talking wide receivers and all things NFL,
00:14and at a take, I want to discuss with him about Deebo Samuel. Matt, it's good to have you back
00:18on Grant and Danny. How you been? Always good to be here, boys. Appreciate you having me. Yeah,
00:23things are good. You think it'd be the downtime in terms of NFL content creation? No,
00:29completely the opposite. You go from Super Bowl, two weeks later, it's all draft, it's all combine,
00:34trying to figure this thing out. And you also have free agency looming over us as well. So
00:38I've never been better to be alive, that is for sure. There's a lot of ground to cover with you.
00:43For those of you that remember Matt being on the show over the years, talking wide receivers,
00:47created reception perception, he's writing and analyzing the ball at Yahoo now. But I want to
00:53start with Deebo Samuel, because I saw a conversation you guys were having, and it seems
00:57like you liked the idea of him to Washington. Can you expound upon that? Sure. So, I mean,
01:03number one, starting just kind of big picture, I think this is, it's an interesting off season
01:08for Washington, because obviously the team exceeded expectations by leaps and bounds.
01:15You're making it to the conference championship game, but you come into this off season,
01:19and there is a lot of needs on this team because there are so many veteran free agent rentals that
01:25they hit it out of the park with last year that they need to kind of now decide like, okay,
01:30the Zackert signing worked out really well. Is he a part of our future? Are we bringing him back?
01:34You know, Bobby Wagner on the defense, you can go down the list for all these kind of guys that
01:38they brought in on one year, short term deals, and kind of deciding like, how much of this era
01:43of one year are we keeping around? But hanging over all of that is the fact that they have an
01:48abundance of cap space, and I think a real need to make this offense as dynamic as possible.
01:55It already felt incredibly dynamic because Jaden Daniels is that guy, and also Cliff Kingsbury,
02:00I think was excellent as the play caller and offensive designer. I mean, him just being
02:06focused on ball plays and not everything, all the BS that comes with being a head coach,
02:11I think was a great fit for him. So you already have this very dynamic offense. How can we make
02:15it better? How did you make it better by essentially bringing in just more pass catching
02:21juice? To me, that's like priority, maybe not priority number one for Washington, but it's
02:26certainly up there. It's a draft where there might be some guys like maybe three, four first round
02:31picks, but it's not necessarily the strongest wide receiver draft. There's going to be a lot
02:36of these kind of veteran free agents available who maybe are past their best days, and I think
02:42Debo Samuel would be among those. However, I do think what makes him interesting for this team,
02:48honestly, to be frank, I think there are receivers I'd probably like better for
02:52Washington than Debo, but why I think he just makes sense as a player that could land there
02:56and is a guy that's difficult to project where his next team will be because he's so hyper
03:01specific. There's the connection in the front office with Adam Peters, the commander's GM.
03:06He spent time in San Francisco. That always just kind of helps things get done. I mean,
03:11it is a relationship business. If there's some familiarity there between Debo and Peters,
03:15just him being familiar with the front office, that can help get a deal done.
03:19Secondly, again, there is a big need there at wide receiver. Debo is not really a traditional
03:25wide receiver, but he's somebody that could be deployed well on some of these layup concepts
03:29that Cliff likes to have in the offense, quick hitters, screens. There was always a joke about
03:34he ran the horizontal rate in Arizona. Obviously, Debo on those quicker routes, that's where he's
03:39best. And secondly, they've got a lot of cap room. Even if Debo is overpaid and you probably
03:45have to take on a contract you don't necessarily want, they're one of these teams that has more
03:49cap space than they could possibly spend. So that's why just kind of connecting the dots.
03:54Again, there are receivers I might like better, types of receivers I might like better,
03:57but I think that's a spot that might make sense for a guy like Debo Samuel.
04:01So Matt, I'm a Debo Samuel guy. I've always been enamored from afar, but then you look at,
04:06you know, his games played is deceptive because he'll have that game where he like gets one
04:10target and then sits down or, you know, or whatever. So it seems like he's always banged
04:14up. And here's my very poorly drawn analogy. Let's say I love sports cars and I get a sports
04:19car and then my job changes and I'm just like commuter Craig. You know what I mean? Like I'm
04:23just taking it to and from work and up and down the cul-de-sac, drop my kids off at school.
04:26I can't drive 195 anymore, right? Like, is that a consideration for Debo Samuel? In other words,
04:33if you've got him, the temptation is to use him like Debo Samuel. That means
04:36five carries a game. I'm throwing this close to the line of scrimmage or doing this, that,
04:39and the other with him. Maybe is there a way to keep them healthier and you don't get the full
04:43experience, but you still have a nice sports car. Right. And I think that that's probably the way
04:48to look at this because I'm not here to say that Debo is still the prime player that he once was.
04:53I don't think that's the case. I think it's pretty clear that he has taken a step back physically
04:58from an explosiveness standpoint. We also should, at least to be fair to Debo mentioned that he had
05:03pneumonia last year. Like that could also be a part of why he certainly did have that down season
05:09overall. There was some just kind of general discontent around the Niners. I mean, this guy
05:13was about to fight the kicker and the long snapper at one point during the year. You can't tell me
05:17that like everything's good in the building when one of your best offensive players is trying to
05:21try to fight the kicker and the long snapper. That's not necessarily a great sign there, but
05:25this kind of general discontent there, maybe that's part of it. But I do think that the amount
05:29of hits this guy's taken has added up. You know, he was pretty adamant at one point when he was
05:34negotiating the contract that he's currently on that he didn't want to sit here and take
05:38a bunch of hits like running backs do because that's where your body starts to wear down over
05:44the seasons. And I think you have seen that with Debo, that he has started to still continue to
05:49do that running back work and he's taken a lot of hits as a wide receiver too. So that punishment
05:54has definitely, I think, taken a toll on the body. But to your point about the sports car,
05:58yeah, I mean, look, you can still use him and sprinkle him in into certain packages and
06:03concepts. And that's why I like this idea with Washington too, because he doesn't have to come
06:08in here and you got to build the whole offense out of Debo Samuel, like the Niners have done,
06:11maybe to a fault at times. I think you've got a number one wide receiver in Terry McLaurin and
06:16their roles could not be more different, right? Like McLaurin is a perimeter receiver. You can
06:21line them up at X every single snap and never have to think twice about it. You're not going
06:25to do that. You're going to move them around a little bit. And they were better as the year
06:28went on doing that, but that's not Debo at all. He's the guy that's going to be detached from
06:32the line of scrimmage. He's going to move around between the slot and flanker position. So again,
06:37he's not a guy that you've got to come in here and say, we got 10 touches to Debo Samuel.
06:40I'm thinking more like five to six, and that can add just another option in the office.
06:46Matt Harmon is with us from Yahoo on Grant and Danny in a world where Debo,
06:50let's say gets cut. And so you're working on a new contract with him.
06:54And the same happens for Cooper cup. There's no takers for either of those guys.
06:58Who are you more interested in? And then also if you could piggyback that with some thoughts on
07:03if cups got anything left? Yeah, I think between the two,
07:08just all things being equal, like you said, no trade, no contract, neutral, new deal.
07:14I think I'd probably rather have Cooper cup, especially for this team. Because like,
07:20I know this is not what gets, what, what puts bucks in seats or anything like that.
07:24We're talking about wide receivers, but it's a run heavy offense. And I think it's going to
07:29remain that way. It should remain that way. You know, JD Daniels is an incredible quarterback,
07:32like Chris run games have been very, very good over the years. And I think from a design
07:37perspective, they did some good things kind of fell off towards the back half of the year.
07:40So that is on my radar. But a guy who could line up in the slot and really do some almost
07:45tight end things at the wide receiver position or a blocking standpoint, I think cup brings a
07:50lot there. And he also just brings that kind of veteran safety valve as well. So really,
07:54especially if you're not going to bring back that curse, which if I'm the commanders,
07:57I'm probably interested in bringing back Earth. And if I'm Earth, he had a very telling quote,
08:01after the NFC championship loss, where he said, like, I just wish and I just like hit me when I
08:06read it. You know, I just wish I had more time in my career. I wish I was playing with this guy and
08:11this team in this locker room in my 20s, not deep into my 30s. I probably think he's back there.
08:17But if not, I can bring you that sort of safety valve type player. And again, they just have an
08:23abundance of resources. So I do think, like, even if you overlap between Earth and Cup,
08:28he's probably the guy I would pick there. Matt Harmon with this year and vendor reception
08:31perception for years. I have been reading his stuff and passing it off like I thought of it
08:35myself here on the radio. Always a pleasure to have him come on. So you mentioned earlier,
08:41Matt, that there are a couple other receivers you prefer. Maybe Cup is one of them who just
08:44went into other other guys. You say, hey, this might actually be a great fit. Doesn't have to
08:47be instead of Debo, but could also include that. Give me some other guys you think would be good
08:51fits that Washington might be able to target. Yeah, number one player. And I have been talking
08:56on my show about this potential fit and also acknowledging that it's probably not going to
09:02happen. So let me get people excited here. And then I don't think I don't actually think that
09:07this is going to happen. But to me, this has made sense for a long time now. Chris Godwin
09:12to the commanders, I think would just be a perfect fit for a variety of reasons. Number one,
09:16I mentioned that blocking that is going to be critical for these wide receivers.
09:21Godwin's probably, if not the best blocking receiver in the league. He's definitely in the
09:26top five, top three conversation. Such a smart veteran player who is always in the right spots.
09:33He took on a lot of responsibilities as that power slot player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
09:39offense last year. Not just what he did from a production standpoint, which by the way,
09:42was one of the most productive receivers in the league before he got hurt in week seven.
09:48He was also key in getting guys lined up in the right spots. And that's an offense in Tampa Bay
09:52under Liam Cohen, now Jacksonville Jaguars head coach, where they put a lot on the receivers
09:56in terms of motions and splits and pre-snap alignments. And Godwin was really the current
10:01offensive coordinator who was the passing coordinator last year. Talk about it as being
10:04that coach on the field, basically getting players lined up. I think a smart player like that,
10:09who is when healthy, still super explosive and brings you like an addition in the run and pass
10:16phase, he would be a perfect fit for this Washington commander's office. Now the problem is
10:20here. I don't know if he gets out of Tampa Bay right now. If I had to predict it, I actually
10:24predicted he's back in Tampa Bay, but even if he gets to the open market, this is a guy that I
10:29would, I would think like, even though he's coming off of an injury, which, you know, I don't want
10:33to sit here and yada yada the injury, but he is definitely a player that I would think multiple
10:38years into like commit a big contract to, as opposed to these guys like Debo or Kup,
10:43who might be one year rentals, because unlike those guys, he was having one of the best seasons
10:48of his career before he got hurt last year. Matt, it sounded like when you talked about the draft,
10:52just for that moment that you did, maybe we're going to come back down to earth a little bit
10:57after a couple of years of a heater at the wide receiver position. Yeah. And I mean, listen,
11:02it's, it's hard not to be spoiled with wide receiver positions that we've had really the
11:07last five seasons. Since 2020, we've kind of been on a heater in terms of wide receiver classes.
11:13But to me, and look, I'm very early into my prep on on these guys have just kind of started taking
11:18a look. I've got about three games charted, usually reception perception, the full sample
11:23is eight games, which those will be up on the site as we get into March and then into April,
11:27and obviously draft time. Right now, so kind of early prep on these players. And it looks like
11:33more of a classic, the 2023 class, where we had, you know, four guys go in the first round,
11:38we had JSM, we have Dave Flowers with Jordan Addison, we have Quentin Johnston.
11:42You know, those guys have been varying degrees of success in the NFL. I think it looks like a
11:46class like that. There are definitely players that I think if they get to that back half of
11:50the first round that I think Washington could be looking at. I'll tell you about Luther Verdin here
11:55is a player that I think can beat man coverage, which is super exciting for a team like Washington
12:00that you know, you already have a ton of answers when it comes from man coverage, right? Like,
12:05you got a man coverage beater in Terry McLaurin, you got a quarterback who if he doesn't like what
12:10he sees downfield against man coverage, he can scramble. This is another guy who can beat man.
12:13But even more importantly, he's also a player that is could he maybe not the same Yaskra that
12:19D'Evo was in his prime, but he's somebody that if you get in the ball in space, he can make plays.
12:24And that is also going to be key. When we look about this Washington offense, which is getting
12:29guys into space, what clicking very like to do. So there'll be options there, but I definitely
12:32think it looks like more of a 2023 class as opposed to what we've gotten last year or even
12:37the year before that. When you say three receivers issue in the first round, is that McMillan,
12:41Arizona burden from Missouri and egg book from Ohio State or who are those? Those are the three.
12:49I think I will probably have as to me at least tier two or three prospects, which in my rankings
12:58on the site, a tier two prospect, tier one is a is a top 10 like ready made superstar. You know,
13:04think about like weak neighbors and those guys last year. Those were all tier one prospects to
13:08me back in the twenty twenty two class. Garrett Wilson, Chris Alave, Drake London. Those guys
13:13were all tier ones. I didn't think anybody from that twenty three class much. I like J.F.N.
13:18was a tier one player and I'm not sure. Macmillan, maybe Macmillan and Burton are
13:23the two I've liked the most so far. But those guys would be maybe candidates.
13:26But right now, I bet they're more so just the way the charting data looks so far. And again,
13:31it's still pretty early. I think these guys are maybe tier two to tier three players. Tier three
13:35players are fringe round one, like late, late round one, early round to the guys that Jordan
13:42Addison was in that bucket. Dave Flowers in that bucket. These are still really, really good
13:46prospects. And I think that guys like a group could be in that group. To me, I'm curious if
13:50anybody else kind of jumps into that. And if I had to bet, I would say we probably end up seeing
13:56four, even if I don't think there are four round one receivers. The reality is that this is a
14:00premium position, you know, and we're talking about some of these names on the free agent market.
14:05I'm having to give you a lot of caveats, right? Like, OK, if Chris got it, it's healthy. If this
14:10guy is, you know, we can recapture his form from a couple of years ago. I think teams will still
14:14look at that if they don't get one of these veterans that they like. They look at the draft
14:18and say, hey, yeah, maybe this is a round two player, but there's not a lot of first round
14:21grades in the class anyways. Let's take the stab here, you know, late in the 20s.
14:25Matt, I want to go back to the other end of the spectrum with some veterans. We talked about this
14:28with Washington a bit. There was kind of a soft market for some of these guys, you know, in their
14:3330s on some of these short term deals where they got great value out of Fowler, Wagner, Ertz and
14:38company. Three pretty big name receivers all north of 30 with I'm sure their best days behind them.
14:43I want your evals super quick here. Amari Cooper, Kenan Allen and Stephon Diggs.
14:49Might they be a bargain for somebody? And I'm putting bargain in quotation marks, obviously.
14:53Sure. Yeah. And obviously, Cooper is tough, man, because I love that trade at the time that
15:01Buffalo made, you know, I was like that's exactly what they need. Perimeter guy that can separate,
15:06right? Because there's kind of two, I would say there's like twin towers receivers, right? Keon
15:10Coleman, Matt Collins, who really are not separators. I thought Cooper was a great addition
15:14there. Just didn't work out from a health perspective. He was kind of in and out, in and
15:19out. The offense generally was never really like a true focal point. That concerns me,
15:24right? That dip in production, that dip in playing time, and I think dip in the play on film too,
15:31is a problem. He's probably somebody who deserves, you know, to get a roster spot this year, but
15:36I wouldn't be counting on him as anything more than maybe like a number three at this point.
15:41With Kenan Allen, Kenan Allen's been in kind of like a steady decline. And this is why,
15:46and so this offseason is going to give me fits, because the number one thing I say about wide
15:50receiver play, the hardest thing to predict is the age cliff. Like sometimes you see it,
15:54I go back to Dez Bryant with the Cowboys, like I was saying his final season in Dallas, like,
15:59oh no, this guy has gone off a cliff, right? And like he really never recaptured any sort of form.
16:04He waited till like November to sign with the Saints immediately towards the Achilles.
16:07And sometimes it's like that. Other times it is kind of like a steady decline. I think Kenan
16:11Allen's been kind of on that steady decline for the last few years, but he's still a useful
16:15productive player. He's just, he's not a good, he's not a blocker. He's a slot only guy. I think
16:20he makes sense for really specific teams. And it's kind of difficult to identify exactly which team
16:26that is. Diggs, man, Diggs, I think is another guy who's, you know, he didn't have his best
16:31season, his final year in Buffalo. I thought he was playing pretty well as the Texans slot receiver,
16:37but I think he's more of a guy you want on the outside because yet again, not a blocker,
16:40but still somebody who can get open and beat man coverage. But once again, let's talk about the
16:44big IF word here. He's coming off an injury. He's coming off a torn ACL now into his thirties. So
16:50he's another IF candidate. So yeah, I think all those guys, varying degrees of interest. Diggs
16:55probably, I think has the highest ceiling left remaining, but is also coming off an injury,
17:00which is a big question. Stunning and just a fascinating market. I think it's going to be
17:05really compelling because of all the injuries, the age and some of the star power, the big names
17:10that are going to be available on the wide receiver market. Matt Harmon, check his workout
17:14at Yahoo. And of course he's on social as well at Matt Harmon underscore BYB. Thank you, buddy.
17:20We appreciate you. Appreciate you guys. Yeah. Super interesting team to talk about this year.
17:25Very much enjoying watching them. Thank you guys again for having me. Yeah. My pleasure,
17:29man. It was awesome to chat with you. There's Matt Harmon on Grant and Danny. They're on the
17:34fan. He's actually a Virginia guy. Remember he told us before he was local and I think grew up
17:39a commander's fan, but now all of a sudden he gets to talk a lot more about them nationally.
17:43I know it's pretty neat, right? And not nay, what the hell are they going to do? And what's
17:46wrong with them? It's a, Hey, they're, they're in a good spot, which is a pretty rare.