As the Commanders have cap room to work with, do they need to add speed at WR this offseason?
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00:00Yesterday on the show, we talked to both Jay Gruden and Brian Baldinger about the Debo
00:06Samuel trade and the possibility of adding another receiver. You should podcast those
00:10interviews when we're done tonight. They were both tremendous. But one of the things I took
00:14out of that was that both of those guys didn't like the idea of Washington being in on Devante
00:19Adams even after his release, even if it came at a bit of a discount for him to try to win
00:24with Jaden Daniels over the short term.
00:27Both think he's a bit of a declining player, especially Baldy, who talked about the fact
00:31that they need to think about speed. They need to think about adding youth at wide receiver.
00:36And I couldn't agree with that more. Now, Christian Kirk is not young. He's not necessarily
00:40a burner, but I think he'd be a way better fit financially and with what they're looking
00:44for as a. Compliment to the two guys they have been going and getting a DK Metcalf or
00:52a Devante Adams who are going to be target vultures that need touches.
00:57And so I'm really in on the idea of Christian Kirk. I also think it's very obvious to say
01:03that in Kingsbury had a good relationship. He played really well for Kingsbury. Kingsbury
01:07supposedly liked him, according to all reports, got him paid. I mean, honestly, yeah, it just
01:10seems like it's, it's a no brainer that they would call him. I mean, how many guys did
01:15they bring in here that worked with members of this coaching staff? That is a big thing
01:18that they like is familiarity. Sure. And you know, you, you would think at this stage
01:22of his career could accept that role, right? Where you're not going to be a 133 target
01:27guy at this stage, which he was when he first got to Jacksonville, they didn't have much
01:30else there.
01:31I mean, he was there, their attempt to kind of adjacent worth, like signing or Jacksonville
01:35was a joke and needed some help. And they overpaid for Christian Kirk because they needed
01:39upgrade desperately just to do something. Right. So they tried to kickstart something
01:43didn't work out, but that's not important. He played well for them. I don't like it's
01:47one of those guys, one of those kinds of guys, the analogy I would use is there are
01:50a lot of guys in the NBA who could score 20 a game for a terrible team, right? But can
01:54you do 20 a game while playing really good team ball?
01:58That's kind of the next level. He's he had 84 catches for 1100 yards for a terrible team.
02:03I don't know that he could do that for your first division club. I don't know that he's
02:06a guy that you'd want to be your number one. You know, if you're trying to beat the Eagles
02:09or a Superbowl contender, but that's not what you'd be asking him to do. He would be a complimentary
02:13piece that if you left them alone could really hurt you. And that to me is what I'm after.
02:17I also don't think he needs touches. I think if he came here and signed with a team talking
02:23about Christian Kirk that already had Terry McLaurin coming off 13 touchdowns as a wide
02:29out one and Debo Samuel, who's not going to be the traditional two, but it's going to
02:33get some targets should catch 60 plus balls as a chance to touch the football, you know,
02:39on a good day, eight or nine times on a bad day, three or four or five times.
02:43I think you kind of get in where you fit in a little bit. And that has to be what you're
02:48looking for to some extent with someone who can make some plays, which is not necessarily
02:53an easy runway to put the plane down on. It's not easy to find that guy necessarily. You're
02:57trying to thread a needle here. This was Brian balding are on the show last evening before
03:02we said goodbye right at six 20.
03:04Debo is already challenged just from a speed standpoint. I mean, Devontae ran a four or
03:09five eight in 2014. He is an electric guy when it comes to just his ability to be off
03:17the line of scrimmage. But I think you were looking at a declining player. I mean, I think
03:23Washington, you know, they went older and it worked out on defense last year with a
03:28lot of veteran players. That's fine. They filled a lot of one year needs. But I mean,
03:33I would try to build with youth around Jane Daniels guys that are going to be there for
03:38the next three years. And I don't know that Devontae, he might give you a year. He gave
03:42you a good second half of the season in New York last year. But I would try to get younger.
03:47I try to get younger and get faster teams, you know, teams that just can blister you
03:53out of the box, just give you a lot of problems. And I would try to get faster at that position.
03:59Man, did I love that take. I just thought it was like I wrote him the damn script and
04:04handed it to him and said, Baldy, when you join us, read this at some point.
04:08I am all for supplementing and kind of providing the pillars of the roster like they did last year
04:13with Bobby Wagner and Zacherts, having those veterans and those steady Eddie, so to speak.
04:20No problem. Let's do that. But also we got to be thinking about how do they get younger?
04:26How do they get faster? That's what wins. How do you get more explosive?
04:30How do you get more dynamic? Let's present issues with speed. And I'm not just talking
04:35about offense. People think about it that way. Both sides of the ball present issues with speed,
04:41dynamic, exotic, explosive, fast, young, twitchy athletes. And so as often as I can now,
04:49I'll go get Debo, but I got to pair him with a up and comer with some ceiling.
04:55And that's how I'm trying to think about this thing. It's short and it's long term.
04:59It's not a very great odds that you're going to get back to the NFC title game this year.
05:03Hopefully you do give yourself a chance to have Jaden is the real deal. Maybe you will. Maybe
05:07he'll drag you kicking and screaming into the fight, but give yourself a chance to be really
05:10good over three or four years to I'm all in on that philosophy. I think sometimes, again,
05:15I'm not sitting here beating the table for Devante Adams specifically, but I'm in a,
05:20I need guys that are dependable. I need guys that can't be stopped, even if it's not the ideal body
05:25type fit or mold or whatever. So Kirk's more appealing to me than Adam's just for the record.
05:29I think just cost wise and fit wise and kind of what we're looking for. I mean, to me, basically,
05:34I kept beating this drum and I'll continue to do so. Terry McCorn had 82 catches last year
05:38as a wide receiver. He's your best. No problem. We all know the drill. They didn't have anybody
05:42else get to 50 among the receiving court. It was 45, 35, 30. It's this kind of patchwork.
05:49Someone might be okay this week and you can get away with that against Carolina and Cleveland
05:53and company. But if you want to get back to where you're going, you got to play Kansas city. Next
05:57year, you're playing a, an eight plus schedule in terms of on paper strength of schedule
06:01difficulty. You need more guys that are separators that are problems. And I think that's something
06:06where I'm going, I I'm willing to break my normal philosophy of let's try to be young.
06:10Let's try to build for the longterm. I think it's two parts. One, cause Daniels is so good
06:15too. Cause Ronda Verne company left the cupboard. So bear, I think you're going to have to break
06:20from your normal approach just to, just to get enough players, just to get 53.
06:24If they could get a deal done with Christian Kirk and free agency,
06:29him wanting to link back up with Kingsbury. And all of a sudden now you're the number 11 team in
06:34the NFL PA polling on who you want to work for. And they got the quarterback that everybody wants
06:40to be teammates with. Let's say they lure him over here and they have him. Now you've got your
06:45trio with Luke McCaffrey, who's still your project and your prospect who can play multiple positions
06:51and give you some versatility. If they want to take a flyer on a speedy, a burner of a wide
06:56receiver in the fifth round after they trade down and add a fifth round pick or something,
07:01do it. But at that point, you can fill out your roster if you want to with some cheap veteran
07:08options, you know, as your fifth, sixth, seventh guys coming to training camp or whatever.
07:13And now that's not really a big issue. You, you have traded for Debo. You've signed Kirk.
07:19You've checked the wide receiver box off the list. It's a way improved, way better situation.
07:24If you were to then add a speedy running back who could, you know, make more big plays than
07:30Brian Robinson did instead of no 15 being an explosive. Now all of a sudden 30s in play,
07:35he's got 40 yard gains in the bag. Occasionally that's his home run. Well, it's a completely
07:40different look and offense at that point, just like that. So it just changes the algorithm on
07:45what they have to get done, where now you can really focus on the O-line drafting a fast running
07:51back and then going hard in the paint on defense. Cause they've got still talking about over $50
07:56million to spend. The corner market is decent. Go get your edge, go get your corner. Maybe you
08:01draft your edge in the first round. Maybe you take an edge in the first two rounds.
08:05I don't think if you don't sign anybody, it wouldn't be crazy, but it just gives you a
08:08lot more options. If you can take one of those big needs and put a Sharpie through it.
08:12A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean the, the only market that looks to me on paper. And again,
08:16someone who know really knows might tell me there's, here's the fatal flaw with Carlton
08:21Davis, Trevor Swar, DJ Reed, or, you know, a Byron Murphy, maybe someone who knows better
08:25could tell me there's something wrong with each one of those guys by the way.
08:29But me too, I want ward bad. I'm I'm very steamed up for the idea, but somebody could tell me that
08:34I'm wrong about this, but the only market that looks good for free agency is the cornerback
08:38market. You're not going to find a defensive end unless you want to trade a billion things
08:43for a miles carat or something like that. And who knows if that's even available?
08:46The wide receiver market is buyer beware. Like you're going to be the one holding the bag when
08:51it finally, uh, you know, when, when the bottom falls out, uh, honest Devon digs Devonta Adams,
08:56big names, certainly hall of fame caliber names, but guys that, you know, may not be the best fits
09:00for you at this moment. There's no left tackles. Uh, if you want to upgrade in that way, very few
09:04right tackles, that's the one spot where you could fix for your free agency if you wanted to. And all
09:08of a sudden now you're to your point, you're freed up to not have to reach or press in the draft.