HR3: Ben Standig talks potential free agency targets for Commanders & NFL Combine recap | Is Mike Locksley on the hot seat?

0:00Are you looking for a money reset with the New Year upon us? The Jill on Money Podcast is here to help you take control of your financial life. Follow and listen to Jill on Money wherever you get your podcasts. That music means it's been standing with us. He joins us every Monday and Friday. Sometimes in between if we need him, he is our Washington commanders team insider. He writes for sub-stack a column called Last Man Standing. I'm a subscriber. I would urge you to be the same. You can subscribe to it by going to his ex account at Ben Standing. He's back from the Indie Combine. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, you were back from the Indie Combine. We talked to you on Friday. But I'm just reading in between the break here your column for today. The commanders remain the NFL's mystery box even at the Combine. It is true that Washington has become a real buttoned up operation.

1:06There's not a lot of leaking of intel out there from them. Compared to other teams or certainly compared to what they used to be. Yeah, no, the lead quote in the story is from an agent who said to me that at the Combine that they are extremely buttoned up is quote, so yes, you're spot on there. You know, even if you look at various national insiders or bigger outlets do their sort of combine recap or just trade rumors or whatever, anytime Washington has mentioned, always sort of mentioned, like you're sort of like talking around them, like they're mentioned. But it's not, you can tell it's not coming from them. It's like, hey, it's like when he in the Bradford Ford the other day said, you'd expect him fireworks, but he didn't say like according to sources, he's expecting fireworks. He's just looking at the cap space and assuming which we all do as well. Yeah, so they are very tight in that way, which is, you know, a challenging for us.

2:06But hey, I mean, it's like, you know, on the bigger picture scale, you'd rather have that than everybody putting out everything that anybody says in that building in all times like it was before. Yeah, I think. I don't want to get to into the weeds here. But I think if there's one thing that, you know, maybe there has been some occasional intel on is when they don't like the narrative that's out there about something, you know, in terms of controversial, I would say, like the Terry summer of last summer. But in terms of like who they're going to pursue in free agency, who they're going to draft. You know, what was said in an interview with a prospect in Indianapolis per Washington, we're not getting any of that stuff from them. None of it. No, I mean, like did we know that they were going to take Jaden Daniels in the end? I mean, it certainly felt like that way with a lot of smoke, but like, you know, it was,

3:09that one was almost like too big to hide, you know, it was too big to not kind of get out there to sense that. Yeah. No, look, I mean, this is the deal. And you know, you may ask me about Laramie Tunsell, you know, what's going on with that? That's the biggest piece of business that we know that's going to need to take place. I honestly can't tell you too much more about that than where we were last time, other than just as both peers and Quinn said, hey, I like the guy. Hope we get something done. But where we are with that, you know, you would assume that they would like to get this done before free agency starts, which is essentially next Monday. So, it's not, you know, they don't have to get it done by them, but you would like to know what your costs are and, you know, maybe they can lower his cap number this year to get even more space. So, there's a little bit of a deadline here on that one. All right. Let's just start with the news of today, just, you know, adding a year, right? One year to Allegrette's deal, the lower the cap number for this year, not a surprise

4:09after we learned last week that Tyler Beatish was going to get released. Do you think that this is a clear cut sign that Allegrette is the front runner to be the starting center next year? I think this is a clear cut sign that they've given themselves options so that they don't go into free agency or perhaps the draft thinking we have to get a center or even we have to get a left guard, right? They have now the between Allegrette who can play center guard, Andrew Wiley who can play guard and tackle and Brandon Coleman who was, of course, the starting left guard first to the end of the year. They have guys that could play both of those spots. Now, you would assume that Wiley and Allegrette are probably depth, but, you know, they lose now. Okay. We have somebody if we have to, if we, you know, if everything falls apart, we don't get what we want. We lose have options. I think they've done that. I do think Allegrette has a chance to start, but I don't think this precludes them from, you know, if there's a center out there that they just think it's a good number for them or the good value that they would sign them, I don't think it precludes them from that

5:11either. So I wouldn't say he's the presumptive starting center, but I think, you know, he definitely has a chance and they give the option to spend their money elsewhere if they prefer. All right. I have, at the beginning of the show, I had two kind of hunches that I just shared. I didn't think any of them, either one of them was like a massive reveal, but I am in reading through your thing. It looks like you definitely agree with me on one. The first one is I just think in listening to Debo last week, I don't think Debo's coming back. I think they want another, a different type of player at wide receiver, which I, I, I, Juan Jennings. It would be my number one if they're not going to pay, say, for a pierce as an example. But at the beginning of the show, I had two, two kind of, you know, hunches that Debo's going to test the market and the only way he would come back is if there was no market form, and they could get him back on the cheap. You say what? Yeah. No, I completely agree, you know, whenever you've asked me in the last week or two, like,

6:13you know, with name some free agents, which ones do you think they'll be back? I mean, I've, I've been pretty steadfast in the Debo, and I admittedly part of that is, I just, I look at it like it just doesn't make any sense again. He had a great camp, great start to the season, showed some good stuff in the end. He got, his production got swallowed up by the terribleness that was going on during the middle of the season. But stylistically, he just is not an outside receiver, and he could not carry that load when Terry got hurt. He doesn't give you that downfield presence. So he's a luxury more than a staple and that they, you know, they, they need to get something more secure there. So whether that's drafting or whether that's finding one of these free agents, you mentioned Jennings, who, of course, Adam Peters had a hand in drafting when it was with the 49ers, or it's, you know, using that seventh pick in the draft because they've short up other areas. They have to get something else. So yeah, to me, Debo is gone. And I will just say that like when you go back and listen, like, like a year ago, I asked Adam Peters about Brandon Coleman being the left tackle.

7:15And he, within his answer, where he said nice things about the player, he did not say he's the left tackle, which I took to mean he's not the left tackle, then they made the trade for tonsil. In this case, between Debo, Chris Paul, to some degree Bobby Wagner, like they didn't say. I don't think they actually said we want them back or we hope, you know, they weren't talking about it as if they were going to be still part of the team. They were, he was talking about it more of like, hey, great year. He talked about Chris Paul. He sounded like a proud dad. He was really happy for the kid. He worked hard. And I believe everything that Dan Quinn said, but he didn't say, and I hope he's back next year to see where he and tonsil can take this thing. So, you know, I think, yeah, in the case of Debo and some of these other guys, I think if we're reading the TV right there, as of now, they're probably not coming back. And the other one I had is it wouldn't surprise me if before we get to next week, Jacob Martins resigned. Yeah, I mean, I think that one's possible. So here's the thing, right? So now they've resigned. Tressway, Andrew Wiley, Nick Allegravi.

8:17I think the one thing was. No extended Allegraviya. Extended, yeah. Yeah, essentially, they all, you know, extended, by the way, yeah, so the, the, the, the, one time element between all three of those guys that they all under the stay here. This is they were not looking to test the market. So when you're in that mode, you know, I'm not saying that the team tried to screw them, but you have a bit of an advantage, right? You're not having to woo them as much. And that makes the negotiation a little bit easier. Therefore, so that's different than necessarily some other people. Like I think in the case of Jacob Martin, do I think they want him back? I do. You think that, you know, if they don't give him an offer that just makes it so easy for him to sign that he will look and see what else is out there. So sure, it's possible they say, hey, we need to lock this down. Let's give him a good bump here. But I would guess he tests the market and sees what happens. Is it becoming more and more obvious as we get closer to next week, especially, you know, this is something you suggested a few weeks back that the market could certainly be a lot

9:22bigger than even we anticipated it when the season ended, but that Chris Paul's definitely going to test free agency and there's going to be a lot of interest. That seems to be the case. I mean, the guard market is actually fairly deep, but he's one of the younger guys in it. So if you want, you know, you want that, you want that potential, you know, that he can be a pretty attractive, attractive piece there. You know, the range I've heard anywhere, like sort of like from eight to 15 million, which is obviously pretty big, but I had to guess I would guess north of 10. And maybe that's not a massive number. They and Washington did just save money. This was their point was about cutting the audits was that it saved them, you know, the eight million that they were going to spend on his salary. So perhaps that's in advance of saying, hey, we want to bring Chris Paul back. But, you know, like I said, my sense is that, yeah, they're going to let him test the market and that probably means he's not coming back would be my read on that one

10:23right now. Talking to Ben standing, you wrote wide receiver market expensive at the top, interesting in the middle. So let's talk about how they address wide receiver. Since we both think that Debo is not going to come back, I think there's like a chance of something like a, a Joanne Jennings and a one Dale Robinson or just a Joanne Jennings and who knows maybe somebody on the rostriding trade berks, they're going to want to resign and he shouldn't be very expensive to resign. I you still out there. How do you see it? Yeah, I didn't get into the I you thing because that's obviously a whole other level. But just in terms of the market, I mean, like even if they bring back Berks, like that's not out. That's a backup plan. That's depth. Like based on what you see, we can't say he's the star, despite that one amazing catch. So the question is who else would they get a bring on board and then you know, thinking about it and talking to people in some order, you've got, you know, Rashid Shaheed, the

11:28burner who helps Seattle get to the Super Bowl. You got Romeo Dobbs from Green Bay. He's probably the best like all around rat runner within his group. And then you have, you mentioned Wanda Robinson, who had a breakout year, you mentioned Jennings who's been productive as a seven, as a seven, and I'm picking and Debel fit in there somewhere. I think it's just different strokes or different folks here. Shaheed has to take it off the top guy, like I said, Dobbs is the rat runner and so on. You know, I think Dobbs to me makes a lot of sense. And I think that's one where, you know, again, how hardcore they're into that. I don't know. But I think that one is one that makes sense. So there's also Mike Evans, which to me feels like I kind of a different category just because of, you know, who he is and he might be going for a title at his age and those types of things. But these other guys, I think they all are a pretty interesting and from what I gather, I think locking the ease of looking into this tier, not, you know, not definitively these guys.

12:28But I think just some of these guys at least and looking to spend their Alex Pierce's the top receiver, that money is going to be a whole other story. Either the Colts are probably going to franchise tag him or pay him north of 20 or some team will and I don't see Washington getting involved in that. One of the things that just in looking at it more closely is we get closer to it. I think that there are more knowns offensively than defensively. There's some really good, you know, potentials defensively like Tray Hendrixson is more than a potential like he's a bit of a given. He is coming off and he is going to be 31, 32 years old offensively. There's just a lot of guys that you're like, yeah, I've watched him enough to know, you know, if they sign him like John Jennings to me is a guy that they sign him not only is he a real solid player, the best blocking wide receiver in the game, probably an underrated receiver, but he fits the offense that they're getting ready to play and the general manager obviously knows him.

13:30Well, and that you can say that about a number of the running backs in free agency defensively a little bit different. So let's move there. You wrote edge defenders, everybody's waiting on Tray Hendrixson. So how realistic is it that Washington is going to be in the Tray Hendrixson market, which I would guess is going to go 30 million plus a year regardless of his age and injury. Yeah. So the key here is that we don't know if the Bengals are going to put the franchise tag on him and the deadline for that is tomorrow, four o'clock. That's kind of what everybody is waiting on. If he's available, then promise him last year that that would be it for the tag. No. They didn't. Okay. So yeah, no. So that's still a possibility. And that's like not not everybody's obviously going to be in that kind of market, but, you know, it's the top of the food chain. You're not going to look to the other names until, you know, unless you know for sure what's going to go on here. Well, I know Washington had at least a cursory interest in Hendrixson last year.

14:34He obviously would make a ton of sense in terms of what they need. You know, you mentioned 30 million. That's going to be really interesting. You know, he was the sack leader in league in 2023 and 24. Then last year a bunch of injuries just didn't have, you know, one of those years as we witness here with a lot of guys. You know, 31 will be, you know, I'm not saying it's impossible for him to get that kind of money. But also despite being that sack leader, he's not the true game record of the way we would look at a mild care or maybe a max cross, but obviously a very, very good player. But I don't know if he's going to get 30. We'll see about that. But, you know, for Washington, it would be a very bold move. They definitely would need it. And it would be much more akin to the all-in type move that, you know, was discussed last year. So I think it's conceivable, but I just don't know that ultimately he's going to be a guy for them. I think spreading some of that money out a little bit. And, you know, the defensive edge market, like you said, after Hendrickson, it's not exactly loaded with obvious names, but there are a bunch of, like, 26, 27-year-old guys, like,

15:40O.A. from the Chargers, Boya and Monty with Seattle. I keep what you're in this guy's name. I have a cadet from the Falcons, he's a local kid, he went back from high school. Like, you know, these are guys who, would you say high school-wise? He went to Einstein. Oh, he did. You know. So these are guys who are, you know, stylistically perfectly fit what we think, Durante Jones is going to want to put out there, they're not going to cost 20 million or everything like that. And, you know, there's a lot of upside. You're taking a little bit of a risk because this is not the same, it's not a sure thing the way with Hendrickson would be, but, you know, they need so many guys on edge right now. I think they maybe look to get a couple of these guys rather than just the one big one. What do you think is going to happen with Marcus Mario? I know we've asked and talked about him before, but your column this morning is focused on, you know, everything that's going to happen here over the next week and then beyond and you wrote something about Mario to, so share with everyone what that is.

16:42Yeah, look, I, you know, I've lowered my, I thought he was gone when this he's ended, you know, he got obviously a chance to play a bunch last year. I think that really gave him the taste for wanting to be back at the starter. And I don't think necessarily the comfort that Washington offers maybe enough this time, except that, you know, it felt like he was going to go wherever Kingbury went, but now Kingbury's not running any offense. Maybe he still goes to the Rams. The Rams back up with Jimmy Garoppolo, he's a free agent. And obviously I think Mario want to be at West here. He's from Hawaii and so on. And there's a couple other jobs out there, you know, maybe Minnesota, they, they want that sort of competition slash veteran mentor for J.J. McCarthy, but I think also it feels pretty definitive now that Cali Murray to a tongue of Iowa, Kurt Cousins are all going to be free agents and realistically teams are most likely going to want to sign them. It's, you know, over, over Mario. So I think he's getting a, maybe getting a little bit squeezed.

17:44I haven't done the game of musical chairs to see exactly what's out there and how many, how many spots are open for how many quarterbacks, but I still would think he's going to try to find a place where at a minimum, he's the bridge guy versus coming here where, you know, the only way you're going to play is if Jayden Daniel gets hurt. But we also know he's not going to close the door. He likes it here. They like him. So that part's easy, but, you know, playing time is playing time. And that's just not going to happen here. And listening, it'll get hurt. Yeah. I think the quarterback thing, fortunately, our team's not in it, but it's actually really interesting this year, not like because there are elite guys available. But these decisions like Arizona is going to move on from Kyler Murray. No doubt Miami, very likely going to move on from Tua. You've got a rookie quarterback in Vegas, but that makes Geno Smith, you know, available. And by the way, people like Geno Smith last year. I think he went to the wrong team. But to your point, you know, there are a lot of guys floating out there. And there are six or seven opportunities.

18:45I mean, Mollique Willis is probably going to get a three year deal worth 90 million or more, you know, this off season cousins is out there. Flacco's getting a lot of attention in free agency at 41 or 40 years old. Aaron Rodgers is probably going back to Pittsburgh. But if he doesn't, what happens there, the Daniel Jones injury and the Indianapolis situation is actually a lot of very interesting QB situations this year. And one we're not even thinking about is like, what if Stafford decides to hang it up, you know, in LA or what's the succession plan? If you think that Stafford's entering his final season, there's a lot with the quarterback market that's interesting this year, even though it's not like top, top tier guys, we are talking, of course, to Ben standing and Ben wrote this morning about a lot of the plans here for Washington in the off season.

19:49So let's get to the dry. Well, actually one one last position and that is tight end. If I told you they don't add a tight end in free agency, would that be shocking to you? I don't think it would be and I, to be clear, I think you mean like a starting tight end, not a fourth tight end, right? Yes, of course. So yeah, I mean, again, you're trying to read between the lines here. Why I asked Dan Quinn about the tight end situation and something about Ben Senate and, you know, his fit and and Quinn talked about, you know, yeah, he hasn't had a chance to do a ton so far. He and Zach are very different tight ends, but you know, we can we want to see him do things like you'll get to play in the backfield, et cetera, et cetera. And playing the backfield, you know, he was drafted essentially as an H back, but close King's very often didn't have that, you know, this new one with bow, you know, presumably can can do that. So to me, it feels like they are open to giving Senate a chance here to be

20:55the guy. Well, they did draft him in the second round. It's not that he's been bad. He just hasn't been playing. And then when he did play at the end of the year, they still didn't really go to him. But again, I don't really put that on to him. I don't think so, and I also think John Bates, you know, nobody's in the think he's Travis Kelsey. But I think when you know, early in this career, I mean, you did show something as a receiver, but this was not looked at at all in that in that mode. So I again, you can't fix all your needs in one off season. You can't spend on everything all at once. So if you tell me that they stick with Senate and Bates and then you've got yank off and, you know, they mentioned Lawrence cage or practice squad guys like a huge human being that you know, that he might be able to be that fourth guy. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the way they go. There are some interesting tight ends at the top of the tier. You've got a conglomerate turf played at the Titans, the younger guy. He's got some good yank in his game and David and Shoku as they are likely from the Ravens. So there's some options there.

21:57But again, when you look at if they want to direct money to other areas, tight end might be a spot where they say, that's a roll with this and see what happens. Can you stick around if we take a quick break and talk about the combine and the draft, the combine winners losers for whatever it's worth. I have a few minutes. I do have to hit something else in a little bit, but I got a few minutes. Yes. All right, we'll do that more of Ben right after this. Hey there. I'm Kendra Adachi and my show The Lazy Genius Podcast helps you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. And you get to decide what matters. I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to give you a new way to see episodes of The Lazy Genius Podcast are full of compassionate time management tips and permission slips to do what makes sense for you. New episodes drop every Monday. Follow and listen to The Lazy Genius Podcast on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Laramie Tunsell, I guess, liked a tweet about his former teammate in

22:58Houston, Titus Howard, who was traded also got a $63 million contract extension for three years. Laramie's is coming. I would assume better. I don't, I don't want this one going into training camp. I think it would be a bad look for Adam Peters. And, you know, I'm not one of those that thinks there have been a bunch of bad looks so far. We've got Ben, Ben is with us for another 10 minutes. So let's just real quickly talk about the indie combine. I talked about the beginning of the show just, you know, the idea, the winners and losers. If you just go back three or four years, like it's, you know, it's kind of comical to see who the big winners were and who the, who the real losers were and how those, you know, predictions panned out. But did they lose out on sunny styles because of his incredible indie combine? It would appear so. I mean, I heard from people that didn't think he'd get outside.

24:00Then he'll get outside the top five now. I heard Todd McShad, his podcast, like Gary T. He's not getting past five. That's the giants picking there and linebacker is a spot where they've got a pretty good defense, but linebacker is a spot for them. Should he be there? You know, who knows? I, you know, the thing is, even guys like Arvel Rees and Rubin Bain and David Bailey. They're all, you know, very interesting upside players, but I don't know that, you know, we're not looking at next generation. Well, again, mild, Garrett, you know, so it's possible styles could even jump them if a team decides that, you know, he is such a different maker, potentially for, for their defense. So yeah, I mean, I, you know, I know you and I were on the same page. Back in week 18 when Washington won that game and, you know, the players are going to do what they do, but the arguments that people are making that it doesn't matter. Well, we'll see it a few weeks because it's conceivable that the top three edge guys and styles are all gone. That would mean that if you want to top take a sub defender,

25:03you're going to have to take probably Caleb down, which is not a bad player, but it's a safety and he doesn't blow you away in blowing it away with his, like sort of majorables and athleticism. So, you know, nothing, that would be a bad pick. I'm just saying you're picking it five. You're getting one of those other guys, no matter what. Now you're going to have to hope a little bit. So it was, I tried to figure it out early because I had forgotten. It was two spots. That last win against Philadelphia was the difference between picking fifth and picking seventh, correct? Correct. Yeah. Um, yeah, uh, styles, Bane, Bailey and Reese could all be gone, but that would leave downs. And I personally, I think he might be the best football player in the draft. I think you can make that case. But if you want to give me just your overall takeaway from Indy Combine outside of the noise that styles made, what else? Like, you know, what were the, I saw the car now take 40 time.

26:04The Bane hands we talked about last week. What else stood out to you? Yeah, I mean, between those two that you just mentioned and down did not, uh, you know, his, his measurable, his arm length, things like that wall. So not particularly impressive. So, you know, again, three guys watching them, maybe staring at it seven, at least you some degree come out with, come out of the combine with more questions and answers, but the teams might be laughing at all of us for saying such thing. I texted one scouting director, uh, the tweet about Kale Downs and people questioning him now. And he basically just, he sat back in like an LOL emoji, like, yeah, whatever. I'm good. Um, and I've heard the same things about Tate, you know, uh, go ahead, pass on him if you want that, that's fine. Uh, you know, this obviously wasn't incredibly fast track. I mean, it's arguably, or maybe officially like the fastest, uh, 40 times collectively at a combine, which does make Tate four, five, three little, little, little, little

27:05question of the air, but again, a, a hell of a player, uh, no doubt. I think the other thing is, you know, and asking people, okay, well, what do you think about this guy? What does Washington do at seven, blah, blah, blah? The one consistent mentioned was that there may be only 10, 11 guys that most people will view as a first round pick, not that they will get picked in the first round, but the individual grade that a team or an analyst would provide that there may be only 10 or 11 of those guys in this draft, there's, there's typically not 32 to be clear, even though obviously they're 32 picks, but 10 or 11 is pretty, pretty small amount, and that also if factors in perhaps to the idea of trading down, I mean, it may not matter. And again, that's the 10 or 11 may not be the same 10 or 11 for every team, but if you're trading down and that 10 or 11 is, is a real thing, now all of a sudden, maybe you're not getting that top shelf prospect that you do at seven, especially for defense that could be a significant decision for Washington to make considering their struggles there.

28:07So yeah, I mean, I think the speeds made everybody feel a lot better about this draft class, but in general, at the top, at least it's not a draft class that people are like overly excited about. Do people think of the tight end from Oregon, Kenyans, Sadiq, after Indy? Yeah, I mean, I don't have the, the, the comparables, but like when you saw like he's, he's, you know, heavier than this guy faster than that guy jumps higher than this guy, like a, all the different like stars, a different position. It's just insane. You know, look, I think the question here is going to be, you know, what do you think of the player? Just because you're, and Adana doesn't mean you're somebody that teams are going to trust, play in and play out. And I do think they're so little inconsistency there, but the athletic freaking is, and this is a draft where there are some other tight ends, but he might be the only one picked in the first two rounds. Men, maybe there's a couple of guys, but like he's, he's the first round guy, nobody else as it stands is going in the first round. And he's probably going top 15, I would say.

29:08And look, you know, I tied ends to me are just, if you find one that is, that is really good. A different smaker. The way we saw last year with the Bears getting Colston, Lovlin and the Colts getting Tyler Warren. I just think that gives you such an advantage. So I could see a team in that, you know, top, you know, 10, 12, 13 picks saying, let's do this because he is unique athletically, he's gifted and there's, like I said, there's no really up plan B if you want to tie them in the first round. All right. Your next mock will down, still be the pick, because that's what it was at 3.0. Is that what your guess is right now? No, no, no. You had styles going at 10. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, after, you know, after this, again, it's also stupid, like that's because you run the 40 and whatever speed it does not make. It doesn't really matter. There's so much of the else that goes on, like the interviews, you can say whatever you want about Kale down, he crushed the interviews, I was really impressed with his podium

30:11session. And you know, you heard the same thing about other guys as well. So he's certainly there. I guess now we're getting the point with free agency where I may start thinking, okay, I think they may do this in free agency, ergo, this pick makes sense. And I will just say that, and we talked about this before, there is a world to me where it makes the most sense to invest on offense. And for defense, you know, build up the base, but like build around the offense for 20, 26 purposes. If you want to ricochet back to the playoffs, getting the help around Jay Daniels is the best way to do it. And if that's the case, or we've got to look past Jeremiah Love, who was, who also crushed the combine, he's, for some people, the best player in the draft or top two or three. And it's only the running back situation from a value perspective that knocks him down. And for Washington, while I don't love taking a running back, he's also such a great pass catcher that even if you don't get, you know, one of those top receivers we were

31:11talking about, now you have at least have that, you know, higher end passing down back that would be a huge deal, not to mention, you know, good luck with, with Jay Daniels who do read options or things like that. So I'm not saying I'm going that route, but, you know, I can't dismiss it either. All right. Last one, subject to change on Friday and then a week from today. Give me the one free agent you think they'll sign. They're most confident about their own or somebody from the outside. I'm sorry. No, somebody from the outside, my fault, somebody from the outside. I mean, I'll confident into the relative thing, but just to play along here, give me, Advocate, the, the, the edge linebacker, run the fountain. I just don't think he's going to cost a ton of money. I do think they have some interest in him. I don't care so much about the local ties, but there's that too. And, you know, they need, you know, flat out, they just need more speed on defense. They need guys who can be put their hand down to play up in this new defense.

32:16So I don't know. I'll go with one of those edge guys, and I'll go with Advocate from the Falcons. Yes. The Falcons defense was pretty damn good this year. He ended up with two sacks in his fourth year off the rookie year, but he had six in each of the last two years. And as you mentioned, he was a Montgomery County kid who went to Penn State. All right. Thanks. He was at his pressure rate, according to the next Ganttatch, his pressure rate was like over 16, which based on looking at Washington, only Bobby Wagner and Doran Armstrong had a better pressure rate than him. So automatically, if he shows up, that you would think that their patch rush would be improved and again, it's don't think that he's going to cost nearly as much as some other guys. Talk to you later. Thanks for doing this. Ben standing, everybody, I want to tell you about window nation. It's been a long winter, but don't relax just yet. It's snowing out there right now. Although Max says it's not snowing where he is, it is snowing right now, is it, is it

33:18snowing yet? No. Still haven't seen it. It's coming down. It's going down. Recently here in Bethesda, but early spring weather, which we're going to get later on this week, it can be fleeting. It can be unpredictable, and there are some long range. It says we return to the cold mid March, adjusting your thermostat can be a guessing game unless you've got the right windows this time of year. New windows from window nation are customizable and energy efficient, which guarantees a comfortable home during the ups and downs of the weather in March. Window nations expert installers take just one day to install your windows, and the windows are backed by a lifetime warranty. During this month, window nation is offering up to 50% off on all window styles, and they've got over 1,500 window styles and colors available. All I ask is give window nation a free shot with a free and home estimate scheduled when it's convenient for you.

34:19Call them at 86690N or head to windownation.com when we come back. There is a football coach on the hot seat, and it's truly hot. I'll explain when we return. Kevin she and show the team 980 and the team 980.com. All right. Happy Monday, everybody. We start off with the news out of Ashburn, Washington. There you have reached a two year extension with guard Nick Alligretti plus the Texans. They have traded a fourth round pick, seventh round pick and offensive lineman juice scruggs to the lions in exchange for running back David Montgomery set to replace Joe Mixen in that role. Plus the Colts news reported this weekend that they are set to tag Alec Pierce along another top wide receiver candidate comes off the market plus the chiefs. They plan to release Joanne Taylor saving 20 million in cap space. Plus tonight we've got the wizard set to take on the Houston Rockets. That'll be over on 1067 the fan pregame coverage gets rolling at 645. This update is sponsored by the team 980 YouTube page. Just open the app.

35:19The team 980 hit subscribe. Kevin she and his live every different 10 to 1 and you can catch programs like take command all off season. Don't forget to hit the like button whenever you do decide to join us and turn on notifications. Stay up to date on all things DC sports and that is what's trending. On Aspire with emigrate, we talk about mindset and vision and the work that actually moves the needle. Listen to Aspire with emigrate available where you get your podcasts. There's a coach on the hot seat in town, a football coach, and it's not who you think it is. More on that coming up. Interesting weekend from college basketball max, Duke absolutely blew out Virginia on Saturday at Cameron Indoor and Duke is now clearly the best defensive team in the country and maybe the best defensive team we've seen in a long time from Duke in particular. They've won six in a row and literally nobody's been able to score against them. He had one nine in a row and by the way, this is not a Tony Bennett Virginia team.

36:24I mean, they were averaging 85 points a game during their win streak before losing to Duke 77 to 51. But Duke has held during their win streak, recent win streak after they kind of blew a lead and lost to North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The Saturday night was that before the Super Bowl or after it, I forget now. But they held Clemson, the 20th ranked team in the country to 54, Syracuse to 64, Michigan to 63, Notre Dame to 56 in Virginia to 51, Duke is by far and away, the number one Ken Palm, Ken Pomeroy defensive, adjusted defensive team rating wise in the country. Their number six in overall offense there, the number one team in the overall net rating as well, slightly ahead of the team. They beat a week ago Saturday, Michigan, but Duke is rolling. This is a really good Duke basketball team, especially on defense.

37:28The other team that's really rolling and they had a 34 point win on Saturday night in Gainesville against John Calipari's 20th ranked Arkansas team. They beat them 111 to 77, the defending champion Florida Gators did. And Todd Goldens team is absolutely rolling right now. That's nine wins in a row. Listen to the margin of victory in these games. They beat South Carolina by 37. They beat Alabama by 23. They beat A&M by 19, Georgia by 20, Kentucky was the closest game they had. They won by nine. They beat South Carolina by 14, Ole Miss by 19, Texas by 13, and Arkansas the other night by 34 points. Florida climbing the rankings very quickly and becoming, if you didn't know it before, a legitimate team to defend its national championship from last year.

38:32Look out for Florida right now. Look out for Duke 100%. Michigan lost a key backup to an ACL injury on Friday night in their blowout win over Illinois, which I was a bit surprised at. Illinois has been a really good team this year and a really good scoring team, but they had no chance against Michigan. They've now lost, I think, four out of their last six. And I thought this might be one of his better teams at Illinois. The big 10 right now, other than Michigan, Purdue lost again yesterday. They lost on the road against Ohio State, fought their way back into the tournament picture, but I'm telling you, I don't know if anybody's playing better than Duke and Florida right now. Duke and Florida, two legitimate national championship possibilities. Florida's ranked seventh, but in Kenpom. They're fourth currently and they are the fourth best defensive team. It's really interesting that the best teams in the country per Kenpom's advance numbers

39:37are the four best defensive teams in the country. Duke won Michigan 2, Arizona 3, and Florida 4. The best offensive team is Illinois and they had no shot against Michigan who just put the clamps on them. It's funny how we're seeing defense become in sports, have a bit of a resurgence, defense in the NFL for sure, defense to a certain degree in college football, and defense right now in college basketball, even though you see some big scores, defense is going to win this tournament coming up in March and it's been historically the teams that can score that go the furthest. That formula might be changing, we'll see. So ESPN's Adam Rittenberg who covers college football put out this morning. The way to early college football coaching hot seat tears for 2026.

40:41And the hottest of the hot is tier number one. And on that list is Mike Norvell at Florida State, Luke fickle at Wisconsin, Dave Arandet Baylor, and then the fourth coach on that list, Mike Loxley at Maryland. Here's what Mike Loxley has done at Maryland. If you don't know this, some of you know this. You turn fans certainly know what Loxley's record is and how poor it is at Maryland. But let me just first read to you what Rittenberg wrote. Loxley's ability to recruit and build a roster is undeniable, which is 100% true. He is as good a recruiter. When you consider that Maryland's got to be at the bottom of the bottom for power for conferences, when you take the power for conferences, you tell me a program where there's less

41:45interest from a fan base than at Maryland. You can't even say places like Vanderbilt anymore. With the Diego Pavia last year, they were selling out every game and Vanderbilt's always done pretty well even when they haven't had good teams. Loxley has done a phenomenal job when you consider that who would want to go play football at Maryland? Have you been to a game there in college park? Literally there are, you know, there are basically attendees dressed as empty seats throughout. You can get for a 12 o'clock game. You can get your own row, let alone a seat. And yet he keeps recruiting to this. He is from an EQ standpoint. He's way up there man. From a leadership communication standpoint, Loxley's tough to touch. I mean, he recruited the number two overall player in the country to come to Maryland next

42:50year. Defense events, Zion, Ealy, all right, from Baltimore, number two player in the country. He consistently puts players into the NFL, consistently puts players into the NFL. The problem isn't, you know, as Doc would say, Monday through Fridays, the problem or Sundays through Fridays, the problem for Loxley have been Saturdays. Saturdays have been the problem because the record has been really, really poor. Overall since coming to Maryland, he is 37 and 49, 12 games under 500 overall and an absolute horrendous 17 and 48 in the big 10, 17 and 48. He's yet to have a season in which he had a winning record in conference. Not good as Steve Spurrier would say, he can recruit, he can communicate, he can lead

43:55and he is a great mentor to a lot of young men at that age. And he puts players into the NFL and he develops young men. He just struggles on Saturdays and unfortunately, when you're talking about revenue generation for the university and for the athletic department, you need to win more on Saturdays. So it totally makes sense that he would be on the hottest of seats according to Adam Rittenberg at ESPN.com. Luke Fickle's 10 years, not going to last very long with Wisconsin if they don't get it done for sure. But yes, this is not a shocker. I think it's a shocker to some that new athletic director Jim Smith after this past 4 and 8 season, which started 4 and 0 ended with eight straight losses that there wasn't anybody that would help buy that contract out. But I know that Mike is certainly respected, well liked and everybody who's a Maryland fan

44:59would love to see him finally figured out because look, the bottom line is even though the record is what it is. They went to bowl games with a losing big 10 record, but in 2021, 7 and 6, they won the Penn straight bowl, 2022, 8 and 5 overall won the Charlotte Bowl, the Duke's Mayo Bowl, and in 2023, 8 wins again and won the music city bowl. Now, they had a quarterback in Lea Tongue of Iowa. They had a quarterback and they have not had a quarterback the last two years where they've gone 4 and 8 and then 1 and 8 and the big 10 followed by 4 and 8 and 1 and 8 again. Yeah. So there you go. He's on the hottest of seats. Interesting that he puts on retirement watch, Bill Belichick. We did think that there was a chance between the end of the season and the NFL carousel,

46:00coaching carousel, that Belichick might leave Carolina, but he's not. He's back for a second straight year in Chapel Hill and at 74 years old, 73, 74, whatever he is, would anybody be surprised if he turns it around a little bit? I wouldn't. One year, bumpy year, that team actually got better as the season went along. If you lost interest in Bill Belichick last year when they started out off like one in five or whatever it was, they won some games. They were really close to winning a few more down the stretch, but still finished 4 and 8 overall in his first year as a college coach, Bill Belichick 4 and 8, but back for this year. Yeah, relatively, I thought event list kind of weekend with the exception of golf.

47:00Did you watch what Shane Lowry did on the final two holes yesterday or two out of the final three holes yesterday, Max? You did not. At the tournament at the Palm Beach in Florida, Shane Lowry had a three shot lead on 16 tee box. He went double bogey, double bogey at 16 and 17 and lost to Nico at Chevaria. That was Shane Lowry who's been a big time clutch player, certainly in international competitions, Ryder Cup, etc., totally collapsed down the stretch and nobody saw that coming. Fans was on the call. All the guys hicks saw the guys from NBC and no one saw that coming and he literally hit into the water on 16 and on the par 3, 17th chunked, actually just sliced one into the water at 17, double bogey, double bogey to lose in, you know, 18, didn't even go

48:06to a playoff hole, three shot lead at 16, lost the tournament ultimately to Chevaria. That may have been the most exciting event of the weekend. All right, done for the day, back tomorrow, Chris is next. For years, Gone South has been a podcast about crime in the American South. But for our new season, we're widening the lens. Through deeply reported narrative driven stories, we're digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures that still shape the South in a lot of ways, the country itself. Follow and listen to Gone South Season 5, an Odyssey podcast available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.