Super Bowl XXVI MVP Mark Rypien joins Grant & Danny to talk about the Washington Commanders rebuild and what pressures/challenges Jayden Daniels faces as a rookie QB.
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00:00You mentioned this, I'd forgotten you were drafted in 86, but then, you know, you played in 88,
00:04and it's just a different time now, right? Where the instead of rookie sets foot on case,
00:08he's the starter has to be, and you know, the clock has already taken because the CBA and
00:12the contracts are, but that adjustment, guys don't have that luxury to wait anymore.
00:16Jaden Daniels, what's he going through right now? And just kind of, you know, related to your own
00:21experience and what you see from him. Well, you, you want, you want Jaden Daniels to be good last
00:24year when he wasn't even here. It's like, you know, what can you do for me right now? You know,
00:29that's, that's the, the, the, the narrative for the league right now. I was fortunate. I've had
00:34some questionable injuries. My first two years, you know, there's still an agony. There's still
00:39about all my goodness or you roll out. In fact, one was above a tire, Mark, you're supposed to
00:44be down. Oh, and then we'll jump back, jump back up, ready to get in the huddle. He goes, Mark,
00:47you're supposed to be, you know, a little hurt. Aren't you? Oh, sore. Yeah. So is that like IR
00:52stuff? Yeah. So yeah. So there's some, you know, some things that we were able to manipulate a
00:57little bit to keep guys on IR and cause they didn't have practice squad then. So I've been
01:02very blessed because of that, you know, and, and was willing to do whatever role that I had to,
01:06to keep on the football team. And then when my time came was, was able to watch. And that's,
01:11that's a hard thing now for Jaden Daniels. He doesn't get an opportunity to sit there and
01:14watch, you know, what's happening, how the plays are, you know, how, how, how fast the game is,
01:19you know, what it's going to be like if he was in that situation, I had two years to do that.
01:23So when my time came, I was, I was more prepared than Jaden Daniels was, but this kid's,
01:29this kid's as gifted as they come. I mean, he's got more talent on one pinky than I did in my
01:34whole body. And, and again, I think if we have to be good on defense, you got to get him the
01:39football, you know, we can't be giving up 30 points, you know, to a Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
01:44nothing against the Buccaneers, but we got to be better on defense. We've got to have,
01:47get him the football, get him more touches, get our players, more touches, get our skilled players,
01:51more touches and be good on special teams and special teams has changed. Now you see where
01:55kickoffs are going now. I mean, everyone is into these optics now where they saw what was
02:00happening during the preseason. They kicked it in the red zone. They got to pass the 32 to the 35.
02:05They say, why not kick it out the back of the end zone? You're going to get it at 30. So that's
02:08what kickers are doing now. It's almost a waste of special team talent. You know, if you got great
02:12special team coverage guys, they're being wasted by this new rule. And, and I still don't, I don't
02:17understand it. I don't know, nor will I ever understand what are they going to do if it's an
02:21onside kick? I mean, you're pretty much, you have to tell beforehand, you have to tell you've got
02:25to tip your hand. Yeah. So it's to me, it's a, it's kind of a crazy thing. I don't know.
02:30I think the NFL will look at it and see how this year goes, but I do know we want to protect,
02:34you want to protect the players. We want to protect players from those massive, you know,
02:3830 yard running down fields and Clyde and helmet to helmets. Obviously we want to do that, but
02:43gotta be a different way of doing that.