Grant has thought this recently, but he believes the Commanders will be selecting a kicker early on in the draft.
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00:00Looking forward to talking to Mike Florio in 30 minutes.
00:05Danny, I've got a sneaking suspicion that the commanders are going to draft a kicker.
00:11And if they do so before the seventh round, I'm going to lose my mind.
00:16I'm just letting everybody know in advance.
00:17You're calling a shot here.
00:18Yeah, I can't do that.
00:19Especially in a year where I just don't have a bunch of draft picks.
00:23You want to draft the kicker.
00:25You want to get cute and do the thing you shouldn't do.
00:27Because make no mistake about it, you shouldn't do it.
00:30It never works.
00:32But if you want to do it, you better have eight, nine, ten draft picks.
00:39Double digits is a good starting place, if we're being honest, to draft the kicker.
00:43When you have five picks right now, you don't get to.
00:46Sorry.
00:47Now, they move back from 29 and they move back from 61.
00:52And they add two picks each time they do it.
00:54So they end up picking seven times.
00:57That's if they move back twice and add a pick each time.
01:00Still a seven player class where most of your picks are in the mid to late rounds.
01:05Not ideal, but I guess I could live with angrily the drafting of a kicker.
01:11In their current situation, when you pick three times before the 205th pick in the class,
01:19when you pick twice before pick 128 in the fourth round, you don't get to draft a kicker.
01:24So if you're wondering, why are you worried about this?
01:26Yeah, I was gonna say, where's this coming from?
01:27Yeah, well, I got some evidence.
01:28Okay.
01:29Number one, they worked out with Andres Borregalas yesterday, according to all reports.
01:36Commanders held a private workout for the kicker from the University of Miami,
01:39considered one of the best kickers in America this year.
01:43One of the top kickers in the country.
01:45They have met with him already.
01:47Apparently, their contingent at the Shrine Bowl spent some time with him in January.
01:53And now they went to his facility as part of the pro day
01:56and had him do a workout for their staff.
01:58You could say, well, that's the whole point of the job.
02:00That's what they do right now.
02:01And that's true.
02:02Although I would make the case, let's save time on working out
02:04and talking to kickers before the draft.
02:06But I digress.
02:08Second is Adam Peters was in San Francisco when they drafted Jake Moody in the third round.
02:15You familiar?
02:17Remember this whole debacle?
02:18I do.
02:19By the way, this guy stinks out loud.
02:20Yep.
02:21He missed 10 kicks last year.
02:2224 of 34.
02:24Got the yips.
02:25Ended up.
02:26He was the one that like Debo Samuel was trying to fight on the sideline
02:29because he couldn't make chip shots.
02:31Yes.
02:31Remember?
02:32Yeah, I do.
02:33They drafted him in the third round.
02:36Third round.
02:3799 overall in the 2023 draft.
02:40And that was not a year where the San Francisco 49ers had a bunch of picks.
02:44It was kind of like Washington this year, if I remember.
02:46I'll pull it up.
02:47But I think they made four picks that year because it was after the trade up for Trey
02:51Lance or whatever.
02:53So let me look at this.
02:56What year did I say they drafted him?
02:57That was 2023.
02:59Okay, so they actually did have several picks.
03:01That part I'm wrong about.
03:03They had three in the third round, but they only had three picks before round five.
03:07They didn't have a first round pick.
03:08They didn't have a second round pick.
03:10And then they took Jake Moody in the third.
03:12Can't have it.
03:13Can't have it.
03:14Can't coach with them.
03:15Can't win with them.
03:16Can't do it.
03:17So I got Peters having been in San Fran when they drafted a kicker in the third round.
03:21I got Washington not doing anything to upgrade its kicking position this offseason.
03:26Makes me think they got a plan there if they're not going out and signing a real kicker.
03:30And then the last thing I'll say is they're working out this guy, Borigalis.
03:35They're going to draft a kicker, man.
03:37It's going to happen.
03:37Prepare yourself.
03:40As long as it's not early.
03:44Now, somebody might listen and say, well, it's an important, you know, it comes down
03:47to kick sometimes.
03:49And if you're a team that's going to play some ball control and, you know, take some
03:52pressure off Jaden Daniels, maybe you'd want someone that's reliable as a kicker.
03:56And I guess my response would be the highly drafted kickers have not been
04:01reliable the way other position groups are.
04:03There's busts everywhere, of course, but the Roberto Aguayo corollary applies here.
04:07Second round, Florida State, Tampa Bay Bucks out of the league.
04:10And he absolutely Jake Moody, not particularly good in terms of kicks.
04:14I'll go the other way.
04:15Sebastian Janikowski was a first round kicker who I think kicked for 17 or 18 years.
04:20He had a really long career.
04:21Seabass was good by all accounts.
04:24Even still, that was not a good draft pick.
04:27I'm sorry.
04:27And the trend line has been obvious.
04:30It's usually on average last year, there were three drafted, but usually it's one
04:34kicker, maybe two per year are drafted in its late round stuff.
04:38Every once in a while, you get someone that jumps up like, again, an Aguayo back in 2016
04:42Moody in 2023.
04:44But for the most part, it's round five, round six, round seven, undrafted free agent.
04:48If the gap in terms of practice for one of these guys being worth a third or fourth round
04:56pick was so much different than the Washington worked out, Austin Seibert, who was drafted
05:01a few years ago, by the way, Washington worked out Daniel Carlson, Jason Sanders, Jake Elliott,
05:04Zane Gonzalez, whatever.
05:06If the gap was actually historically worthwhile, I'd go, you know what?
05:10That actually makes sense.
05:11Invest the resource in it and secure it.
05:13To me, this is one of those places.
05:15I don't know the number of draft picks I would have to have before I said, okay, use one
05:19on a kicker because every other position is filled.
05:22I'd rather have another guy playing special teams.
05:24I will find my kicker on the open market.
05:27That just it's where they go.
05:28It's like middle relievers in baseball.
05:30One year, a guy's unbelievable.
05:32The next year he's persona non grata because he missed a couple extra points and you don't
05:36know what these guys are going through all the time.
05:38So to me, I would almost never draft a kicker.
05:42So I'll be annoyed if that happens, especially if it's one of their early picks, not that
05:46they have that many.
05:49Fantasy football is a completely different thing.
05:52Sounds stupid when you even make the comparison, but I'm starting here for a reason.
05:55In the fantasy football draft that you're going to be in this summer, everybody essentially
06:00knows that you take your kicker in the final round of the draft.
06:04Now I'm in mostly leagues now where we have gotten rid of kickers because I just think
06:08it's a futile, useless exercise in fantasy ball.
06:12What's dumber than the randomness of that week?
06:15A kicker getting 16 points and beating you.
06:17I hate that.
06:18Or even if I win the game with a 15 point night from would never be Jake Moody, I guess,
06:23but you got a young way coup situation where they can't score from inside the red zone.
06:27It gets 14 points for you.
06:28He stunk this year too.
06:29Yeah, but you get the point of the dude story.
06:32I'm out on kickers in fantasy league, so any league I'm in charge of, there's no kickers,
06:36but you take that player in the last round.
06:39That should also be the philosophy of every single NFL team.
06:43If you want to upgrade kicker and you think there's a chance it's going to be hard for
06:47you to sign a guy competing against other teams as a college free agent, you don't want
06:51to risk losing him because there's no other better landing spots where he's definitely
06:55going to be a starter right away, or it's geographically in his backyard, or the weather's
06:59better, or maybe, you know, I'm a cold weather city.
07:02It's a tough place to kick Chicago or something, you know, an outdoor with division games and
07:07Lambeau and whatnot.
07:08So it's going to be hard for me to compete with the Rams to get this undrafted free agent
07:13kicker and you got to draft the guy in the seventh round and you want to make that case
07:16to me.
07:16I could live with that, but sixth round too early.
07:20Durant Brooks called.
07:21I want that pick back.
07:22I still hate that that happened the way that it did.
07:24The Ray Guy award winner.
07:25If you remember Durant Brooks, the punt Drew Washington took anything before the sixth
07:30round is egregious.
07:32Like what word would you use?
07:33I mean, it is anything before the fifth round.
07:35It's unacceptable.
07:37Sixth round rather one through five for a kicker or punter.
07:41Inexcusable.
07:42I hate it.
07:43Sixth maddening, annoying seventh.
07:48Upsetting, but tolerable is kind of how I would label it.
07:50Yeah.
07:51Seventh for me is I wouldn't do that, but all right, I'm not going to fight you on it.
07:54I mean, if I was a GM for 50 years and I had a Super Bowl team that was loaded everywhere
08:01and I needed a kicker, I might consider and then think better of taking a kicker in the
08:07seventh round.
08:08I would think about it for like five minutes, but I'm sorry, dude, when you and they got
08:14to the NFC championship game last year.
08:16So God bless them.
08:17They are right now sixth and power rankings going into the season.
08:20So there's a lot going well for the Washington commanders at this moment, obviously, but
08:24we all know they got major needs.
08:26We all know they have to continue to add.
08:29There's just not enough depth on the roster and you only have five picks at this moment.
08:34So hypothetically, that's how many picks you'll take in this draft.
08:36If you don't trade back, that is a luxury that you do not have.
08:41And if they again, I'm trying to quantify this better.
08:45I don't think I did a very good job.
08:46I'll try it again.
08:47If the hit rate on drafted kickers was higher than the constantly evolving free agent pool,
08:53you know what I mean?
08:54Like some of these guys that they brought in, Zane Gonzalez, Austin Cyber.
08:57I brought those guys up because they were both drafted kickers over the last handful
09:00of years that were readily available at all times.
09:03The free agent.
09:03You can work this guy out right now.
09:05Pool of players.
09:06I know you'd like to do better.
09:08I would too.
09:08I'd like a solidified kicker position.
09:10That's a lot more fun.
09:11But where's Justin Rohrwasser or, you know, Anders Carlson or, you know, Joshua, actually
09:17just recorded a good year.
09:18But you know what I mean?
09:18Like the ROI on a drafted kicker is not better than free agent Freddie or, you know, get
09:27the veteran that's bounced around a little bit.
09:29I'll give you another one.
09:30Chad Ryland was drafted by the new England Patriots out of Maryland.
09:35Memory serves.
09:35They got a good year this year.
09:36Memory serves Murray.
09:38He's not in new England anymore.
09:40He was there for one year.
09:41Kicks in Arizona now.
09:42Yes.
09:42Yeah.
09:43He missed nine field goals last year in new England.
09:46Not a good year then.
09:47And cost them, by the way, like they had a chance to, I guess you could say it helped
09:53them because they picked third and got Drake May, but cost them dearly in a couple of games
09:57at the end of the year and really bailed out Washington to an extent.
10:00But Chad Ryland is on his second team in two years.
10:04He was better last year.
10:07But they drafted him in the fourth round in 2023, right after Jake Moody went in the third
10:12round.
10:13Another one, Anders Carlson was drafted.
10:16Like the three kickers drafted in 2023.
10:19Carlson, Green Bay moved on from no longer there.
10:21Chad Ryland, fourth round gone from new England.
10:23Jake Moody, the worst of the bunch.
10:25There's zero chance he's the kicker for San Francisco all year.
10:282022 fourth round.
10:29You just mentioned Cade York.
10:32He's bounced all over the place.
10:33He was here for a cup of coffee.
10:34He's been everywhere.
10:36I think the last massive success that's proven out over multiple years would have been Evan
10:43McPherson with the Bengals drafted in the fifth round.
10:45And he even had a scuffling this year.
10:47Remember, he missed that kick against Washington.
10:49Or do I help them when he cost him the game against the Ravens by missing a mid forties
10:52field goal?
10:53He had a terrible season, but he's at least a really, really good kicker and like kicked
10:56in the Super Bowl and has been successful for them.
10:59But no, don't do this.
11:02Do not draft the kicker, please.
11:04And if you do, by God, please make it the end of the seventh round, Mr.
11:09Irrelevant with more picks that you've acquired through willing and dealing.
11:12Yeah, I'm with you.
11:13I mean, it's not something I'm going to see it happening.
11:16You lit up a pretty good case.
11:17The workout, the shine meeting.
11:21Again, Peters clearly doesn't view it like I view it.
11:24I'm not pretending like he ran the whole draft, but he was heavily involved in their draft.
11:28That's the school he graduated from.
11:29Jake Moody was taken third in a year where they didn't have a first or a second.
11:33Like that should have been fireable for somebody.
11:36Well, at least head scratching.
11:39I mean, they're coming off all those wins, so nobody really noticed.
11:41But it's like, really, that's the plan.
11:43Yeah.
11:44I mean, again, if there was a man, if you spend on this a little bit, you'll get a good one.
11:50If that was the case, I'd go.
11:52It actually makes sense to me.
11:53They don't want to be in that free agent.
11:54Let's work out this guy this week here.
11:56But there are so many dudes that are just not.
11:59Where's Sam Sloman right now?
12:01That was a drafted player into the NFL.
12:05I don't remember him kicking at any point in time.
12:07I don't know who that person is.
12:08That's my point.
12:08But here's what I do know.
12:10I know that of the guys that have been drafted in the top six rounds, five rounds, even more
12:16of those kickers have been failures than successes.
12:19Like the transition is just more volatile than you would think, because it's not like
12:24a position where size and physicality and speed and all that matters.
12:28You think you see a guy kicking in college, you could kick in the NFL.
12:31It's pretty similar.
12:32The hash marks change a little bit, but same goalposts like whatever, right?
12:36All right.
12:36The goalposts are different, but like, we'll figure it out together.
12:39You were great in college.
12:40Theoretically, you should be better in the NFL.
12:41You're going to get better.
12:42It just hasn't worked out.
12:43It doesn't work that way.
12:44There's not really a predictive nature to it.