Speaker 1: Welcome to the Command Center podcast. I'm Braham Whitstein. The
Speaker 1: nation's top college prospects are gathered in Indianapolis to showcase
Speaker 1: their skills in the twenty twenty three NFL Combine. Former
Speaker 1: Washington tight end Logan Paulson joined us from Indie to
Speaker 1: share what he's seen from the first few days of
Speaker 1: the combine. Logan Paulson joins us now from Indianapolis. At
Speaker 1: the Combine, today is a good day to speak with you.
Speaker 1: Almost every mock draft that I read has Washington locked
Speaker 1: in at sixteen on a defensive back or an offensive lineman.
Speaker 1: And the corners were working out today. So what did
Speaker 1: you see and hear from that position group. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: quarterbacks did their interviews today and I think it's been
Speaker 1: not so much what they said in the interviews, but
Speaker 1: it's what we learned last night when we're out kind
Speaker 1: of talking to the coaches, talking to the scouts. It
Speaker 1: seems like Christian Gonzalez is the guy that's going to
Speaker 1: be kind of in that top ten pick. There's a
Speaker 1: little bit concern about Meriweather's height weight. I love his
Speaker 1: film better. If he was there at sixteen, I'd say
Speaker 1: locked that in one hundred percent, but obviously everyone's got
Speaker 1: their flavor of the month. Okay, So sixteen, do you
Speaker 1: feel like defensive back after what you've seen it heard,
Speaker 1: seems like a likely outcome for Washington. It does seem
Speaker 1: like likely outcome if one of those guys were to fall.
Speaker 1: I don't think they will. Obviously. The next guy is
Speaker 1: Joey Porter Junior excuse me, very talented, more of a
Speaker 1: man fit kind of guy, not a true scheme fit
Speaker 1: for this cover three that Washington likes to run. So
Speaker 1: I think if that's the option, maybe think about trading back. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we'll keep an eye on defensive back. How about
Speaker 1: offensive line? Obviously that's a need as well, maybe addressed
Speaker 1: in free agency, may be addressed early in the draft.
Speaker 1: What are you thinking it's sixteen in terms of offensive lineman? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean really, the guy that everyone is kind of
Speaker 1: talking about is Peter Scronsky. He is outstanding from Norris Winstern,
Speaker 1: He's super talented. Obviously there's some size concerns technician. If
Speaker 1: you were to follow you a sixteen, he can play guard,
Speaker 1: tackles center. That's the guy that I got my eyes gone, obviously.
Speaker 1: Broderick Jones is the guy that we're getting a lot
Speaker 1: of mock to tremendous athlete, but very very raw. So again,
Speaker 1: in that situation, if one of those guys isn't available,
Speaker 1: trade back, look at a Darnell Right, look at Dwayne Jones,
Speaker 1: those other guys very very talented, true tackles. How about
Speaker 1: interior offensive line? Do you think that that's a possibility
Speaker 1: for a straight guard center or strictly a guard at sixteen? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's really interesting, man. I'm glad you asked that. The
Speaker 1: guy that has kind of been in circulation is the
Speaker 1: big guard from Florida. But a guy that came up
Speaker 1: in the conversations last night was Tillman, the center guard
Speaker 1: out of Wisconsin, a guy that not what he's talking about,
Speaker 1: but obviously the NFL community is really excited about. Okay.
Speaker 1: The other spot that obviously is of need and mighty
Speaker 1: get addressed in free agency and might get addressed in
Speaker 1: the draft or potentially both is lined acker where there's
Speaker 1: no clear cut starter on this roster outside of jam
Speaker 1: and Davis. So from your point of view of the
Speaker 1: linebackers who are going to be working out tonight, what
Speaker 1: do you see from that draft class. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: kind of really fun group. There's a guy like Jack Campbell,
Speaker 1: who's maybe the most linebacker linebacker of all time. He's
Speaker 1: six two forty five pounds. But for a guy like
Speaker 1: him today, how's he gonna run? He's a little tight
Speaker 1: in the hips, and can he kind of match some
Speaker 1: athletic qualities to that tremendous football intuition. Then you got
Speaker 1: a guy like the kid from Washington State who played
Speaker 1: receiver for a couple of years. Tremendous athlete, but how
Speaker 1: does that intuition hold up? So there's kind of all
Speaker 1: these cool storylines around these guys. Do you think linebacker's
Speaker 1: a possibility early in the draft for them? You know,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I think there's the needed offensive line,
Speaker 1: the need a corner as long as they're not addressing
Speaker 1: that in free agency. I think the linebacker thing will
Speaker 1: kind of address itself later in the draft. And I
Speaker 1: think there's enough talent, enough kind of upside players that
Speaker 1: you feel good about it. Logan Paulson at the Combine
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis. Thanks Logan, Thanks appreciate it. With free agency
Speaker 1: on the horizon, former players, Satanamas said, Fred Scouth joined
Speaker 1: me to discuss franchise tagging defensive tackle to Ron Payne
Speaker 1: and what they're looking for in free agency. Let's start
Speaker 1: with Ron Hayne. What did you make of the tag?
Speaker 1: This is what a tag is to me. It's like
Speaker 1: when you're married and you in a relationship and you
Speaker 1: gotta go see counseling. You know, you almost at the
Speaker 1: end right now, you know this is the last ditch
Speaker 1: effort to say this relationship and make us grown. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, we did this with
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins, we did this with Brandon shaff I just
Speaker 1: think when you draft well, you cannot play and resign
Speaker 1: that entire room. So I thought this was the best
Speaker 1: thing to do in it came room. Those other two
Speaker 1: did not work out in the long term deal. I
Speaker 1: think this situation is a little bit different, though, right
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's not so different. I
Speaker 1: think the only different thing about this one he actually
Speaker 1: wants to be yeah, yeah, okay, what do you make
Speaker 1: a pay? But I mean, just to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: we can't keep all those guys. I mean, we drafted
Speaker 1: it so well to where if those guys you know,
Speaker 1: basically played up to expectations. Sooner or later, we're gonna
Speaker 1: have to say if we didn't win at that given
Speaker 1: time that those draft picks was here, then we lost.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, These guys they deserve better pay,
Speaker 1: They deserve what they're gonna probably be tentionally. What you know,
Speaker 1: Dron Payne show you he's worth right now. And quite frankly,
Speaker 1: we don't have the money for that. Our team has
Speaker 1: other needs. And last time Brown two interior players made
Speaker 1: over fifty million dollars. It was Warren Sap and Booker
Speaker 1: McFarland at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They managed to get
Speaker 1: one Super Bowl out of the team. I just don't
Speaker 1: see people doing it. They prone to play the edges
Speaker 1: before they and play the interior guys. You're gonna wait
Speaker 1: out Chase Young to find out what the health is
Speaker 1: with him, and then Montes Sweat. This has been kind
Speaker 1: of a simmering story here. He's entering the final year
Speaker 1: of his contract too, so there's a lot of decisions
Speaker 1: that need to be made as well. All right, as
Speaker 1: for Bobby McCain being released, Yeah, but it seems to
Speaker 1: show a lot of confidence in the young safeties. Well,
Speaker 1: you got for us, you got Butler that showed us,
Speaker 1: especially that last game of the season, that he can
Speaker 1: really go out here and be called upon and an answer.
Speaker 1: So when you saw him, Macame, I think it was
Speaker 1: a down year for him. He played well, he didn't
Speaker 1: play as well as he played the year before. So
Speaker 1: he was expendable. He wasn't versatile for them, Yeah, different,
Speaker 1: he was versatile, and then that time he tried to
Speaker 1: make him cover too much. I think, yeah, you know
Speaker 1: him a knife but losing the stale. But I think
Speaker 1: he was out there more for his leadership. He was
Speaker 1: out there more for his communication skills, and this is
Speaker 1: what they're gonna have to replace. Like person, but is
Speaker 1: one of those guys play one hundred mile per hour,
Speaker 1: not thinking all the time. He needs somebody to slew
Speaker 1: him down and talk to him. So I look for
Speaker 1: him in the off season to sign a veteran presence
Speaker 1: back there with those defensive backs. Okay, so where's the
Speaker 1: focus go next? They've done some of their business here.
Speaker 1: Paint is at least in toe for this season. We'll
Speaker 1: see beyond. There are holes offensive line, linebacker, corner. What
Speaker 1: do you think the focus is? Fat boys? If you
Speaker 1: don't smell like bacon. I don't want you. I want guys.
Speaker 1: There's three hundred pounds that can move people. I want
Speaker 1: people to kick people out the club. It has to
Speaker 1: be the offensive life, and it has to be the linebackers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I gotta I got a second that.
Speaker 1: I think offensive line is probably the top priority. We
Speaker 1: want to look at linebacker snakes and then cornerbacks. Cornerback
Speaker 1: should be bottom bottom of the list. But those two positions,
Speaker 1: offensive line and linebacker, to me, I think those are
Speaker 1: key for your offense and your free agency of the draft.
Speaker 1: Or I need to let both With the linebackers, I
Speaker 1: need an older linebacker because I need a leader help
Speaker 1: I did. I need some youth to to incorporate into that.
Speaker 1: So I want to get a little bit of everything.
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