Speaker 1: Welcome to the Command Center Podcast. I'm Julie Donaldson. The
Speaker 1: Commander's first round pick, John Dotson has been turning heads
Speaker 1: this offseason. Santana mosson Logan Paulson broke down what makes
Speaker 1: Dotson so explosive. Okay, so we're celebrating the fourth of July.
Speaker 1: Now everybody likes to have the fireworks. I'll go off,
Speaker 1: But if we're talking about fireworks on the field, what
Speaker 1: is it, Santana that makes Dotson that kind of explosive player.
Speaker 1: I think one of the things that stands out, especially
Speaker 1: from the wide receiver position, if you can have a
Speaker 1: guy running that top speed and still get in and
Speaker 1: out of his breaks at that speed, that alone is
Speaker 1: something different. You know, you have to be a rare
Speaker 1: breed to be able to do that. I was one
Speaker 1: of those guys that they gave that. You know, say, hey,
Speaker 1: that's one of the things that Tanna has gone for himself.
Speaker 1: I see that with the hand. He's very deceptive in
Speaker 1: his speed, but when it time to put deaf Flynn
Speaker 1: the ground, he's in and out of those cuts and
Speaker 1: he's gone before you even get a chance to plain.
Speaker 1: How as open as you were even saying when you
Speaker 1: watch him at Penn State so far showing that as
Speaker 1: well here, Yeah, I think so. I think he does
Speaker 1: a really nice job of stacking routes, like using the
Speaker 1: big out to set up the post the next time.
Speaker 1: And he just is thinking about football at a very
Speaker 1: high level, how to beat dbs, how to manipulate defenses,
Speaker 1: and to me that leads some of his explosive stuff.
Speaker 1: And again like his ability to accelerate when the football's
Speaker 1: in the air, you know, very DeShawn Jackson esque. So
Speaker 1: a fantastic skill set for a young man. A lot
Speaker 1: of girl he's so to do. But really excited about him.
Speaker 1: We heard head coach Ron Riveri even saying, how you
Speaker 1: know they look they're not going too hard against each other.
Speaker 1: But while he was able to get the better of
Speaker 1: a couple of our dbs out there as well, just
Speaker 1: early on explosive plays hopefully will follow him throughout his
Speaker 1: NFL career, especially his rookie season as well. For more
Speaker 1: on what makes dot some special, I talked to Penn
Speaker 1: State wide receiver coach Taylor Stubblefield, who spent a few
Speaker 1: years with John in Happy Valley and coach Taylor Stubblefield
Speaker 1: joins us now had John for a couple of years
Speaker 1: at Pin State. Look, he gives high two is one
Speaker 1: of his mentors helping him here. But when he was
Speaker 1: drafted you actually went to congratulate him and also made
Speaker 1: a point that he came back for his senior year
Speaker 1: for his brothers. What does that say for how it
Speaker 1: helps him maybe get even further ready for the NFL
Speaker 1: and also to the character of who he is as
Speaker 1: a player. Yeah, I think that, you know, Coach Franklin,
Speaker 1: we do a really good job here at the Penn
Speaker 1: State of giving our guys the best information that they have.
Speaker 1: We outsource it third party. We get information from the
Speaker 1: teams around the NFL to see what his draft draft
Speaker 1: status would be. And yeah, after his junior year, we
Speaker 1: had had a meeting with him it would be best
Speaker 1: for him to come back to help his draft status.
Speaker 1: And he did that. He did it not own for himself,
Speaker 1: but also for the team because coach Franklin always says
Speaker 1: that if if somebody can get drafted as high as possible,
Speaker 1: that's better for them and it's better for Penn State.
Speaker 1: And so he trusted the process. He came back, had
Speaker 1: a heck of a year and put himself to be
Speaker 1: with you guys, the Washington Commanders. One of the things
Speaker 1: that this team did very consciously is they went out
Speaker 1: they wanted to get players that would be ready to go,
Speaker 1: that you don't have to really kind of wait and develop.
Speaker 1: Where would you say or expect him to come in
Speaker 1: here and have an impact right off the bat. Well,
Speaker 1: that that's going to be tough. You know, Johan is
Speaker 1: extremely competitive and that wide receiver room there at Washington
Speaker 1: is legit. And you know, coach Diaz is talked about
Speaker 1: our defense coordinator here. He talked about the best players
Speaker 1: can't have bad days, and Johan is going to make
Speaker 1: sure that he does not have bad days, and he's
Speaker 1: going to go in there and he's going to try
Speaker 1: to be as consistent as possible. And it sounds like
Speaker 1: he is doing a pretty good job of that. Um
Speaker 1: and he knows that offense is about being where you're
Speaker 1: supposed to be, when you're supposed to be there. And
Speaker 1: then once you get that ball in your hand, then
Speaker 1: you know your your creativity, you're you're explosive in this.
Speaker 1: That's where that comes into play um. You're playmaking, abuilding
Speaker 1: and he obviously has that, so h, he's gonna be ready.
Speaker 1: I know he's going to be ready mentally. NFL it
Speaker 1: is fast, it is fast, fast, fast, so um, they're
Speaker 1: gonna get him ready for U for the season. Over,
Speaker 1: what would you say is the least talked about the
Speaker 1: element of his game that folks might be surprised by
Speaker 1: how competitive he is because he's a quiet he's he
Speaker 1: doesn't have this flamboyant demeanor or or persona about him.
Speaker 1: He's gonna come, man, he got the little ball. He
Speaker 1: might have some little fancy backpack, but he's probably gonna
Speaker 1: wear some you know, old dusty birkin stocks and he's
Speaker 1: gonna uh coming there and he's gonna work. So I
Speaker 1: think that is going to be surprising. And then his
Speaker 1: ability to work like his his catapult numbers um last
Speaker 1: year were offen. His his player load, the amount of
Speaker 1: ninety percent reps H that he was doing in practice,
Speaker 1: the amount of over yards that he was running was
Speaker 1: out of this world. And he never came up to
Speaker 1: me was like, hey, coach, I need one to day
Speaker 1: or can I relax today. I didn't have to motivate
Speaker 1: him to work hard. He chose to work hard, and
Speaker 1: I think that that can become an infectious especially as
Speaker 1: he grows in his career in the NFL. We're already
Speaker 1: seeing that the coaches are commenting on it, and the
Speaker 1: fans are going to love to see the rewards from
Speaker 1: that on the field once we do get to it.
Speaker 1: A little bit of the break before we kind of
Speaker 1: get to same with pads On, but a lot of
Speaker 1: excitement already. We appreciate your time and for the work
Speaker 1: you put in to help him advance to be able
Speaker 1: to join us here at the Commanders. Thank you, coach,
Speaker 1: Thank you for all your news and analysis. Be sure
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Speaker 1: pm on NBC Sports Washington, and if you miss an episode,
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Speaker 1: to the Commanders.