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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Commanders Today Podcast. I'm Julie Donaldson. Well.

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Speaker 1: Washington traded back from the eleventh overall pick to start

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Speaker 1: the draft, selecting Penn state wide receiver John Dodson with

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Speaker 1: the sixteenth overall pick, and then they picked up a

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Speaker 1: pair of Alabama guys with their next two. Defensive lineman

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Speaker 1: Fiderian Mathis with the in the second, followed by running

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Speaker 1: back Brian Robertson Junior in the third. Now Robinson zero

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Speaker 1: fumbles on five hundred and forty five career Russia attempts

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Speaker 1: at Alabama. Talk about ball security, right, It's one things

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Speaker 1: you always have to have as an r beat. Now,

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Speaker 1: on day three, Washington added safety Percy Butler out of Louisiana,

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Speaker 1: followed by UNC quarterback Sam Howell in the fifth round.

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Speaker 1: Nice surprise that he was there for them. Yeah, yes,

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Speaker 1: big arm guy, young talent yea, and the expectations are

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Speaker 1: sitting back and learn. He threw for ninety two touchdowns

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Speaker 1: in three seasons at North Carolina that is the third

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Speaker 1: most in ACC history. And then they selected two more

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Speaker 1: offensive players, tight end Cold Turner out of Nevada and

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Speaker 1: guard Chris Paul out of Tulsa no, not thought Chris

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Speaker 1: Paul a little different size to him. Yeah, a cross over, yeah, no,

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Speaker 1: no no. And then they ended the draft selecting cornerback

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Speaker 1: Christian Holmes out of Oklahoma State with a two hundred

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Speaker 1: fortieth overall pick. They came out with more selections than

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Speaker 1: they went in, which was what thing that general manager

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Speaker 1: Mark Mayhew said is they wanted to be able to

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Speaker 1: have more guys coming back with this, so they get

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Speaker 1: eight as opposed to sixth. Grand Who are you saying,

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Speaker 1: Tana most excited to see out of this draft class?

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Speaker 1: I mean, do we you have to even ask that question?

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Speaker 1: I really want to Dowson. Dawson is one of those guys.

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Speaker 1: And you know, yes, I'm a receiver and you know

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Speaker 1: I'm always going to play close attention to those guys.

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Speaker 1: But he's one of the guys that me and Logan

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Speaker 1: talked about weeks ago. But he wasn't high on my

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Speaker 1: list as in having opportunities to come here, not to

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Speaker 1: say that he didn't have the ability I thought he had.

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Speaker 1: You know, trust me, he has a wide range of

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Speaker 1: things that when you watch his film him, it speaks

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Speaker 1: for itself. But I'm really looking forward to see how

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Speaker 1: he can make a splash because I think he's one

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Speaker 1: of those guys that can make a big difference. Yeah, absolutely,

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Speaker 1: I totally agree with that. I think he's got a

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Speaker 1: really nice skill set. The guy that I'm most excited about, though,

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Speaker 1: is persony. Butler is the safety. Like when you turn

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Speaker 1: on this if I didn't know that much about him,

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Speaker 1: when you turn in the state man, he rips to

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Speaker 1: the football and he is physical when he gets there.

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Speaker 1: He can play the most time he talked about he

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Speaker 1: can play in the box. And I love the physicality Gunner.

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Speaker 1: I just like people to have tape like that. It

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Speaker 1: makes me super excited to see that physical, fast football

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Speaker 1: player and what he brings to this defense. Were you

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Speaker 1: surprised that they went more on offense than defense in

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Speaker 1: this draft? I wasn't. You know. One of the things

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Speaker 1: our preachers is talking about just the best available player,

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Speaker 1: but the guy that we need that's gonna fit us,

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Speaker 1: you know. And so for so long the last few years,

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Speaker 1: we was going D lineman at the D linemand into

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Speaker 1: linebacker last year, and so I knew we was going

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Speaker 1: to have a chance to address that receiver position. You know,

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Speaker 1: we were sending out the gate that it's so many receivers,

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Speaker 1: it was six that went in the first round. You

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Speaker 1: couldn't help. But you know, pick one of them and

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Speaker 1: you couldn't miss either. One of those guys you would

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Speaker 1: have got would have came in or come in and

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Speaker 1: have potentially a plan for you the gate. Yeah. And

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Speaker 1: I also think that they all fit a need, right.

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Speaker 1: I think obviously the receiver. You got a new quarterback

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Speaker 1: here in Carson Wentz. Bring somebody in there that can

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Speaker 1: help his transition, make him the best version of himself.

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Speaker 1: You paid him all that money, Let's make it happen.

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Speaker 1: I think Brian Robinson also makes Gibson a better football player.

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Speaker 1: He increases his value. And then the tight end later

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Speaker 1: with Logan Thomas is injury. I think that's a nice

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Speaker 1: pick up. It's just they're they're not like maybe the

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Speaker 1: flashiest players of all time, but they fit needs and

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Speaker 1: I think they make this team better. Feel like Robinson

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Speaker 1: will be a nice compliment to that running back room

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Speaker 1: because like ag is still learning the position, they're using

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Speaker 1: him a lot. They want to use them much more

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Speaker 1: in the passing game, and so this is kind of

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Speaker 1: like a good pounder, like a good first second down guy. Yes,

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Speaker 1: has good ball security, and that's something even Jadie McKissick,

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Speaker 1: you know, us him more the passing game as well.

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Speaker 1: So I feel like this is a really good need

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Speaker 1: for them in that room. But also you get you

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Speaker 1: get a tall you get a passing tight end. Yes

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Speaker 1: as well. I mean they like that he's basically just

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Speaker 1: a really big wide receiver for the most part. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was really interesting having these conversations because you're looking

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Speaker 1: at the tight ends. You're saying, there's no true f

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Speaker 1: there's no true rep. And now I have a conversation

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Speaker 1: with someone downstairs one day during lunch, it's like, oh,

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Speaker 1: you can have n FF tight end that gets open

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Speaker 1: just because they're big. And they found him, and then

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Speaker 1: they found another guy, Curtis Hodgens from A's you six

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Speaker 1: eight two fifty can run like a receiver. And finding

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Speaker 1: two guys with that type of skill set is so rare,

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Speaker 1: and I think they're gonna be outstanding weapons for this team.

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Speaker 1: How much of a factor do you think it is,

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Speaker 1: Santana that the guys that they did draft come in

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Speaker 1: with more experience than most. I mean a lot of

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Speaker 1: times you draft on the kind of like the upside,

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Speaker 1: you kind of know what you're kind of getting with

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Speaker 1: these guys to where you come in and you might

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Speaker 1: be able to be plug and play go early. Well,

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Speaker 1: we were just talking about a backstage and then listening

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Speaker 1: to Logan because he always had the great breakdown. He

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Speaker 1: knows it all. He's like the encyclopedia of just knowing everything.

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Speaker 1: You know. But when you think about the last year

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Speaker 1: we were gotten, we got a few guys that didn't

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Speaker 1: have the experience, but you know, they had the Billy

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Speaker 1: and you know, when you look around, you want to

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Speaker 1: make sure you get some guys that season, you know.

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Speaker 1: Especially Yeah, of course they're not going to be seasoned

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Speaker 1: on this level because these guys are all new draft picks,

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Speaker 1: but these guys played a lot of snaps coming from

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Speaker 1: the collegiate level. So it's great to know that we

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Speaker 1: have guys with experience that's going to come in and

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Speaker 1: be able to have potential day one to compete for

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Speaker 1: those jobs out the gate. And the quarterback that they

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Speaker 1: drafted Sam Howell basically zero expectations, just come in sit learn.

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Speaker 1: They just couldn't pass up the value when that bid

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Speaker 1: came and he was still available. So addressing a lot

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Speaker 1: of needs, also getting a lot of great guys, so

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Speaker 1: they went from six selections to eight after a few

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Speaker 1: trades and got some good value for the guys as well.

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Speaker 1: Be sure to tune into Washington Football Today weeknights five

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Speaker 1: thirty and ten pm on NBC Sports Washington. And while

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Speaker 1: you're at it, be sure to follow at Commanders on

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Speaker 1: all social media platforms for the latest news on the team.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to