LIGHTS OUT, baby – Shawne Merriman is in the house!
All the talk in DC has been about which QB the Commanders will take at No. 2, but as a pass rusher, which type of QB did Merriman prefer to face: the pocket passer like Drake Maye or the athletic, mobile type like Jayden Daniels?
“I'm telling you man, I used to love what I used to call the Statue of Liberty quarterbacks, the Peyton Mannings and Tom Bradys. I love playing against those guys because they're not gonna rush,” Merriman told BMitch Thursday. “These new quarterbacks, the Josh Allens and Lamar Jacksons of the world, you got guys who can like throw the ball but equally run. Even Pat Mahomes is not a runner, but he's a scrambler, and he can hurt you with his legs. The game has changed, because when I played, you would never see that combination. You may have a unicorn who could run as equally as good as he could throw, but now you have six or seven guys like that who can take off and run at any point and hurt you just as much with their legs as they can hurt you with their arm. Now, your pass rush lanes gotta be very strict, you can't get up the field too much and come under – I used to love doing my own stunts because I knew that those quarterbacks weren't getting off the spot because they couldn't move, but today the game is just completely different.”
That totally played in to what Brian was saying earlier in the show about how players, who know best what will or won’t work, need to take ownership of making adjustments, and Merriman agreed.
“The best teams I've ever played on, the players always ran the team. If there was a problem in the locker room, an issue to be handed out, anything going on, the players, we all got together and we came down as the council,” Merriman said. “We came down and we fixed the problem in the locker room before it even got to the coach or the front office. Don't get me wrong, coaching matters, but we also know the leaders on that team is who drive everything; good or bad, the guys in that locker room are going to make a difference. A coach can't lead guys who don't want to stand up and follow, so you gotta get the right guys in the locker room; those vets, those leaders have to step up and start making decisions, and putting their foot down in order for them to have success.”
The Commanders have signed a few players who seem to fit that bill, but there’s one more they need to find.
“I love it man. I saw a lot of this coming when they moved on from Chase and Sweat – I knew the rebranding or revamping was coming,” Merriman said. “I knew that with Dan Quinn and that leadership instilling that physical mentality – we talk about identity, and they brought in a coach that's going to walk in the door and give them identity. He’s known for the style he likes walking in the door, and they went and got the guys that are going to the message of his identity. These moves that the Commanders made are very strategic, and people are not seeing the overall thing of what they're trying to build long-term. The only thing that's gonna stop them from really excelling in that division is going to get your franchise quarterback, because nowadays, you can't win without one. I don't care how great your defense is, if you don't have a franchise quarterback in this day and age, you cannot win a championship. It's just not gonna happen.”