The Commanders have their coaches, they're headed to the combine for more scouting…now what?
Still to be seen, but from what our pal Michael Phillips tells Grant & Danny, he sees a staff that has credentials on paper, but still has to go out and prove it.
"It's a great staff; lots of head coaching experience, certainly a lot of guys who know ball, who can teach ball," Phillips said. "As you've heard at the press conferences and we'll hear out of tomorrow's press conferences, a very impressive, accomplished group, but that doesn't negate what I would call the big picture things here, which are, I don't know that you're building in the right direction to the future of the NFL. But in the small picture, like, will Benjamin St-Juste get better next year? Will guys on the team play better? I think indisputably, the answer is yes, this is a really good staff."
G&D played the audio of Rick Spielman giving his take on the No. 2 pick and what the team should do, and that also led to this wonder: was Spielman just part of the process to find the new regime, or are his words going to carry weight on down the line?
"I think his opinion is to be respected in football circles, but I will say he is a big Caleb Williams fan. I don't know that I'm following him all the way to the edge of that bridge, and I don't think he will be a major voice in who they pick," Phillips said. "I think his job was to go get Adam Peters, and he went and got Adam Peters, who I think will be the primary voice on who they take or what they do at No. 2. That said, obviously his philosophy was a guiding foundational pillar of the search, and he's got Josh Harris' ear, so when he talks, I think it's important. But, I don't think I would run it to the bank as though anything he says is reflective of what the Commanders are going to do when they turn in a card."
When it comes to that No. 2 pick, where does Phillips stand with the segment of the fan base that wants to trade down and pick up more draft capital?
"I am team trade back almost all of the time, but I am at war between two things," Phillips said. "What's interesting is that Ben Standig ran a poll the other day on Twitter and 11 percent of people said they wanted Marvin Harrison Jr. – he's gonna be really good in the NFL, but that's malpractice if you turn in the pick at No. 2 and it's a wide receiver and not a quarterback. There will always be those parts of the fan base, but for me, almost always, statistically speaking, you're better off trading back than you are turning in a pick at any time in the draft – but the exception might be you when a great quarterback is available for you, and a great quarterback is gonna be available at 1, 2, or 3."
But what about the Trey Lance experience?
"People say that Adam Peters' experience with Trey Lance has left him scarred on picking quarterbacks or, or whatever it is, but I don't think that's it at all," Phillips said. "Their process in taking Lance was not this guy can't miss, their thought process was 'look, we're about to start rolling off 10 win seasons, we're never gonna be able to sniff the Top 3 again, so we need to take our chances now while we can get one and try for one of these franchise quarterbacks. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't, and that's true this year as well. But if this goes correctly, if Dan Quinn coaches them up and Adam Peters picks the guys, we're not going to be talking about Top 3 picks again. So, that's a really compelling reason to take a shot and try to get one of these guys, because life gets a lot easier if you have one."
