Grant Paulsen missed Thursday’s show due to family illness, so he didn’t get to give his take on Josh Harris sitting in on the Commanders’ meetings with the top QBs at the Combine…at least on air.
If you follow GP on Twitter (which you should), you’d know from 280 characters that he doesn’t really see it as a big deal – and in fact said it was ‘smart.’
GP was back Friday, and got a chance to really dive into why.
“Danny, you took Schefter’s report as he was heavily involved as part of the interviews, but I didn't read it that way. I didn't take that to mean he's talking or asking questions, or running the meeting – taking part just means he's there, right?” GP said. “He's present, so I just assumed he was kind of chilling there watching Adam Peters cook. Harris told you he was going to be at the meetings, he told you he's not going to be an absentee owner, and there's also no precedent really in his other sports of him being meddling and demanding and making his teams do anything, so I didn't have much problem with it.”
That’s one big reason Grant ‘didn't care,’ and even Danny said Thursday if that was the case, he’d back off and say he was wrong – but about one of DR’s other thoughts, that Harris is getting a pass because we like him and he’s not Dan Snyder?
“I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. The idea that I should treat him the same way I would Dan Snyder is ridiculous; Snyder robbed 10 banks, so I'm going to be skeptical when he walks into a bank with a mask on – but just because Josh Harris is doing banking, doesn't mean he's robbing banks,” GP said. “If your spouse cheated, when you were told that they were staying late for work, that doesn't mean that your next lover, when they have a proposal due and has to stay late for work, which is a common normal thing, is also cheating. That analogy doesn’t work for me.”
GP agrees that Snyder, and David Tepper, and others have proven to be meddlers, so you should be wary, but Josh Harris has not, so why should we judge him off the bat the same way?
“The analogy works tremendously for me,” Danny reiterated. “I don't want the owner making any kind of decision when it comes to that. I want him to be a leader and a sounding board, but we have football people for that.”
Grant’s quick take back was ‘who said he’s making decisions,’, and no one wants him to – but it seems the issue is how the semantics of Schefter’s Tweet are being interpreted.
“If we have a preshow show meeting and the four of us are sitting there talking about the show and I'm in it, it would not be odd to say I'm taking part in the meeting,” GP said. “That doesn't suggest anything to do with what I'm doing in the meeting. I'm saying I understand that you took something one way, I think it's perfectly reasonable to take it the way I did.”
“The key sentence to me is a poorly constructed one. It’s all moot because it's been reported different than this, but if Josh Harris was just sitting in, he sat in, but he has sat in and taken part, and that’s a bigger thing,” Danny replied. “Yes, if some regional GM came and sat in and listened to how you and I talked to each other before the show, if they just said the word sat in, that means they're in the room while that's happening – which can be something if it's just informational – but ‘taken part in’ is a totally different animal, an active thing as opposed to a passive thing.”
Grant agrees that it’s important for Harris to learn football, and being a fly on the wall in the Combine process is part of that, even as his football people have a huge decision to make.
“Owners are always gonna be involved at the GM the head coach level, and quarterbacks are always gonna be treated a little bit differently,” Grant said, “but I think all the quarterbacks talking today, every one of them asked about the Commanders meetings and not one of them mentioning Josh Harris, should make them feel better.”