Michael Phillips, formerly of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, filled everyone in on his new gig during an appearance with the Junkies Wednesday: starting on Monday, Sept. 11, he’s joining Audacy as the 10am-noon weekday host on 910 The Fan in Richmond, following the Junks simulcast!
“Hopefully we start MP on the Mic with a W for the Commanders,” Phillips said. “No better way!”
Indeed, and as a preview of what his show might be like, Phillips gave an upside and a downside on what he’s seen from Sam Howell this preseason.
“One thing is I love that the deep ball is back. This guy can sling it down the field, and we have missed that. It’s one of the most fun plays in football, and does so much for the team, so I’m fired up about that,” Phillips said. “On the other side, I was concerned about the offensive line going into the preseason, but what worried me in preseason is most of the sacks weren’t on the line, but on Howell and his process. That’s my red light here: is he going to be able to read these defenses to make the calls to get the ball out quickly enough. But, man, you see him fling it, and you see what they see.”
Howell might be without Terry McLaurin in Week 1, which could open up opportunities for Dyami Brown…and that may be the only way he sees Brown playing a big role for the Commanders?
“I do think Terry will play, but I don’t know if that’s the best idea. You have to win this game, and you probably want him there, but it wouldn’t kill me if Terry took the week off, because I think the offense is good enough to beat Arizona without him,” Phillips said. “But outside of injury, I’m struggling to see Dyami getting on the field a lot; I think you want to roll with McLaurin and Jahan Dotson, and people sleep on how good Curtis Samuel was last year, because 2021 soured a lot of people on him, and I think they’ll find a lot of great ways to use him in this offense.”
That said, Phillips thinks we’re in for a heavy passing attack that may look a lot like what the Chiefs have ideally wanted to do over the last few years.
“There is going to be a ton more passing this year, that’s no secret. You look at what the Chiefs did, that’s the playbook Bieniemy brought, and last year, everyone was playing two safeties deep and making Mahomes beat them five yards at a time,” Phillips said. “What I’m curious about is that I love Sam Howell, but he’s no Patrick Mahomes, so I think that those longer plays will be there at times, especially early, because defenses won’t give him that respect automatically. I think it will be based around quick routes, but those plays will be there early in the shell of what they do.”
Take a listen to Phillips’ entire segment above, which also includes more thoughts on the offensive line and its composition and Chase Young's status!
