Ross Tucker is coming to DC next week, as he’ll be in the booth with Ian Eagle for the national radio broadcast of Commanders-Bears on Thursday night, and when he joined The Junkies Friday, he was hopeful the dinner situation at FedEx Field was better than that.
“It’s such an easy win (to have good stadium food),” Tucker said. “I’m half-joking and half-not when I say it’s a reflection on the organization; some look to cut costs anywhere they can, and don’t care about people, and others are like, ‘let’s be good at everything and have good food so people are excited to come here.’ A lot of the best teams have good press box food, and a lot of the crappy teams don’t.”
That is, though, one of the ‘easy wins’ as he said to improve both fan and media experience, and already Commanders players have noted the new ownership has set up more comfortable areas for players’ families to hang out before and after games…which led Ross to a funny story.
“When I played for Washington the first time, 2001-02, they’d have a tent outside the stadium where we could go and get food and beer or whatever,” Tucker said, “and I’ll never forget that after one game I went to get in my truck, and my mom, who had several beers probably, sits on the hood of a car and puts her Miller Lite on it…and it was somebody’s Bentley. She just sat on it and put her beer on it like, ‘what?’ and I was like ‘that’s a $200,000 car!’ I’m from Reading, Pennsylvania, she didn’t know cars that expensive existed – and she popped up off of that car so fast it was funny.”
That led into some discussion of actual football, and Ross did say he’d rather have Sam Howell than Justin Fields (the starters in next week’s matchup), even with Howell’s sack issues.
“Justin Fields holds the ball too long and takes sacks and it drives me crazy, because this is his third year, and he’s just a lost cause at this point,” Tucker said. “Howell has four starts and has won three of them, and some of the things he’s done are highly encouraging. I mean, you guys have a bottom five O-line.”
EB noted that a lot of the sacks are put on Sam – 10 of 19, per PFF – and Ross thinks that’s fair, but also knows it’s fair to think he can get much better.
“I look at that data, and I do think Sam is taking too many sacks; I never played quarterback, but actual sacks are much more of a quarterback stat than anyone realizes,” Tucker said. “Pressure win rate and hurries are different, but taking the actual sack…there are guys who know to just get rid of the ball. I think you start with the baseline that Howell is tough and can make the throws, has enough mobility, and is smart, and I think we can get him better at throwing the ball away. He’s inexperienced, and I’m not a believer that guys get a whole lot better at pocket movement, but they can drill it in his head to just throw it away.”
Take a listen above to Tucker’s entire commentary with the Junks on Howell’s sack issues and some thoughts on this weekend’s game!