Hoffman: Fallout from Commanders' Topgolf party 'continues to be stupid'
We’ve heard from both sides of the aisle on the Commanders’ Top 30 Topgolf party…so what say you, Craig Hoffman?
“One week from today, we will be discussing who the Commanders took at the No. 2 overall pick, presuming that they don't trade out of it, which I think is a safe assumption based off what Adam Peters has said,” Craig said, “but I also do feel like I feel less sure about it than I did a couple of weeks ago when everything seemed to be pointing towards Jayden Daniels, because now, we have found a realm and a depth of silly season that I didn't want to know existed. Somehow, the fallout from the Topgolf interview continues into Day 2, and it continues to be stupid.”
Yes, indeed, seems like Craig was fine with it, because he ‘cannot believe some of the silly commentary about this.’
“This one isn't as silly because we use dating analogies for a lot of different stuff, but someone who frequently comments on our show said, ‘if a guy tried to take me on a group date after we'd already been dating, that wouldn't go over well,’” Craig said. “And my response is simply: this isn't a relationship, this is a job interview, and Jayden Daniels doesn't have the job yet. And, it's a job where there are group dynamics at play; this isn't a one-on-one, this is business, and it's really high price business, and it is a kind of thing that you need to understand how people work in groups. This kind of interview is used at all different levels of life, any industry where there are teams that work together. This style of interview happens, and the thing that's driving me nuts the most is reporters are out there like speculating when they can just call the agent and find out, and do their job.”
This is what happens when ‘we're all in NFL Draft month five pickle brain,’ but fake news is fake news, although there’s maybe one caveat.
“Potentially one thing I would say the Commanders might not have done well if true, which I even hesitate to say, is if they didn't tell Jayden Daniels this is gonna be a group situation, that's not ideal,” Craig said. “But is it a big deal? No, because the other thing, too, is this is not free agency, this is a draft, and as much as they might make Daniels mad, or upset him or his agent or whatever, they have the choice; they can do whatever they want. Now, if you're gonna be an organization and a front office that prides yourself on being people-first, like treating people the right way and being clear in your communication like that's your standard, you need to uphold that – but I'm not entirely sure that that's all how that all went down, and so to criticize them or anybody really here without knowing all the information seems very silly.”
Silly, it seems, is the word du jour.
“What I can safely say is this all feels so incredibly silly, and this is just a part of the evaluation. It seems to be really close, it seems like they probably don't have their mind made up on exactly who they wanted to take, so they ultimately bring in more people to try to round out this evaluation, and it is wholly true to who Adam Peters is and how he does business that they take their time, go through the process, and ultimately land once they have the like they've done the full flight,” Craig said. “They're not trying to land the plane early, they want to run out the entire process and check every box and then they will get together and have all of the information and ask who everyone likes. Then, ultimately, it's Adam's decision, and Dan Quinn's on board with that. And not only is there nothing wrong with that, it's exactly the way you should do it. And yet, very silly criticism continues to roll in, because people are bored, or don't like the Commanders, or think that Washington is still a train wreck and they expect everything to fail.”
