Santana Moss, legendary Redskins receiver and current Commanders TV broadcast coverage analyst, was ALL OVER our Audacy DC airwaves Friday, appearing with both Chris Russell and Craig Hoffman on The Team 980 as well as Grant & Danny on 106.7 The Fan.
And while it would’ve been cheaper to just get ‘Tana an Uber to our studios than pay his phone bill, the big topic of conversation was, as you’d imagine, the Jahan Dotson trade and what it means – and as a former receiver here in DC and player who was dealt while on his rookie deal like Dotson, he wouldn’t say he was shocked, but definitely scratched his head.
“Shock wasn’t the word; I think when you look at the potential alone, you had high hopes for him,” Moss said. “I've seen a guy that can run routes, probably every route in the route tree, and a guy that his rookie season went out there and easily had 1,000 yards if he didn't get injured. Last year was the question mark, but I think last year was a question mark for the whole corps besides Terry. When it came down to them passing every down and him not getting the attempts, I scratched my head a lot last year wondering why I didn't see more from him, but I think it was still a productive season. Fast forward now, it was a bit odd to see the trade, but this is a new staff that owes him nothing, so if they didn’t see something this preseason, I think it’s best to do what you have to do, and that’s get something for a guy who still has talent but didn't fit in what they were trying to do, schematically.”
So what was it, maybe, that didn’t make Dotson a fit? Chris mentioned that Logan Paulsen had heard it was a lack of willingness to be physical, and, maybe.
“I can't pinpoint one thing, because I don't really know, but I think when you hear those whispers from coaches, and they’re telling you that I need to see more aggression, you gotta take heed to that,” Moss said. “We’ve all been in situations where a coach may come and say, ‘hey, I need X, Y, Z from you and I need to see it,’ and when they tell you that you have to go out there and make sure you give them what they're looking for. When it came to doing the little things, I always tried to win that rep. So if that’s what Logan saw or heard about, when those whispers start, you gotta step up to the challenge.”
To Moss, you can survive as a receiver if you’re a good route runner but don’t try to be physical and fight for winning reps, but you have to be one of the elite ones to get away with it for any length of time – but, also don’t assume that’s what it is, and that Dotson did anything ‘wrong’ per se.
“If they saw something that was a weakness and they didn't see enough of him doing better with it, then trust me, they’re gonna do what they did,” Moss said, “but at the same time, it's not necessarily saying that he did something wrong. It could have been, ‘hey, we're getting to the end of this thing and we're gonna have to say these guys fit what we're trying to do scheme wise,’ and if I have a guy that I know is already going into his third year, if he has a productive year this year, he's gonna cost me money and I won’t be able to get anything for him, so let me go ahead and pull that trigger now.
You have to look at it from so many different lenses; some of the things we’ve been hearing could have been reasons, but looking at that room, if you’re a first-round guy, you should never be in a situation where there's guys that shouldn't be on your level that you're competing with. Coaches look at it and say if I can get this from a guy we didn’t spend money on, why keep a guy that, in the future, I might have to pay a lot of money to.”
But that all said, man…why Philly?
“Of course I have an issue with that! That's the thing that blew my mind more than anything,” Moss laughed. “I understand that you're saying that we want something different, but not to those guys, man, because you know how it is – everybody that leaves us finds a way to be All-Pro somewhere else! I saw a lot from Jahan in college and was wowed, and I saw a lot from him here, too, but a lot of guys have to learn how to play on this level. A lot of guys don’t make it because they didn’t know how to grow up and be a professional, but I think Jahan will have a chance to rewrite whatever he didn’t do well in Washington. I think Philly will find a way to make him the guy we saw his rookie season.”
Listen to Moss’ entire visit with Rooster above!