Ben Standig joined Kevin Sheehan on Friday as he does every week, and he had to weigh in on the idea of who the Commanders should draft No. 2.
See, the Howlers are out about the idea of running it back with Sam Howell, and after hearing Kevin's hypothetical, does not swinging at a veteran QB in the off-season, would it confirm some level of belief in the Peters group or would it shake that belief – maybe thinking they could build around Howell?
"If you said that their master plan was that they think Sam Howell is the guy, I guess I would say that that seems a little dubious," Standig said. "I'm not trying to run Sam out of town, but like, if they were picking 16 and you said are they gonna run it back with Sam Howell, I would be less concerned. I would still say it's not my ideal plan, but okay, what can they do? But when the option is Sam or you take a guy at two that people are saying could be a franchise quarterback, you gotta go take that risk."
Standig is intrigued by the idea of trading down, depending on whether or not they plan to sign a strong veteran for now or have eyes on a QB they can get later, but Sam as QB1 is 'a bit odd' of a plan to him.
But what about someone like Baker Mayfield, whom Kingsbury mentored briefly at Texas Tech?
"I think this is another interesting variable here: nobody logically blames Josh Harris for anything that transpired on the field prior to his arrival, and even last year, but when you buy the team, you didn't just buy the facility and all that, you also bought the problems, and the problems include that this fan base has endured so much losing over time," Standig said. "The best move to a degree may be obviously sort of take the slow build and go from there, but is there any push to say, can we have our cake and eat it too? Can we get some more veteran presence at quarterback, build up the overall roster elsewhere, and try winning a bit more this year? I don't necessarily know that that's what they would do, but I do wonder in the back of my head if Josh Harris looks at it like that at all. He's the owner who green-lit 'The Process,' which would have had to be a money-losing venture – but knowing the haul the Bears got last year and what we gave up to get RGIII, on top of knowing all the holes they have, I think it's kind of interesting, but passing on the quarterback at No. 2 is obviously very tough."
So, then, in the latest Athletic mock draft, who did Standig select at No. 2 after the Bears got Caleb Williams?
"I went with Drake Maye," he said. "I think I had been leaning towards the Jayden Daniels side of things, but when I sat down, I didn't look at the tape – what I did was see what else was going on, and what it looked like was in other mocks, when Daniels went 2, Maye usually went 3, but when Maye went 2, sometimes Daniels could slip all the way down to 6 or 8. So, that may not happen, but it just feels like more on the side of Maye than Daniels.
Maybe it's only a 51/49 split, but I think in general, it's a pretty bunched-up group, so it's not something where we definitely pounded the table for Maye.
And the fact is, he has some familiarity with the principles of the Air Raid style offense, and his former OC is friends with Kliff Kingsbury, so that would be my lean."
