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To Washington we go. Taking a look at the current wide receiver room. H little crowded and a new face you might notice there. Stefon Diggs was a free agent, no longer signed a new deal with his hometown squad. Let's get into it with our friends Mike Rener and Emory Hunt. Here we go. A one-year deal. This Commander offense hoping to look a little different in a good way. We knew it was going to look different with no dbo Samuel. Now you get Diggs in the mix. Emry, initial thoughts here on the fit.
I like it. There's no downside in adding good, productive veterans at a receiver position where you're trying to bring back your quarterback from injury and also try to reintegrate the offense as a dynamic threat in the NFL. And Dig, someone that has played solid football. He fits well within any offense. He could play inside as a slot receiver. I think that's where he's best suited now at this juncture of his career. But there's no downside to adding talent. It just helps strengthen that room on the perimeter. Yeah, to me this is actually bad for a few different guys here. The first is Brand Naou because he's off the deep end right now. And this pretty much means that they're not going to be signing
him. The second is Antonio Williams, their third round rookie because he plays pretty much the exact same role as Stefon Diggs does, or at least did in college. So, this probably means that he wasn't as ready, wasn't as up to speed as they had hoped, which is why they make this move. And they had to make it, right? you if you tied your bandwagon to Brandon Aayuk at this point and he wasn't going to be on the field. You couldn't let Trayon Burks walk through that door and be your number two wide receiver. But at the end of the day, Jaden Daniels is thrown to two 30 plus year old wide receivers now. And it's pretty much just this year and then the wide receiver core is Baron. So if
you're a Commander fan and this is what you have to do at this point, I would be a little disappointed that in year three of my franchise quarterback, this is what he has to work with. I will say though, I understand, but coming off a thousandy season, he did play all 17. I know Houston was an issue, but other than that, he's been pretty available. So, knock on wood, I guess. We'll have to see what happens out there in Washington. I don't want to talk too much about injuries here in training camp because it is early, but both Devonte Smith and their rookie Mai Lemon are dealing with hammy injuries in Philly. Mike Rener, how different is this offense going to look without AJ Brown as we just look at the offense
overall? It pretty much has to look different because in years past, Jaylen Herz did not want to attack the middle of the football field. Last year, he had twice as many targets downfield outside the numbers as he did inside the numbers. And I know you guys both know the NFL field dimensions, but for the people at home, it's bigger inside the numbers than it is outside the numbers. He is unwilling to do so. But Shawn Manion, his offense that he brings over from Green Bay and the talent they have there in those two guys, Mai Lim Dvonte Smith, they work the middle of the football field. he's going to have to
attack that area of the field because he can't just throw those nine balls up to AJ Brown and have him come down with it anymore. They don't really have that winner. That's not what Mai Lemon did at USC. So, it's going to look a lot different, but I do think they can backfill now this receiving core. Without AJ Brown, you'll be more diverse. You'll be able to do a lot more different things. And with Dantavian Wix, Hollywood Brown, you are a lot deeper this year than they were last year. I would also add Eli Sters as well. You're right, Mike. This is a diverse group now. Everyone's going to get a touch and that's going to just make the offense that much more dynamic. I think the biggest reason why they wasn't
attacking the middle of the field, they couldn't run the ball last year like they did the year prior where he was going over the middle of the field. I feel like, hey, I if it's working on the outside, I'm going to keep hitting that shot on the outside. So, I don't blame Jaylen Herz. It's more about what Manuel will bring to the table. And I just like the fact that Herz has shown he could have some semblance of success with anybody. Like, he has done it ever since he was at Alabama. And so now we've seen him do it multiple times in the NFL with the different offensive coordinators and or play callers. So I expect more of the same. What I really would be interested in seeing is how this offensive line
looks without Jeff Stoutland, you know, Stoutland University along that offensive line and how that looks without him. First time in a long time we've seen the Eagles without him behind the controls of that offensive line. That's going to be bigger than what we're talking about with Herz and also Manion. Well, with all of that, the one thing they need is explosiveness because whether it was out of the back field or in the passing game, they didn't have any of that. So maybe some new blood in Mai Lemon can help them get there. Speaking of Lemon, he had a stellar season last year at USC. His former teammate Jacobe Lane is having a stellar training camp in Baltimore. So let's go there now. Ravens OC Declan Doyle has
compared Lane to Michael Thomas. I don't know, Emry Hunt, if a name comes to mind. I know you know these guys coming into the league better than anybody though. Expectations for him and do you have a comparison? Or maybe is it Thomas? Well, firstly, shout out to Declan Doyle cuz I appreciate the off-the-wall comparisons cuz right now everyone wants to compare someone to an all-time great. This is a fair comparison to a guy coming into the league. I love that for him and I love that for Jacobe Lane. I would just stick with that comparison because it makes kind of sense to me. And when you think about Jacobe Lane and
why he's doing what he's doing, one of the biggest things that was in my scouting notes is that he can go up and make any catch that's known to man because that's how he attacks the football. What it doesn't bode well for is a guy in Rashad Baitman because I think a guy like Lane could play X or Z and if he's showing this type of, you know, ability at camp, it doesn't bode well for a guy they drafted in the first round that they were kind of hoping was going to be that guy opposite of Z Flowers. spike I Yeah, I think it's more of an indictment on Baitman than anything. I think it's going to suggest his role, too. Michael Thomas was notorious for being a slot receiver, slant boy, right? That's where he played. So, for
Jacobe Lane, who was outside at USC, I think this might suggest that he's going to play a little bit more in the slot there for the Baltimore Ravens. And they've been looking for size at that receiver position for forever. Rashad Babe and Z Flowers, they are not ball winner type. Jacobe Lane very much is and maybe they can look at the money that Zlower has gotten. Get a little excited about that. Uh we could be getting closer to the return of Tank Dell. Houston's wide receiver has been plagued with injuries as we know, but he did hit the practice field today for the first time. CJ Strad in a makeorb breakak season as we know. Mike Rener, how important is it to have all of his weapons for CJ Stra by week one?
It's so important. I mean, a lot of people talk about the offensive line wolves. I think it's the no tank delvos with CJ Stout ever since that rookie year. The combination, the connection that they had, he's the reason they drafted him in the first place because of that. And then it hit so hard early on in both of their careers, but then injury struck for Tank Dell. If he is back at 100%, this guy is dynamic. He's their best separator. And I say that with all due respect to Nico Collins because I think he's a top 10 receiver in the NFL, but he doesn't get open like Tank Dell does. and to have both of them on the field at the same time in addition to your first and third round pick last year or excuse me second
and third round pick last year in Jaden Higgins and Jaylen Nell. This could be one of the best receiving cores in the NFL. But a big if given how gruesome that injury was. Think about that, Mike. We saw how gruesome that injury was and we talk about how big of an impact he had on the field. We found out then he probably was the emotional leader of that football team because that team was on the verge of winning that game in my opinion against Kansas City. Once they lost him and we saw the faces of CJ Stroud and his other teammates, everything went to you know what and then everything after that hadn't been the same. So he may
have been the glue that tied everything together for that offense. So having him back is probably more impactful than in many ways than we are not even expecting in terms of him being out there being a glue guy. Also being dynamic and a tremendous playmaker. I think it's all aces for the Texans with him being back and him being looking like Tank Dell more so than you know a guy that's trying to look like a version of himself. I think he's ready to go full speed 100%. That's a great thing for the Texans offense. That is a great thing for him and his offense. My producer just told me that he changed his number from three to one, but he has a tattoo of the number three.
Emory, thoughts on that? Um, you can always go back to three. Uh, but you can't beat number one. I wore number one in high school. You cannot beat number one. That is an excellent number. Mike agreed. I do agree. Number one, if you get the opportunity to get one, you get one. All right, let's wrap here with the Vikings. Reports had a cam say that Kyler Murray has taken the edge in the quarterback battle with JJ McCarthy, but Kevin O'Connell is not tipping his hand as to who is actually going to start the season. Mike Rener, if you
were in his position, how do you handle this battle? Yeah. I mean, you just give it to Kyler Murray right now if I was in this position. Unless JJ McCarthy looks like a completely different guy, unless someone else is walking through that door other than nine that we saw last year, it's Kyler Murray's in a walk away. And that's even with Kyler being the guy we saw last year, right? JJ McCarthy was the worst quarterback in the NFL. The guys in year two being as bad as he has do not have a strong track record. So if you didn't see it real quickly, I don't think it's going to happen over the next three weeks of training camp. Unfortunately for McCarthy, it feels like it's Murray's and it's really not a debate.
That's where I'm at because you don't bring in a Kyler Murray to not play Kyler Murray on a one-year deal if you're the Minnesota Vikings. And it doesn't exclude you from continuing to build up JJ McCarthy's skill set and his confidence long term. So, I'm interested in seeing how he handles this competition because at the end of the day, you want to see Kyler Murray elevate the offense, raise the floor of the offense because they have a championship level defense. JT McCarthy can still develop underneath uh you know Kevin Okonnell and still be the guy of the future just not for this season. So it's no negative if he quote unquote loses his job but this isn't a competition. They brought him in for a
reason. Therefore he is going to be the starter and he was sort of thrust into that role. Maybe wasn't fully ready. Less pressure on him heading into this year if he's not that week one starter. That's one way to look at it I guess. Emry Mike. Appreciate you guys. RFL training camp tour continues today with Kansas City, Thursday with Cleveland. We got the Jags on Friday.
