The Water Cooler on Training Camp

Hanging around The Water Cooler trying to overhear what dudes are thinking about the Washington Commanders 2024 Training Camp..

Commanders 2024 Media Guide

Commanders Lives

RB3 Job with David Harrison of Locked on Commanders

Training Camp Day 6 Ed Oliver 

Training Camp Day 6 Street Scores

Training Camp Reactions Josh Taylor 

JD5's Best Day According to Rio Robinson

Impressions of First Week of Camp by John Keim and Bram Weinstein 

It does not look like the New York Jets have their media guide out yet. Here's their 2023 Guide,. Aaron Rodgers latest presser, and the Jets Channel in case you wish to prep for that first preseason game next week. Don't go to The Water Cooler unprepared. You may be assessed as trash and thrown in the dumpster.

Tony McGee was one of my heroes back in the Gibbs Super Bowl Days. What was it? He and Doc, he and George Starke, he and Mark May on Home Team Sports? His channel deserves some love from Washington Football Fans. You can catch him and the legendary Donna Hopkins over at the Tony McGee Pro Football Plus TV Show YouTube Channel. Here's a representative sample.

There is not much to comment on myself as nothing seems dispositive about the team until the first regular season game.

I am going to sit back and enjoy the preseason as that is when everybody's wishes, hopes, and dreams get pursued with the utmost gusto.

Even the stars of those games may end grocery baggers. Outside of Olympic Beach Volleyball, nothing could be more intriguing.

All because the NFL won't go to 90-Man rosters.

Flash Gordon Syndrome: Taking Aaron Rodgers for a Fool

In Washington, as per usual, there is a great deal of panic with regard to the Quarterback. I thought at first this was a D.C. only mental illness. I see by the behavior of the rest of the League and its commentators, you are considered mentally ill yourself if you are not in total panic over your quarterback.

So it isn't just Washington.

But for decades now we have been pining away for that shining quarterback on a hill few have ever landed. Why we crave something we have never had--a superstar quarterback--is a little confusing. You would think adaptation would kick in. It should dawn on you you are not going to get it. A watched pot never signs with Washington.

Most teams in the NFL are missing a superstar quarterback. Some of them win anyway. Like Joe Gibbs did. He never had Flash Gordon at quarterback. 

 

What he did have was an almost impregnable offensive line. In fact, the 1991 Washington squad had an offensive line half of the league TODAY could win a Super Bowl with. The league has little in the way of Flash Gordons. And that has always been the case.

I suppose it depends on the hyperbole you use to describe the QB position. I guess some mean by the magic phrase "franchise quarterback" simply that the quarterback is good. Well, what do you mean by good? He wins games? He has a big arm? He's mobile? He's gutsy? 

I personally am easy. You win you are in. That's leftover from the George Allen Death Valley Days. So I'd be fine with Taylor Heinicke and Sam Howell at quarterback in Washington.

Now there's some talk about wanting Aaron Rodgers. We have a gritty defense. We have receivers he'd like. We have a running game. There's just one problem. It is a big one when you are a nursing home QB.

We don't have an offensive line that can pass block. The first words out of Rodgers' mouth ought to be: "What are you going to do at offensive line? If you aren't going to draft any linemen, how are you going to handle the middle blitz? How are you going to block those NFC East edge rushers? Do you feel fullbacks and tight ends are like unicorns? They don't exist?"

"And lastly, how big a butterball do you take me for?" 

Great offensive lines, I submit, win more championships than Flash Gordons with bad offensive lines.

I'm betting the original C.C. Ryder, Joe Namath, himself a much-ballyhooed New York Jets quarterback, would agree.

Who was Seymour Robbie?

Who was William Smith? 

Who was Weeb Ewbank?

Who is Emerson Boozer?

What happened in Super Bowl III?