Covering the Commanders: Keim and Company Discussion

Man - I tried listening but that guy was in ‘flight of ideas’ mode. He started talking and (to me) it was just one long run on sentence with random anecdote after anecdote. I guess different strokes… I found it almost unlistenable…

I did turn it off after 5 min or so - maybe it got better
Interesting, I found it entertaining and informative. Though, yeah, he definitely was long winded.

Maybe I just like the reminiscing. He gave a few really good stories about Gibbs, which I appreciated.
 
As someone who read the Post sports page every morning for most of my life, and still subscribe online I'm pretty upset at their decision. But I also get it. I agree this is not the same paper I loved, I agree it was a conscious decison to hire out of town columnists who liked to stir shit up. But it was still my paper and I'll miss it. No reason to continue the subscription now.
I sat down and read the sports section almost every day starting when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I was a sports geek, and my parents had it delivered. That continued until I went to college, then I read it online.

But that paper has been dead for 20+ years. The sports section became mostly an embarrassment with JLC and Mike Wise, and then they bought out Wilbon and Kornheiser. That happened decades ago now.

I guess the difference between us is I saw them as dead 20 years ago, and you're seeing them dead now. I was sad then. So I don't care as much now.
 
It's nice to have humans working with people, and understanding that. They left a seat open for Rick Snider after he passed too.
And Tandler going back further if I remember correctly.

Of all the things Snyder broke, I think media relations always somehow managed to stay above the fray.

And certainly under new ownership, it's very classy.
 
I'm gonna disagree - he broke that too. Just in the time I was there at the park covering games, the PR department changed at least 3 times. He took the friendliest local media coverage anywhere and turned all of the major outlets completely against him. He literally went to war with the Washington Post - which is one of the reasons why the team got into the messageboard/forum business in the first place. And imho, the animus for and hostility towards Snyder got so bad that eventually it completely skewed the media's coverage of the team.
It got a lot friendlier when Joe Gibbs came back and I think that was all Gibbs influence. But Snyder ... almost everything he touched turned to shit.
 
I'm gonna disagree - he broke that too. Just in the time I was there at the park covering games, the PR department changed at least 3 times. He took the friendliest local media coverage anywhere and turned all of the major outlets completely against him. He literally went to war with the Washington Post - which is one of the reasons why the team got into the messageboard/forum business in the first place. And imho, the animus for and hostility towards Snyder got so bad that eventually it completely skewed the media's coverage of the team.
It got a lot friendlier when Joe Gibbs came back and I think that was all Gibbs influence. But Snyder ... almost everything he touched turned to shit.
That’s fair, you would know better than I. I just had heard good things about the media relations stuff pretty consistently from a bunch of of folks. There was one guy who wasn’t liked (not sure who) .

But mostly a lot of the best reporters said reasonably good things.
 
Lynell Willingham is a dumbass. "Sources tell me..." gets called out by people with no sources, and deletes the tweet. Why does anyone take this complete imbecile seriously?

1771379096746.png
 
I really like Logan’s producer JAG Jason on his Drive to the Draft pod. He probably knows more about football than a bunch of the actual radio and podcast hosts, asks some great questions and makes some sharp points while being self effacing
 
The Athletic hiring a gaggle of WaPo Sports folks. Reinstating a Nats beat! Svrluga covering Commies and DC sports more broadly. I’m happy to hear this tho I wish Candace Buckner was continuing with a DC focus instead of national. Candace > Barry imo.


Dan Steinberg, DC Bog founder & former WaPo sports editor - now editor at Athletic, was recently on Galdis podcast. He alluded to something like this being in the works at the very end of the interview. But i found it an interesting convo about the life and death of sports media in DC. Good listen.
 
Outstanding, I don't need another subscription!
 
I caught up on a bunch of Keim pods.

I'm coming more and more to the opinion that he gets fed less info than people think, but guesses better based on information everybody has than the other folks covering the team. His speculation is generally more accurate than not. I think he reads between the lines well.

I DO think he has good sources outside the team and can get information from those sources. I think being an ESPN reporter helps with that, but I also think he has done a really good job of developing a network outside of the Commanders with agents, former players, coaches and NFL sources.

However, I don't think he learns anything more from the team than any other beat reporter.

He said over and over that he had no clue about the Biadacz move. He said he wasn't entirely surprised, but that's not reporting or because he heard anything, it's because Biadacz was good not great, had a $10m cap number, and other reasonHe had no information on how they might replace him. In fact, the entire segment on Biadacz seemed like word salad of trying to explain why he didn't know before it happened.

The guy who actually had the news they were releasing Biadacz was Ben Standig. How they chose Standig to "break" the news, I don't know.

The more and more I listen to Keim, the more and more I think his "special sauce" is he listens to what all the other reporters hear, and is able to extrapolate on that more accurately than others. I don't know that he hears or is fed more. I do think he takes what he hears and distills it better, and has the outside network to try and get and corroborate information the team isn't providing.

Which is why I think a lot of what he "reports" are more educated guesses than they are informed opinions.
 
I guess we are about to test again his inside info soon as to whether they chase Likely. He's also hinted maybe Okonkwo. He had some FA stuff last year that he nailed including Von Miller.
Literally everybody has them chasing Likely and Okonkwo. If they do, that doesn't mean he knew anything. If they don't, it means he was dead wrong.

As far as Von Miller, everybody connected the Commanders to Miller when they didn't land anybody and it was clear they needed a pass rusher for pass rushing downs.

Your point is Peters doesn't talk so no way he can know. Well, someone talks sometimes. Whether its the agent, Peters' dog, someway somehow. Clearly not about everything but something.
It's agents and people outside the building. If Peters has the dog equivalent of Mr. Ed, he knows better than to talk to anybody.

I still maintain, most of it is drawing connections from things everybody else knows. As I put in the post above, I think he does a really good job interpreting the information available, more than gathering the information.

His other points are broad: aggressive, younger players, edge, WR, CB.
Peters literally said this out loud, so it's not exactly a hot take.
He seems to be hinting Chris Paul probably is not back. Ditto Deebo.
Again, Quinn and Peters basically said this out loud, at the very least, neither said either one was a priority when asked about both of them. Again, not a hot take.
Wagner depends on if he takes a lesser role.
Bram also said this. So did Standig. I think this might be somewhere between good guess and wishful thinking.
TE they are willing to walk away if the price gets too high in FA.
That makes sense based on what they have done. But he doesn't know this, he said he doesn't know this. He's speculating on this point. Also, he doesn't know what "too high" is.

WR they are determined to find a #2.
Quinn and Peters both address weapons.

I like Keim. I don't think he's some soothsayer though. I don't think he gets inside scoop from the team. I think he has the same conversations everybody has.

As I said, I think his outside the team network is really solid. Agents, other GMs, other people in and around the NFL. And I'm sure he gets some information from players here and there.

He's good. But I think he's partly correct so much because he takes the safe bets a lot. And the safe bets are confirmed by those he talks to outside the organization, not inside the organization.

That said, it doesn't much matter as long as he's getting it right more often than not. But so far this off-season, I haven't heard anything from him in terms of what they might do which isn't just "duh of course."
 
Literally everybody has them chasing Likely and Okonkwo. If they do, that doesn't mean he knew anything. If they don't, it means he was dead wrong.

As far as Von Miller, everybody connected the Commanders to Miller when they didn't land anybody and it was clear they needed a pass rusher for pass rushing downs.


It's agents and people outside the building. If Peters has the dog equivalent of Mr. Ed, he knows better than to talk to anybody.

I still maintain, most of it is drawing connections from things everybody else knows. As I put in the post above, I think he does a really good job interpreting the information available, more than gathering the information.


Peters literally said this out loud, so it's not exactly a hot take.

Again, Quinn and Peters basically said this out loud, at the very least, neither said either one was a priority when asked about both of them. Again, not a hot take.

Bram also said this. So did Standig. I think this might be somewhere between good guess and wishful thinking.

That makes sense based on what they have done. But he doesn't know this, he said he doesn't know this. He's speculating on this point. Also, he doesn't know what "too high" is.


Quinn and Peters both address weapons.

I like Keim. I don't think he's some soothsayer though. I don't think he gets inside scoop from the team. I think he has the same conversations everybody has.

As I said, I think his outside the team network is really solid. Agents, other GMs, other people in and around the NFL. And I'm sure he gets some information from players here and there.

He's good. But I think he's partly correct so much because he takes the safe bets a lot. And the safe bets are confirmed by those he talks to outside the organization, not inside the organization.

That said, it doesn't much matter as long as he's getting it right more often than not. But so far this off-season, I haven't heard anything from him in terms of what they might do which isn't just "duh of course."

I disagree with most of this. But I don't care enough to argue about it. It reminds me of so many debates over the years that didn't end age well for those that took on his takes -- probably the funniest for me was the QB thread on ES with the Daniels-Maye debate. Sharing Keim's take from what he was hearing was very unpopular back then. And I got all the spitballing stuff. So many examples of that same accusation.

But yeah if he's just spitballing and speculating mostly and other reporters have the same stuff -- cool. I listen to all the other reporters. Not just Keim. I know what they've been saying. And as for Bram he isn't shy at saying some of his stuff is from Keim. As you probably know they are on each others shows.
 
Last edited:
I really like Logan’s producer JAG Jason on his Drive to the Draft pod. He probably knows more about football than a bunch of the actual radio and podcast hosts, asks some great questions and makes some sharp points while being self effacing

I listen to it. It's good. The beginnings of it are a bit awkward where Jason talks about how Logan is his friend in multiple podcasts, and then in others about how he has a close group of friends and there is just so much he shares. its getting a bit weird. I get it Jason you don't have a ton of friends because you don't open up easily to people and you really really like becoming Logan's friend, but lol he should take that off the air.
 
I listen to DrivetotheDraft. To me Jason just feels young, but maybe that is because I am getting older (I am in my early to mid 40's). I listen for Logan, but the chemistry between them isn't that bad once you get over that awkward opening bit.
 
I disagree with most of this. But I don't care enough to argue about it. It reminds me of so many debates over the years that didn't end age well for those that took on his takes -- probably the funniest for me was the QB thread on ES with the Daniels-Maye debate. Sharing Keim's take from what he was hearing was very unpopular back then. And I got all the spitballing stuff. So many examples of that same accusation.

But yeah if he's just spitballing and speculating mostly and other reporters have the same stuff -- cool. I listen to all the other reporters. Not just Keim. I know what they've been saying. And as for Bram he isn't shy at saying some of his stuff is from Keim. As you probably know they are on each others shows.

Also, Ampire Media is owned by Bram and Keim’s pod is under that umbrella.
 
I listen to DrivetotheDraft. To me Jason just feels young, but maybe that is because I am getting older (I am in my early to mid 40's). I listen for Logan, but the chemistry between them isn't that bad once you get over that awkward opening bit.

As far as coverage of this team my takes as my favs.

A. Logan Paulsen -- he's not always right, no one is, but I love how he dives into prospects, this team's coaching schemes, dissecting the upcoming weeks opponent. 10 out of 10 for me. Love that guy. Seems like a good dude, too.

B. John Keim -- by a mile has the most insider info about this team. I listen to talk radio all day, work from home, and listen to just about everyone's podcasts. So its easy for me to compare. Years back he did free zooms to those who follow him on twitter, and I got to do two zooms with him. I recall in one of them he goes he doesn't want to blow up sources so he's careful as to how he shares info and to that end take his name dropping seriously. The example he gave when he writes a story about how they are looking for a player in the draft like Antonio Gibson -- it means hint, hint they actually like Gibson. So when I reference Keim speak its from that zoom where lol he explained how to do Keim speak. And almost every name drop has been meaningful with rare exception.

C. Sheehan -- IMO a legend talk radio show host for this team. Always entertaining. I don't always agree with him but he's always informed. If there is another one who nails gossip its him. He doesn't do it often but when he does he's almost always on the money. When all these guys retire, I'll miss Sheehan the most.

D. JP Finlay. Not a dude with much inside info. But really entertaining to me. And comes off like a good guy. So does his podcast partner Tishler. I like that he's interactive with fans. They sort of try to make football fun from a fan perspective and do a nice job of it in my book.

E. Grant Paulsen. Yeah he's sort of polarizing. Very opinionated and annoying at times on that front. But like Sheehan, he knows his stuff and pays attention and isn't boring. He also loves the team.

F. Ben Standig. On occasion has some accurate gossip but he's more of a piece things together kind of guy. He's an informed guy. My issue with him is he can be a bit too cynical and at times boring on the radio but not as a writer. He's the best writer IMO in this group. And I like his draft coverage among other things. I don't love it but I understand it when he goes he used to be a fan of the team but no more.

G. Bram. Is a bit like Grant in that he is very opinionated and can be over the top. But i like his enthusiasm for the team. On occasion has gossip but rarely. But has a good insight as to the team from the perspective of working for them.
 
Last edited:

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Help Users

You haven't joined any rooms.

    You haven't joined any rooms.
    Top