1st & Goal: Joe Theismann, Super Bowl Champion

The NFL season is inching closer and closer.

Who are the contenders and who are the pretenders? We have four downs to figure out your team's future. It's time now for First and Goal on the Zach Gelb show. Alrighty, we'll preview the commanders' season right now with a man that won a Super Bowl championship for the franchise, also has won a league MVP as well, and that's our pal, the quarterback in Joe Theismann. Joe, appreciate the time. How are you? Zach, it's always great to catch up with you.

Thanks for having me on. So let me start you off with the quarterback in Sam Howell. I like this commanders' roster a lot heading into this season, but I don't know what the quarterback is. What are your expectations for Sam? You know, you put it as well as anybody, and people have constantly asked me, what about Sam? What about Sam? I don't know.

Nobody knows. He played one game, I think completed 11 passes out of 21. Won the game, which is great. Ron's named him, Ron Rivera, the head coach, has named him as the starter going in, and now he'll have a chance to solidify the position through training camp. I like the way he throws the football. I like the way he moves. His arm is plenty strong enough. He's athletic enough to be able to play the position, but you've got a brand new offense under Eric the enemy, and you just don't know. I mean, to say he's going to be this, you have no idea.

We have no idea, but you're absolutely right. This roster's got some pretty darn good football team. The roster is a very good football team around that position. What advice would you give to a young quarterback like that? Learn.

Learn as much as you can. Don't get down on yourself. Talk to the coaches. Find out how you can get better. Work every day on your trade. Learn how to play.

The biggest thing about our business is it isn't the physical aspect of it. Most guys that play the position can throw. Some really can't. We've seen that, but most guys can play the position physically.

It's the mental aspects. It's what do you do when it's third and 14 and you've got somebody bearing down on you? What do you do when you have to get the ball out of your hands? What do you do when you're having an opportunity to put points on the board? Don't take a sack on first and 10 inside the red zone. There's all the little things that you have to sort of remember, and the only way that comes is with experience. That's the big thing, Zach.

There's no replacement for it. That's why we see the difference in young quarterbacks and as they mature. You look at the mistakes they make early, and then all of a sudden you don't see those mistakes, and that's what you're looking for.

And here's the problem. This is the problem with all young quarterbacks, and especially one that's taken over the helm, and it'll be for the rookies coming in as well. You're not going to play a lot in preseason. There's only three preseason games. For sure, you're not going to play in the last one. So how much do you play, which means how much does your offensive line play in the first couple of preseason games? And what are we going to learn from that?

A little bit maybe, but not a lot. Let's get to the next down. Joe Theismann here with us. So we've talked about some of the names on this offense. Terry McLaurin, Jahan Dotson, Curtis Samuel, Brian Robinson Jr. But as you said, they bring in a new offensive coordinator, a guy who's very accomplished in Eric Bienemy coming over for the Chiefs. How do you kind of look at Bienemy now joining the commanders?

Well, you know, there's one name you didn't mention. That's Logan Thomas. He's coming back off of an injury. Sort of got back into it last year, but look at what Kelsey, look how important Travis Kelsey has been to the Kansas City Chiefs. If Logan Thomas can have 60% of that impact on this offense, it'll make it so much better.

But you're right. You only have one football, and you've got a lot of guys that can make plays for you. I think that it's going to be creative. I think it's fundamentally going to be very sound. And for everything that I've seen, everything I've read, everything I've heard, Eric will hold guys accountable for what they're doing. The offensive line doesn't have a lot of big names, but they've got some experience and some use in it.

So I'm looking forward to be pretty good. I know there's a lot going on with the commanders. It's kind of wild that Rivera has already been there for what's going to be now his fourth season, made the playoffs the first year with that 7-9 team, and then hasn't got back since. How warm do you think that seat is for Ron Rivera? Well, you've had a new ownership as of today. Five, six hours ago, there's new ownership in Washington, so everybody's sitting on a skittle. You're sitting on the oven, and everybody is going to be under scrutiny.

Here's one of the things. How many coaches have contracts that are expiring? New ownership hasn't had a chance to really get into the organization at all.

They've been really kept at arm's length until the sale went through today. So I'm sure Josh and his people are going to jump right in and try to figure out exactly what they're going to need to do, and who's going to stay, who's going to go. But Ron doesn't worry about that, I can tell you that.

He's not the kind of guy that sits there and goes, wow man, the pressure's on, I have to do this. He's going to coach his football team to win football games, and that's the big thing. Let's get to the next down. So you just said it, the biggest news of the day, Joe Theismann, Daniel Snyder out, approved by the NFL, the ownership sale to Josh Harris. How did you react to that news today? I think it's a fresh start for everybody in Washington. The anticipation has been through the roof.

There hasn't been a lot of success. There's been no stability at the quarterback position, and there really hasn't been a lot of stability at the coaching position, the two most important leadership positions on your football team. And I can only say that it's through the roof as far as the people go, and I'm excited for what this team can do. I really am. I'm excited because, like I said, I know it's on the field, and I think the fans are just going to get so much behind it. It'll be fun to be in a stadium where there aren't as many Giant and Eagle fans as we've seen late in the season or when they come to play at FedEx Field. Well, that's the thing I'm most excited about. You know how great that fan base has been, and throughout a long time there's been a lot of apathy, and I can't blame those fans. To see that passion and excitement hopefully come back, that's what I'm most fired up about. I'm with you.

I really am. The stadium probably seats about 60-65,000, and I'm predicting that the Oak will be sold out. We'll have a full house when Arizona comes in, and it'll be really, really exciting for this football team.

That's the other thing. As a player, you get excited when the people in the stands get excited. That's why they call those things home-field advantage. It's hard to communicate for other quarterbacks if that's the case.

It gives the defense an advantage, and that's not something we've been able to enjoy for a long time here. What do you want this ownership group to really understand, you being a legendary player for this franchise? I think, first of all, listening to Josh Harris' brief press conference today, he understands about the fans' participation in the success of this franchise. He was one. His mom still lives in the area. Mitchell Reynolds, same thing.

His family is in the area, grew up in this area. They know what it was like, and I think that's what they really want to try and bring back is that enthusiasm, the excitement by the fans. Like I said, the product on the field looks like it's going to be pretty good. Now you put the two together, and you've got something to be excited about. Really, really happy about it. Let's get to the final down.

Let's get to the defensive side of the ball. We all know this is a big year for Chase Young. They didn't pick up his fifth-year option, has had to deal with injuries. What are your expectations for Chase this year?

I saw a video the other day. He looks like he's in great shape. He is in great shape. Montez is the same way. Of course, Josh and the guys up front are just as... Daron had a great year last year. Montez had a great year. Jonathan's just as steady as can be, and Chase had to come back from the injury.

Now he's had the full-off season to be able to get ready. I think that's the best front four in football. Secondary's quite young, but defensively, I think they'll be aggressive. They finished third in the league last year, and I don't expect anything less this year. I think the thing they haven't done very well. There's two things that happened with this football team. They haven't scored a lot of points on offense, and the defense hasn't taken the ball away. Those are the things that they're going to have to do if they want to have success this year. And finally, we all know that, as we were talking about, the quarterback is a question mark. As I said to you, I like the roster. I kind of view them as a team that a lot of people aren't talking about, but I think they're a fringe playoff team. Is that where you're at with this football team?

Could well be. I mean, when you look at last year, with everything that they went through, they beat the Eagles. I think people forgot that. Beat them handily, by the way. Beat the Cowboys.

Should have beaten the Giants a couple times, having not been for an official, not knowing what the heck he's doing. I don't know how else to put it. And people say, oh, Joe's crying over Spill dick. No, it was a fact. The league apologized. It was a mistake.

But you move on from there. I like the fact that nobody's talking about this football team. I like the fact that this football team can operate somewhat under the radar in this division, which a year ago, everybody said was terrible. Now it's one of the best divisions in football. I like where they are.

I'll also throw you a college questionnaire before we let you run. I'm curious to see what Marcus Freeman does in your number two, and I like your quarterback now and Sam Hartman coming over from Wake Forest for your fight in Irish. I like him a lot.

I was out at the campus about a month and a half ago. That's a man. Okay. He is a man.

All right. You know, he throws the ball well. He's got a lot of experience in his sixth year, put up a lot of numbers at Wake. I'm excited for this football team. We haven't had a quarterback that has this ability in a long, long time at Notre Dame, and Marcus has really got himself entrenched there with the guys.

They love them. It's going to be a young team, as it always is. We put a lot of offensive lineman into professional football, defensive lineman as well.

I think you're going to start to see the wide receivers, the DBs and the running backs make their way up the ladder as far as getting into the league, too. He's Joe Theismann. Joe, appreciate the time as always. Thanks so much for doing this. You bet, Zach. Always good catching up with you. Take care.