BIG. Rock. Mornings. - Logan Paulsen Interview - 4-26-24

Logan Paulsen from the Washington Commanders recaps round 1 of the NFL draft.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
On the line. We have misterLogan Paulson, former tight end for the
Washington Commanders and analyst for the Commandersand just all around cool dude. I
did watching your take on stuff,man, I really, I really enjoy
it. I see a lot ofit on the Commanders dot Com. Awesome,
man, Yeah, thanks so much. I appreciating me on Yeah.

(00:21):
Yeah, So talk to us aboutthis draft last night. What are your
thoughts. I don't think it wasany big surprise that they were gonna go
with Jayden Daniels with the second pick. I heard some speculation kind of floating
around the room that it might beDrake May, but I think everybody was
pretty confident it's going to be Jayden. Good pick. Yeah, I mean
yeah, I mean I'm extatic.I think you know the way I kind

(00:42):
of teered my drafts, you know, kind of you clutter those guys in
the groups. I had JJ McCarthy, Drake May, and and je Daniels
all in the same group. SoI think any one of those guys would
have been pretty exciting. But Jadenhas kind of that special lore because of
the athlete that he is, becausethe throwing mechanics are excellent. This football
in the pocket are excellent, andthen you know, everyone knows how dynamic

(01:03):
he is as a playmaker with hislegs, and I think all that stuff
kind of combined with the person thathe is off the fields in terms of
his work ethic, his competitiveness,his desire and hunger to get better.
You saw that over the course ofhis career going from Arizona to LSU and
then these two years that I'll seethat the drastic improvement he was able to
show. So I'm exciting about thispick. I can't wait to see what

(01:23):
he looks like in a Washington Commandersuniform. But now, you know,
now is when the hard part begins. Now is when you kind of make
this really good college player and developinghim into an NFL athlete or an NFL
caliber quarterback. So, you know, kind of the first step of the
journey. But in terms of theguy, very very excited about it.
Yeah. So I think he's likesix four two ten I'm guessing there,

(01:44):
but six four to two ten ish. Do you think he could use a
few pounds. I mean, we'regonna be looking at let's feed this guy
and get him in the weight room. Yeah, it's a really good question.
I think, you know, I'vekind of a got as I've gotten
older, I'm of the mind sothat you just kind of let the guy
be at the body weight they're at, and then you know, once they're
in like an NFL locker room,lift an NFL weights, you know,
eat NFL meals, they start kindof gradually gaining weight on their own.

(02:07):
It's not something that I would prioritizeor force necessarily because I think like that's
how they've learned to play football isat that body weight, at that body
size, So you don't want tokind of, you know, put a
weight vest on him in year oneand then all of a sudden they look
really sluggish and everyone's going, man, what's going on with Jane Daniels.
So kind of let that happen overthe over, over the course of time.
Don't rush that. But I thinkthat's something that that will definitely be

(02:29):
on the dock and at some pointin his career, just to kind of
add a little bit more robustness tohis frame, because like you said,
like I think a lot of peopleknow, you know, he does take
some pretty pretty devastating hits, butalso kind of that same point, like,
I think one of the reasons hehasn't been hurt by any of those
hits yet knock on wood, isbecause he does have some nice flexibility and
no ability to his body. SoI think that helps him kind of stay

(02:49):
out of some of those big contacts. So, you know, I think
to kind of answer your question,yes, at some point, but probably
not right away. Right. That'sthat's a great take on that too.
I I think I've sent him afew messages through you know, Instagram,
which he's not going to see.Uh, and I just keep I just

(03:09):
keep saying, please learn to slide? Can you please learn to slide?
That's what I used to say aboutSam How It's like, dude, don't
get you look like a pinball machineout there. Learn to slide. We
don't want you getting hurt. Buthe likes to get out there and make
plays, man, And uh,you know he's I think he's going to

(03:29):
find that these boys in the NFLmight hit just a wee bit harder.
Yeah, I mean absolutely. Imean, but I think that's you know,
it's kind of walking that line andkind of that's where the coaches come
they say, hey, excuse me, you know you have to we we
love this dynamic playmaking ability you haveas an athlete. This is when we
want you to use it. Youknow, maybe it's a third intend in

(03:51):
the red zone and we got toget a touchdown, like be very aggressive
there. But you know, likethere's plays against Florida State where it's first
intended he's diving over the middle ofthe line of scrimmage for a three yard
game. Like we could be alittle bit more conservative here. So I
think just kind of again, likeas he matures as a player, you
know, as he gets with anNFL staff, I think they'd be able
to help kind of designate for himwhen they want him to kind of be

(04:12):
that hyper aggressive competitor and when whenit's time to protect yourself. Yeah.
Yeah, So let me ask youa question not commanders related, just because
I found this fascinating yesterday. TheAtlanta Falcons are but you know, everything
kind of went as planned or asyou know, happened the way people thought
it was going to happen, andthey I feel like they kind of pulled
off a shocker by drafting Pennix Juniorwith a number eight pick, and then

(04:33):
I read this morning. You know, this is after signing one hundred and
eighty million dollar contract with with KirkCousins. And I read this morning that
Cousins agent said, yeah, wedidn't know about that, and they only
notified us when they were on theclock that they were going to pick him.
I get the whole maybe working towardsthe future thing, But if you're
Kirk Cousins, what are you thinking? Yeah, I mean I think again,

(04:56):
that's such an odd situation. Youknow, right when it happened,
I thought, o't, here wego. We got a situation where,
like you said, they can worktowards the future. They got a guy
in Michael Pennix, who I meancan absolutely rip the football. He is
extremely tallent to throw in the football, so I understand the allure there.
But he's also twenty four and ahalf years old, I mean twenty five
this year, So even if hesits for two years, he's twenty six
and a half when he starts playingfootball, which is a little bit unusual.

(05:19):
And then again, like you said, you paid Kirk all this money.
In terms of how I'm feeling ifI'm Kirk, I honestly probably don't
care that much because I'm one hundredand eighty million dollars Richard today that I
was yesterday. So they can dowhatever they want, but it is kind
of an odd situation. I understandthe thought process, but I just think
the execution to me just seems alittle bit errands, you know, in

(05:39):
terms of how they handle it.I probably would have informed Kirk ahead of
time at eight taking a quarterback,even if you love his upside again,
Michael Pennick's dramatic ability to throw inthe football. I can't overstate how impressive
it is watching him throw the ball. But you know, at eight,
kind of your quarterback in the future. If you look at you know,
Patrick Mahomes, I think it's hewas eleven, you know, is the

(06:00):
most recent one at twenty three seemslike a little bit later as kind of
a sweet spot for that. Butif they had a high evaluation on this
guy, I don't hate it.I just think the execution of the way
they handle it is maybe slightly off. Yeah, yeah, And I think
you know, if you're in Cousinscamp, you're thinking, yeah, but
you didn't do anything to make theteam better. Now, Like I get,
I get to work in towards thefuture thing. But on that note,

(06:21):
with Penix going and nobody really seeingthat coming. I kind of felt
bad for the Raiders who really wanteda quarterback. They got to the Raiders
and that was I'm sure that wasa scramble. They ended up getting a
nothing against tight ends, but theyended up getting a tight end. Yeah,

(06:41):
all the quarterbacks were off the board. Yeah, everyone kind of had
them penciled in, but no doubtfor you know, I think a quarterback
obviously. I think people were thinkof Michael Pennick's there, you know again,
because he is such a dramatic throwerin the football. But I think
they ended up getting kind of inan okay situation. You know, Brock
Bauers is a kind of a generationalat the tight end position out of Georgia.
And you know, he's sixty fourtwo dred and forty pounds. Kind

(07:03):
of this guy that can play theslot receiver, play inside, play full
back. There's clips to him playingrunning back at Georgia. So he is
this really valuable playmaking chess piece.And you know, when you when you've
got to evaluate offensive playmakers, obviouslythe three receivers at the top, you
know, your elik neighbors from LSU, your Robodunze from UDUP and obviously Carvin

(07:24):
Erris and Junior from Ohio State.But just right outside of that group was
Rock bauerd in terms of offensive playmakers. So while they're left in the bag
regarding quarterback Las Vegas, I thinkthey really get a nice piece to add
to that offense. Now, youknow, to your point, it just
comes down to who's gonna thrown atthe football, right, Yeah. No,
I mean, without a doubt theygot a fantastic player, but I
think they were like, uh,crap, we still have to address this

(07:45):
quarterback thing. So what do youthink? Where are our needs? What's
what's up next? And when welook at the next few picks, you
know, obviously picking a two isvery exciting, but over the next you
know, two rounds, man,I think this is going to be so
much fun for Washington Commanders fans,like, quite honestly, Like in the
second round you got two picks atthirty six and forty. In the third

(08:07):
round you have three picks. Andthe way this draft is allocated at the
moment, you know, with thesetop one hundred selections, like you're going
to have some dynamic football players inthis range. And so if you kind
of make some good decisions here andkind of address some of these needs like
you're talking about, I think you'dbe very happy. So i'd say in
terms of needs, you're probably lookingat offensive tackle not able to you know,
Washington wasn't able to trade back inand get that addressed last night,

(08:28):
but there's some good players available.Roger rosen Garden from you, dub Kurana
Mediji from Yale, Patrick Paul fromHouston ARSI the names keeping eye on,
and then obviously keeps Exsuma Time fromBYU. I think you're looking again with
that fortieth pick, probably at anedge rusher, and I think the thing
that's exciting is you're going to beable to get a guy that fits like
the competitive culture that Dan is lookingfor. You get your Chris Badswells from

(08:50):
Alabama, your Marshaw Delans from WesternMichigan's or at Deeza Isaacs from Penn State.
So there's a lot of good footballplayers there. And then in that
third round, I think you're lookingto get a lot faster offensively and defensively
and find an explosive playmaking weapon,you know, whether that's that receiver with
a guy like Javon Baker from UCeffort, Avontez Walker from North Carolina.
Or you say, hey, man, we like this explosive running back trade

(09:11):
Benson from Florida State. He rana four to three and a two hundred
and twenty pounds. Wow. Didyou say, oh we got seez we
need to address like quarterbacks. There'sa ton of good football players here,
So I think there's a lot ofopportunity here to make this football team,
uh, you know, more physicaland faster in this in the next you
know, kind of twenty four hoursfor Washington. Yeah, and there's you
know, you know how it is. I mean, there's a lot of

(09:31):
great players in there. Your nextlike superstar could come out of the fifth
round. I mean it's like it'syou have no idea, but you know,
all these guys are pretty elite athletesand there's gonna be some some great
stuff happening, like you said,throughout the next next few picks here.
So you're around the building, howare how are things with the new coaching

(09:52):
staff? Is it good? Vibe? Is it is the people hungry?
Ready? I mean I think,I mean, can I say they're the
best vibes? I mean, it'svery exciting abound the building right now.
I think. You know, obviouslyJosh Harris and the new ownership group have
identified areas they want to improve thebuilding, like how they want to improve
the organization. They seem to betaking strikes to get that done. Obviously,

(10:13):
Adam Peters is the GM. Yousee the kind of talent and the
type of people that he's bringing in, So I think that's been fantastic.
And then Dan, I mean,I don't know if he has the opportunity
to talk to yet, but heis just one of the most kind of
He's a he's extremely kind, butalso he's a great motivator of people,
and that comes across the second youtalk to him. And so like when

(10:33):
you're walking around the building, guysare excited, the energy is high.
The workouts have been outstanding. Theyhad a mini campus last week last week
obviously, right before the draft started. That went really well. And I
just think, like they're bringing inguys, you know, they're changing the
culture. They're throwing that word arounda lot, but you know, Dan's
kind of setting the culture with hisenergy and his attitude. And then they've
done a good job, you know, Adam has it bringing in the right

(10:56):
type of people to embrace that culture. Now, I'm not saying they're going
to win ten games this year,but I think everything is kind of trending
in this very positive direction. Itmakes me excited, you know, for
the organization with the court. Allright, well, I'm gonna say it,
they're gonna win ten games this year. I'm gonna say it. That's
awesome. Man, I really appreciateyou taking the time. And yeah,

(11:18):
Quinn Man talking to him, hefires me up. I like just want
to run through a wall. Haveto have a five minute conversation with him,
you know, makes me go,maybe I should play football yet.
Strap it up, man, ithappened right man. Hey. By the
way, I finally I found youraccount. I followed you on Instagram and
after I had to weed through thosedamn Jake and Logan paul dudes, you

(11:43):
know the I had to weed throughall their accounts to finally find you because
it's Logan Paulson and Logan pul longstory. Yeah, but I got you.
I got you, all right,man. Hey, thanks for taking
the time this morning, low andand uh, I look forward to talking
to you again. Uh maybe oncewe get the season rolling, and uh

(12:05):
yeah, thanks for thanks, havea great table on