Urban on Haskins: "Every year you have to win your position."

Nobody knows the Washington Buckeyes quite like Urban Meyer. Dwayne Haskins, Terry McLaurin and Chase Young. Oh and Alex Smith.

Urban Meyer, the former Ohio State University head coach,  participated in the Washington Redskins virtual schedule release party Thursday night.  He was a guest, via phone, on the Steve Czaban Show on The Team 980. 

They discussed a variety of issues including Dwayne Haskins, Terry McLaurin, Chase Young and  Alex Smith. 

My takeaway from Meyer is that:

• He was very impressed with how Haskins handled the craziness of last season.
• McLaurin exceeded his year 1 expectations.
• The best is yet to come from Young.
• Smith is like a son and would have a heart to heart with him about a potential return to the field.

Below is the summary of the interview and the link to that portion of the show.

Dwayne’s first year here, how would you grade it from afar if you were a teacher?

I’d grade it as a B and I know he came in with 1 year as a starter...he took over in a real tough situation with a coaching transition during the year. Was talking to Haskins and McLaurin throughout the year.

Did you know all along McLaurin was going to be the way he is?

Yeah, he’s the face of a franchise and the face of our team the last 2 years. He would give pre-game speeches at OSU. A selfless leader. He did the tough stuff. Best blocker on the team. I knew he had all that...I’ll tell ya Washington did a good job using him and McLaurin exceeded expectations as a receiver.

Does Haskins feel like that he needs to win this job over Kyle Allen who knows Scott Turner’s system?

My experience with NFL players every year you have to win your position. Any other mindset isn’t going to help you. It is a job and you are officially, even at OSU he had Burrow right there with him, the way Urban has always looked at the NFL, you better show up every game. You have to perform and you are a professional in the NFL. Hasn’t spoken with Haskins about this but would imagine his mindset is just that.

Thoughts on Chase Young, what is this young man’s ceiling?

We haven’t seen it yet which is hard to imagine even as the most talented player in college football. We saw the potential his freshman year, but didn’t play. Started his sophomore year, but was battling ankle injuries which held him back so never really saw potential unleashed. This year, he stayed healthy, obviously got coached by a great dline coach. As far as a pure physical skill set, maybe Clowney, can’t imagine a more talented guy to play that position as long as he can remember.

Any desire to, in some official capacity with the Redskins besides the release party tonight?

No, I’ve had great conversations with Mr. Snyder, Ron Rivera, Kyle Smith. Really impressed with them and know Mr. Snyder wants to win. Met him a couple of times and walked away thinking “wow he wants to win.” You hear about owners out there that aren’t really like that, but was impressed that Snyder really does want to win. Not there in an official capacity, just a friend of the program and hope his guys do well.

Did anything in the Alex Smith documentary shock or surprise you?

Yeah, my wife was in tears. Alex is like a son to us. I had, I don’t want to say I had no idea, but he never told me to the degree of everything that happened. We’re close, but he’s not a guy to tell a story all the time, he’s humble. I knew it was bad, I never knew it came down to a doctor saying it was in life saving mode. Never knew that.

If Alex gets to the point where ‘I want to try to play again, but I want to run it by Urban,’ what do you think you would tell him?

Wow...that’s a tough one. I’d tell him like I would my son. ‘Alex no one would ever tell you what to do, but you have priorities in your life’ and the one thing Alex knows is his priorities. The clip that was pretty cool was the final clip of him running around with his children. If everyone says you’re good to go and it won’t affect your priorities then go ahead and do it.

Your thoughts on name, image, likeness of college athletes?

That’s tough, it’s happening. I can understand it on both ends. This is not professional sports. When recruiting, the first thing you talk about is that and the last thing you talk about is recruiting. I’m trying to visualize what that conversation will be like with a 17 year old HS senior and start talking about endorsement opportunities...is a coach going to be put in position to help a player find endorsement opportunities? It remains to be seen what will happen.

Tom Brady once said that I’ll retire when I suck. Is this the year he sucks?

No, I can’t visualize that about Tom Brady. This is going to be really intriguing for the Tampa Bay franchise with all the weapons around him and Gronk coming back

LISTEN HERE: Urban Meyer with the Steve Czaban Show

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Alan Lepore joins RedskinsReport.com while still doing outstanding work as an editor/writer at FullPressCoverage.com or @FPC_Redskins. You can follow him on Twitter @AlanLepore or on instagram @leporealan. Alan is a Villanova University MPA Nonprofit Management candidate and is a fundraising/development professional.