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Daily Slop – 30 May 24: Don’t plan on another Washington Commanders name change anytime soon

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A collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders, the NFC East and the NFL in general

Commanders links

Articles

Washington Post (paywall)

Most D.C.-area sports fans dislike or hate Commanders’ name, poll finds

It has been two years since Washington’s NFL franchise unveiled its new name, and most D.C.-area fans still don’t care for it.

According to an April Washington Post-Schar School poll, most local sports fans (54 percent) say they either dislike or hate the name. Among just local Commanders fans, the antipathy toward the name is even more stark — 58 percent say they don’t like it.


In fact, only 16 percent of Commanders fans think the team should keep the name, while most say they would like the team to change to a different name. Again.

Harris’s group did not rule out a future name change when it purchased the team, but it quickly ruled out a return to the former name.

“That ship has sailed,” Mitch Rales, the top partner in Harris’s ownership group, said in September. “We’re not going to re-litigate the past. We’re about the future. We’re about building the future and not having a divisive culture that we’re engaged in. We’re going to look at everything come the end of the year and think about a lot of different things and do a lot of testing and see what people think. And we’ll learn. The beauty is we have the time to look at all of this stuff intelligently and make fan-based decisions.”

The Athletic (paywall)

‘For now, it’s the Commanders’: Washington co-owner Marjorie Harris plans to stick with team name

Harris was asked Wednesday after a Washington Post poll indicated most D.C.-area sports fans said they either dislike or hate the Commanders’ name.

“Everybody has an opinion about the name. Some good, some bad, some in the middle. And I think that we have a lot of work to do and so that name issue is going to be on the side for now until we can get things going,” she said.

“I had a whole day out in the community, and I kept referring to the team as the Commanders,” Harris said. “And you know what? Sounds pretty good to me. So, for now, it’s the Commanders.”

Commanders.com

Four things we learned in first half of Commanders OTAs

4. Players are getting moved around a lot.

Quinn made it clear during one of his media availabilities before practice that no one should put much stock into a “depth chart,” which players are working with the first group or where they are positioned on a play.

Sure enough, starters and backups alike have moved all over the field, whether it’s Emmanuel Forbes Jr. going back and forth between starter and backup to the myriads of receiver combinations that have worked together during seven-on-seven drills. There’s a reason Quinn wants to see his players in different spots other than their original duties; he wants to get an accurate gauge of everything they can do.

“Can a safety come down to play Dime? Can a tight end split out wide? Those are things that it takes time through training camp,” Quinn said. “One player may be able to, another player may not. And so, it does take a little bit of exploring, but that’s like our job as coaches to find any unique traits that the players have. And then how would we feature those unique traits and trying to find the things that people can do versus the things that they can’t do.”

Some of that experimentation has come during the special teams period of practice. Several players, including Forbes, Brian Robinson Jr. and Noah Igbinoghene, have caught kicks when the team runs through the new kickoff rules. Players like Forbes have little to no experience in the role, but the coaches want to see if he can handle the responsibility.

“Although he didn’t do it at Mississippi State, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the necessary traits,” Quinn said. “So, we got a big deep crew now that we’re working people both in punt return and in kickoff return. And so, just like everything, we’re trying to find out what unique things a player has and how to feature them.”

The Athletic (paywall)

How do NFC wide receiver groups stack up heading into the 2024 season?

75-plus targets


40-74 targets

N/A

Given how low their EPA-per-target rates panned out in 2023, kudos to Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson for amassing average EPA-per-reception rates. There has to be reason for optimism all of their numbers will improve with Jayden Daniels at QB, even as a rookie, since accuracy was one of the No. 2 pick’s calling cards.

The rest of the group seems murky — veterans Olamide Zaccheaus and Jamison Crowder, along with Dyami Brown. Washington also snagged Rice’s Luke McCaffrey in Round 3 of this year’s draft.

Zaccheaus might be one to watch. The sixth-year receiver comes to the Commanders with career 0.35 EPA-per-target and 1.2 EPA-per-reception rates from his time with Atlanta and Philadelphia.

Podcasts & videos

Commanders rooks, owners embrace young fans but not ready to talk new name

NFC East links

Big Blue View

Here’s one way to measure positional value in the NFL

Things have changes somewhat, at least in terms of the highest-paid players at a variety of positions

The Athletic looked at how salaries by position have risen in relation to the salary cap since 2014. The cap, in that decade, has gone up 92%. The list below is based on the player with the highest average annual salary at each position, not a cumulative average of average annual salary for all players or the top 10 players at each position.

Below, the positions at which the salary fo the highest-paid player has grown more than the salary cap:

  • Defensive tackle: 151.9% increase
  • Quarterback: 150%
  • Offensive line: 143.5%
  • Edge defender: 104.8%
  • Linebacker: 100%

Now, the positions at which the Average Annual Value for the highest-paid player has grown more slowly than the salary cap:

  • Safety: 75%
  • Tight end: 71%
  • Wide receiver: 70.2%
  • Cornerback: 31.3%
  • Running back: 18.2%

Here are The Athletic’s takeaways:

There are a few surprises, none bigger than the salary of the top inside linebacker rising faster than the salary cap. From Patrick Willis’ $10 million APY in 2014 to Roquan Smith’s current pay of $20 million, we’ve seen a 100 percent increase in the top-end salary despite that position being regularly snubbed in the draft (just one drafted in the first two rounds in 2024).

Given the common narrative (and Zoom calls), it’s not surprising to see running backs at the lowest mark, but were you expecting to see cornerback growth so low? After we saw many veteran safeties cut this offseason, that would’ve been my candidate for second-lowest growth. Receiver growth is surprisingly in line with tight ends.

The biggest takeaway: The NFL values the trenches, as defensive tackle and offensive line standouts saw the biggest increases in pay, with the former growing even more quickly than QBs. The only other two positions to outpace the salary cap: edge rusher and inside linebacker.

NFL league links

Articles

Pro Football Focus

2024 NFL roster rankings: Strengths, weaknesses and X factors for every starting lineup

27. Washington Commanders

Biggest strength in 2023: Rushing Offense

The Commanders struggled across the board last season but ranked 15th in rushing grade. Capable ball-carriers like Brian Robinson and Chris Rodriguez Jr. led the way. The issue for the run game was a lack of designed carries due to the team being behind so often. The incumbent running backs, along with new quarterback Jayden Daniels, should give Washington a functional rushing attack in 2024 and beyond.

Biggest weakness in 2023: Run Defense

The Commanders allowed the most points in the NFL last season, and the primary culprit was a run-defense unit that finished 31st in run-defense grade last season. They’ve since added viable players at multiple levels, including linebackers Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu. Head coach Dan Quinn is making his new defense a priority.

X-factor for 2024: QB Jayden Daniels

Washington brought in several veterans and put together a huge draft class, but the team’s fate lies in the hands of second-overall pick Jayden Daniels. The 2023 Heisman winner was the best player in college football last season. His dual-threat ability should inject life into a team that has perpetually struggled to find a franchise quarterback.

Rookie to watch: DI Jer’Zhan Newton

Assuming Newton is healthy moving forward, Washington got an absolute steal in the second round. He was the most consistent interior defender in college football over the past two seasons while at Illinois. His talent and versatility should help a defensive line that finished 29th in overall grade last season.

Over/Under 6.5 win total: Under

While it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Commanders approach or even surpass this win total, they are still starting a rookie quarterback and need immense improvement on defense. This season is more about Daniels and the rest of the rookie class progressing than it is about any number of victories.

Pro Football Focus

The 49ers, like all teams, are processing the massive change to the kickoff

The NFL has revolutionized the kickoff, turning it in the blink of an eye from a dead play into something that will be very much undead. And the consequences of the new approach, which has 19 or 20 players clustered together and not moving until the ball is caught or strikes the ground in the landing zone, remain largely unknown.

On Wednesday, 49ers special teams coordinator Brian Schneider spoke at length about the new rule and the vast changes it will be bringing to the game.

“In the offseason when you get the news it’s a lot of anxiety because what you’re looking at is, the only thing you really have to look at is the XFL and it’s different too, than that,” Schneider told reporters. “So you really try to do as much as you can until the players got here. Because before it was all in my brain and one thing would go to another and then all of a sudden, I think it’s about here now for me, in terms of once we get the fundamentals together, once we ask the players to communicate with us, talk to us, what do you see? And once we kind of broke it down that way to get to, I think some fundamentals that will stick in terms of how to get there, and now we have to see where it goes. Because it’s different. That’s for sure.”

He said he watched “a ton” of XFL tape, even though there are differences between the XFL approach (which wasn’t adopted by the UFL) and the NFL’s configuration. One big similarity is that, once the ball is kicked, most of the players will not be moving at all.

“I think everyone that sees it for the first time, it’s really strange because you see the kickoff and I’m standing right here and it’s just like, it’s like you’re in space,” Schneider said. “You never see that happen without everyone moving. And so, it’s really like the music went off and everything, I was like in the Twilight Zone and then when it happens it’s just, it’s really fast. So getting used to all that for the players and it is going to continue to evolve.”

Schneider said everyone is still figuring it out.

“There’s 31 other coaches like me that don’t know exactly if we’re on the right track, what it’s going to look like,” Schneider said. “So more than anything, it’s going to be adjusting. And so, right now, I feel good finally with the players and getting their input and working through it all. But that’s going to be — it’s exciting. I mean, I’m fired up. This is the coolest thing to happen in terms of in my coaching career because it’s — what are you going to do? You have a great opportunity to do something that’s never been done before. So, it’s a race to figure it out and it’s going to be constantly adjusting.”

However it goes, Schneider sees it as good news for field position and scoring.

“I think an easier way to explain it is all the kickoff return teams have the advantage,” Schneider said. “Every kickoff return team, just from the way the kickoff team is set up. If you think about it, we’re on the 40-yard line with the same width we were when we were way back at the 35. So, backside almost geometry, I’m not very good at math, but those guys are almost eliminated just by alignment, if that makes sense. So, where it turns into, that’s what everyone tries to figure out. So, all the fundamentals are there, but then the body types that are on there, we’ve just got to see what works. And we have our plan kind of going into it, but I think you’ve just got to be ready to adjust however it looks.”

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