Several changes since the Jets game
Since last week’s preseason road loss against the Dolphins, there have been many changes to the roster
Additions
- DE Justin Hollins signed
- LB Chappelle Russell signed
- DE Kendrell Brooks signed
- S Sheldrick Redwine signed
- K Cade York acquired in trade
- C Cameron Tom signed
Subtractions
- WR Jahan Dotson traded to Eagles
- LB Bo Bauer released (injury settlement)
- LB Keandre Jones waived
- S Ben Nikkel waived
- K Riley Patterson waived
- C J.C. Hassenauer released
UPDATED DEPTH CHART
The numbers that appear beside some players’ names are 2024 cap hits per Over the Cap.
Please note that assigned positions and color coding are my own personal opinions. They do not necessarily represent the thinking of Washington’s coaches or front office, nor are they necessarily consistent with fan consensus. This chart represents my personal interpretation, and may not reflect the thoughts of other writers on Hogs Haven. Finally, when it comes to backup players, I don’t put much effort into making sure that they are on the right or left or behind the specific player that they backup. I mostly just try to fit everyone on the chart efficiently.
The Commanders currently have 91 players on the roster (including one International Pathway Player who is exempt from the usual 90-man limit). Going into the second preseason game, the team has 43 offensive players, 45 defensive players, and 3 specialists (K, P, LS).
Some notes on players/positions
WR Jahan Dotson
The biggest Commanders roster news of the week was the trade of Jahan Dotson + a 5th -round pick to the Eagles for a 3rd + a pair of 7th-rounders. A Dotson trade had felt increasingly inevitable throughout training camp, with reports that Dotson didn’t seem to be fitting in very comfortably. Washington’s front office gets some return of draft capital from a situation that seemed to be deteriorating.
I’ve always liked Dotson and would like to wish him good luck, but…Philly.
Here’s how Bleeding Green Nation assessed the trade:
[T]he Eagles seem to think that they’re buying low on Dotson and that he can be better than he was last season. He arrives in Philly with lower expectations than he had in Washington by virtue of being a first-round pick. The Eagles are realistically hoping he’ll be a solid contributor to pair with their two top-notch receivers in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. It’s also worth noting that he has two years left on his rookie contract, plus a potential fifth-year option for 2026.
LB Jordan Magee
Magee suffered a meniscus tear and underwent surgical repair recently (head coach Dan Quinn initially and mistakenly said it was an MCL tear). This will likely keep Magee out for several weeks, meaning that he should miss the start of the season.
In prior years, this would have been more problematic. Under last year’s rules, for example, if the team had placed him on IR at any time up to and including cutdown to 53 players, then Magee would have been out for the entire season. A rule change this year allows each NFL team to assign up to two players to IR at the time of the cutdown to 53 players and designate them for return during the season.
There is a limit of 8 activations from IR for each team during the regular season, and each of these designations counts as one of those activations whether the player returns or not.
I expect the team to use one of these designations on Jordan Magee. If this happens, then Magee will not be eligible to be activated until Week 5 at the earliest.
DE Efe Obada
Because Efe Obada was designated as Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) at the start of training camp, he can be assigned to the Injured Reserve (IR) list when the roster is trimmed to 53 players, and he will still be eligible for activation during the regular season. Like Magee, he would have to miss at least the first 4 games of the season. I don’t believe any other Commanders players are in the same situation.
Brandon Coleman and Johnny Newton
These two players have not been practicing recently. Coleman entered camp healthy, but has since injured his pectoral. The injury seems to be relatively mild (no report of surgery required). Johnny Newton had surgery on a Jones fracture that was discovered post-draft, and has been recovering. He was on the PUP list on the day he reported to training camp, but was cleared to practice the following day. I’m tempted to say that he seems to have suffered a bit of a setback but Dan Quinn would take exception to that. In fact, Quinn indicated that Newton’s issue is not with his surgery, and that both players might be playing if this were the regular season:
Not a setback because it wasn’t related to where his injury was, but just a soft tissue part that just wasn’t quite right. And so for he and for Brandon and others, we’re just gonna make sure they’re really right to go. I think both of them would say, ‘I’ll go tomorrow’, so that’s the attitude that you want, but it’s not the best thing to say, ‘Hey, how do we get them ready for the whole thing’, knowing that were still in the preseason, so when they do get back out there to play that there’s no reservations whatsoever.
Later, Quinn clarified Newton’s situation even more:
He [is] dealing with like a soft tissue injury on his foot not related to his surgery, and so he’s off to the side doing work and we’re fortunate that the, I’m going to call it a preseason bye [week] here because we’re going to try to ramp him up towards the end of this week and hopefully into the practice for next week. So, he’s hit all the marks that we’re wanting him to, but we’re just trying to make sure there are no setbacks. He worked so hard, so I want to make sure like we just don’t miss one thing.
It’s possible — DQ makes it sound likely — that either or both of these players could be ready and available for the start of the season. As recently as Monday, Dan Quinn was discussing the possibility of either or both playing in the final preseason game against the Patriots this Sunday:
Brandon’s a little bit further along than Johnny, but not by tons —both of them I see on the way up. As far as getting them to the [Patriots] game, I’ll have a better sense for that as we get to the end of the week.
We’ll see Brandon more this week really ramp up the contact and that kind of stuff up, you’ll see more running with Johnny. Those are two guys that are [improving physically], but I don’t have an official…timeline for them yet.
Quinn later referenced this week’s final preseason game against the Patriots as something of a “bye week” for Newton, who will not play. This indirectly indicates that Quinn is aiming for the player to be ready for the Week 1 contest in Tampa Bay. Still, it seems possible that one of these two drafted rookies (Coleman or Newton) could be assigned to IR when the initial 53-man roster is formed.
If so, Johnny Newton seems the one most likely to go to IR, based partly on Dan Quinn’s characterization of Coleman as being “further along” and partly on the relative depth of the defensive line (deep) and offensive line (not so much). There is really no urgency to get Newton on the field with Allen, Payne, Ridgeway, Mathis, Potoa’e and others healthy and ready to play. Taking Quinn at face value, however, would indicate that Newton will be rested for the final preseason game, but ready to play against Tampa Bay.
Jeremy Reaves
I saw a lot of comments last week about Jeremy Reaves possibly losing his roster spot because he missed some tackles on defense against the Dolphins. Anyone who thinks that may want to look closely at what Dan Quinn had to say this week when asked about the role of special teams in roster decisions.
There’ll be some players that will have a featured role mostly on special teams. Now that could be one or two offensive players or defensive players where they may not have a leading role on offense or defense. Then, there’s the player that has roles on both. I may be a backup or a complimentary starter. I’m playing 50% of the plays. And then you may hear a guy, we’ll play them on two of the four. I can play them on punt and kickoff return. So, first level is the Jeremy Reaves of the world — Special teams value impacting plays. Then it gets into the player that’s the complimentary starter that plays quite a bit but still has room for at least two phases.The fun part, what’s going to happen in 2024 is [that kickoffs and kickoff returns] are growing again and it’s really cool to see. It’s still work in progress I would say, and I think it will be a little bit fluid as it goes into the beginning part of the season. But I am excited to see it and I think it’s really good for not just the Jeremy Reeves of the world who make their mark on special teams, but also just for the energy of the game, the players, how we do things.I’m really pumped about it.
I don’t know about you, but that just doesn’t sound to me like a coach who’s thinking about cutting his special teams ace.
Kicker
Dan Quinn said on Monday about the kicker position:
The competition for us at that spot is not settled by any stretch, along with some other positions. But as far as heading into the game, [we’ve made] no decisions [to add] anybody else to the roster.
That changed on Thursday, when Albert Breer broke the news that Washington had traded for kicker Cade York, acquiring him from the Browns for a conditional 7th round pick. The team later officially announced the move.
The fact that the draft pick is conditional — it’s been reported that the condition is for York to be on the roster for 2 games — hints that Washington may not be 100% sure that York will be the kicker that actually ends up on the team in the regular season.
A quick reminder
Every NFL team needs to reduce its roster to a maximum of 53 players by 4pm ET on Tuesday, August 27th.
The roster that the team forms is called the “initial” 53-man roster for a reason — it is almost never the “final” roster that the team will take into its opening week game.
The front office may choose to move one or more players to IR after Tuesday; they may, of course, claim a young player off of the waiver wire, or sign a vested veteran who is released from another team. We may not know until Friday the 30th (or even the beginning of September) the exact makeup of the roster that will travel to Tampa Bay to open the season.
Preseason Games
The Commanders opened the 2024 preseason with a 20-17 loss to the NY Jets on Saturday, August 10th.
The second preseason game at Miami on the 17th of August resulted in a 13-6 Commanders loss.
Washington goes into its final 2024 preseason game at home against the Patriots at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 25th with an 0-2 record.