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Daily Slop – 16 Feb 25 – Terry McLaurin got married on Saturday!

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A collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders

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Riggo’s Rag

4 crucial statistics that must improve for Commanders to reach Super Bowl 60

Defensive Expected Points Contributed

  • 2024 Rank: 30th

This is an advanced statistic provided by Pro Football Reference and measures an approximate total value of a team’s defensive performance throughout the campaign. The Commanders ranked 30th, ahead of only the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers, with a rating of -147.39.

Who was in first place? The Super Bowl champion Eagles.

As the saying goes, defense wins championships. Combining the No. 1 and No. 3 bullet points on this list, Washington must be better defensively in 2025 if it wants to have any significant Super Bowl aspirations. The Commanders may not be able to replicate the talent on the Eagles’ roster, but if that side of the ball can improve to even just somewhere in the top-10 range, it would do wonders in taking Washington from a good team to a great one.

Sports Illustrated

Commanders’ best Week 1 opponent might not be the Eagles after all

As the tradition has become, most expect the 2025 NFL season will begin on Thursday night of Week 1, with the Philadelphia Eagles hosting a worthy opponent, like perhaps the Washington Commanders.

While getting the first crack at the defending Super Bowl Champions is attractive no matter the team, the Commanders’ matchups against the Eagles will be good television no matter when it happens if we’re being honest.

The fact that Washington and Philadelphia in Week 1 would be an NFC Championship Game rematch adds a bit of flavor to it, we suppose, but there’s another Week 1 matchup that could draw a crowd too.

If the Commanders and Detroit Lions were to face off, this time in Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, then the league would get a Divisional Round rematch on the books for Week 1….

Week 1 should have its fair share of fireworks when it comes time for the 2025 NFL schedule to be released.

Podcasts & videos

NFC East links

Big Blue View

Can Joe Schoen work (cap) magic to make the Giants competitive in 2025?

GM philosophy + owner constraints will tell

[GM Joe Schoen] at least has to perform some amount of cap sleight of hand to make the Giants competitive. Over The Cap lets you play with the possibilities, kind of a mock draft for the financial side of things. The Giants are middle-of-the-pack among NFL teams in how much effective cap space (i.e., after signing their draft picks and getting 51 players under contract) they have ($32.1M, circle on left in figure below). They are also middle-of-the-pack in their potential to restructure contracts to increase cap space:


With “simple restructures” of existing contracts (squares in centers of lines above – converting payments into prorated signing bonuses within the length of the contract, which does not affect the player and thus can be done without consent), they could get up to $51.8M of cap space. The maximum restructure (diamonds in diagram above) they could get would produce $83.9M of cap space. These involve either adding void years or extending the contract, which require the player’s consent.

What Schoen does depends on how hot he feels his seat to be.

Looking at the rest of the division, the Eagles’ cap space is a little less than the Giants’, but their restructure potential is much less, because Howie Roseman is already performing just about all the cap magic he can (see how close the diamond is to the square). Dallas is already $7M over the cap, but they have about as much potential as the Giants to get to a much better place with restructures.

Washington at first glance looks to be in admirable shape, with lots of cap space and considerable restructure potential. That’s somewhat misleading, though. The Commanders only have 46 players under contract at the moment. That’s because many of the headline free agents they signed last year were to cheap 1-year contracts. After reaching the NFC Championship Game, those players may be looking for a more lucrative payday. Even if they were re-signed to the same 1-year contracts that they played under in 2024, that would use up about half of Washington’s cap space. GM Adam Peters was willing to add $18.6M in void year costs to sign the multi-year free agents he brought in. As the chart above shows, he can create significant cap space by extending some of these players if he chooses.

A lot depends on how much cash Mara and Tisch allow Schoen to spend in 2025. Per Spotrac, the Giants were 28th in cash spending in 2022 ($198M), 9th in 2023 ($267M), and 22nd in 2024 ($267M). Notably, 2023 was the only one of those years in which (as Schoen more or less admits) they were going for it rather than just rebuilding. By comparison, the Eagles spent $329M in 2024, third most in the NFL. At the moment, the Giants are committed to only $151M cash spending in 2025, second lowest in the NFL. By the middle of March, we’ll have a better idea of whether this team is going to be more like the Dodgers or the West Sacramento Athletics in its approach to competing for a title.

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Articles

Deadspin

On the defense: Travis Hunter to work out as DB at combine

Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, who starred at Colorado at both cornerback and wide receiver, will work out with the defensive backs at the NFL Scouting Combine, which begins later this month.

Hunter’s name was among the list of 329 prospects invited to the attend the combine, which runs from Feb. 24-March 3.

As a wide receiver, he caught 96 passes for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns, plus a rushing touchdown. As a cornerback, the All-American and national Player of the Year had 36 tackles, 11 pass breakups and four interceptions in 13 games.

While Hunter, 21, has expressed an interest in playing both position in the NFL, scouts generally see him as a cornerback.

In recent mock drafts, NFL.com projects the New York Giants to select Hunter with the No. 3 overall pick, while Pro Football Focus sends him to the Cleveland Browns with the No. 2 pick.

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