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Daily Slop – 16 Jun 24 – Articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch

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NFL: APR 27 2023 Draft
Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

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

Commanders.com

Jeremy Chinn is all in on Washington’s new defensive philosophy

The Washington Commanders were not the only team interested in Jeremy Chinn’s services. He had other offers on the table, and according to him, they were at least a little more lucrative from a financial standpoint.

Chinn turned them down in favor of joining the Commanders, though, because of the opportunities he could have in the DMV.

“Just the situation here with Dan Quinn (defensive coordinator), Joe Whitt (Jr.), and (defensive pass game coordinator (Jason Simmons) and TD (secondary coach Tom Donatell), this is where I’m supposed to be, man,” Chinn said on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “I know this is where I’m supposed to be.”

Chinn, the 2020 runner-up for Defensive Rookie of the Year, has made it clear that he wants to be in Washington and part of the franchise’s new era. While he has never played for Quinn or Whitt in his NFL career, observations from afar convinced him that they were the ones who could get the most out of his skill set. The past two months have lived up to all of Chinn’s expectations.

“It’s been more than I could imagine or ask for,” Chinn said. “Just the places that he [Quinn] has been, from Seattle to Dallas and Atlanta, just seeing his defenses thrive and how people have played in those defenses.”

Commanders.com

Three big observations from Washington’s offseason practices

Skill players are going to move around a lot.

We don’t know much about the system offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury is bringing to Washington. He said in February that he wouldn’t call it an “Air Raid” scheme, although it’s logical to assume there will be some similarities. One thing we do know is that players are going to be moved around…a lot.

“You’re going to see me all over the field,” said running back Austin Ekeler.

It’s clear why the Commanders were so interested in Ekeler, who has 69 total touchdowns as a runner and receiver. He offers an excess of versatility, and the Commanders are eager to use it. He told reporters June 12 that he’s been used all over the field, from the backfield to the slot, out wide and on the edge. Ekeler views himself as a “Swiss Army knife,” and he knows he’s going to get the job done, regardless of how he is used.

Terry McLaurin has also noticed some “positionless” aspects of Kingsbury’s offense. He could technically have several assignments depending on the hash and formation.

“You’ve got to really learn the entire concept and know where you’re at on the field, which I think makes everybody smarter players,” McLaurin said. “You don’t pigeonhole yourself … You get in two-minutes [drills], you’re the ‘Z,’ now you’ve got to know what to do. You may have the clearout route, or you may have the backside dig. You’ve got to know what you’re doing.”

Sports Illustrated

Washington Commanders WR Jahan Dotson ‘Soaking It All In’ During Transition Period

Washington Commanders receiver Jahan Dotson didn’t have the sophomore season he expected, but that isn’t detering him from attacking his third season with great energy.

While Dotson’s targets went up 22 and his receptions increased by 14 his yardage output went down, yards per reception dropped to just 10.6 and his touchdown production reduced by three over his rookie season in Washington. All despite playing in five more games and staying relatively healthier in his second year.

All of that, and the impact of last season on everyone, has led to a fresh start for Dotson and his teammates and a new perspective for the player himself.

Going through last year, I feel like as you go through the highs – this goes for life itself – when you go through the highs in life, everything can feel like you’re on top of the world, but when you get to go through some lows and go through some adversity, you really find out a lot about yourself and you really get to find out who you are inside,” Dotson said. “I’m a guy who wants to just go at it that much harder when things aren’t going my way. Things didn’t go my way last year. I didn’t have the year I wanted, so I went it in the off-season and I’m trying to just be better than I was last year.”

Specifically, Dotson wants to get better after the catch. Gaining yards after the catch is a valuable way for receivers to make an impact that goes beyond their hands and really displays their athletic ability.

Podcasts & videos

Logan Paulsen Talks Commanders OTA’s Are INSANELY Different

NFC East links

Bleeding Green Nation

Report: Jalen Hurts’ handling of Nick Sirianni question “disappointed several key figures” in the Eagles’ organization

So, not a total non-issue by the team’s standards.

Hurts’ comments might not be worth the full extent of attention they’ve been generating, at least locally. But the responses can also be more than a total non-issue.

On the latter point, check out the following section from Jeff McLane’s latest “unCovering the Birds” podcast for the Inquirer (bold emphasis is mine):

“It was, needless to say, an awkward exchange. Hurts was given the opportunity to say something constructive about his coach … and ended up not saying much at all. Maybe he misunderstood the question? I don’t want to make too much of the moment.

But if Hurts has shown anything during his time in Philadelphia, it’s that he’s intentional in almost everything he does.

According to team sources, his handling of this question about Sirianni right before the Eagles parted before the summer disappointed several key figures within the organization.”

So, it’s not just like people are trying to make something out of a total nothing-burger here. Apparently there’s a sentiment within the team that Hurts could’ve handled this situation better than he did.

Blogging the Boys

Dallas Cowboys and the Cooper Rush conundrum

Where do you think Cooper Rush will wind up on the depth chart?

The need to use training camp to prepare for the upcoming 2024 NFL season means Dak Prescott will command the majority, if not all, of the starting reps in Oxnard. Once the preseason games come along, Dallas will want to utilize those snaps to see what they have in Trey Lance. So, where exactly does Cooper Rush fit in?

The Cowboys already know what they have in Cooper Rush and what he’s capable of if/when he is needed. He’s served as Dak Prescott’s primary backup for years now and knows how to prepare for the life of a QB2. And, considering the personnel and system are the same as a year ago, any practice time he needs to get up to speed should be minimal.

Sadly though, all of that could also be his undoing. When Dak isn’t on the field in practice or preseason, it’s more likely than not going to be the Trey Lance show. Dallas is going to give him every opportunity to showcase his talent in the hopes of either facilitating a trade to a QB needy team or justify potentially keeping him around for future purposes.

There are those who believe there could be a QB2 position battle between Lance and Rush, but if there is it’s one that looks as if it’s pretty one-sided in favor of No. 19. Being pretty much a complete mystery, but one packed with undeniable intrigue, Lance’s upside as a QB prospect simply demands more attention right now.

NFL league links

Articles

The Athletic (paywall)

NFL 2024 over/under win totals: Best bets and predictions for all 32 teams

Washington Commanders

Under 6.5 (Even)

If Bobby Wagner and Ekeler are two of your big free-agent signings, it’s hard to do cartwheels over a team’s chances of winning seven games. Drafting Jayden Daniels might be something to get excited about down the road, but there are going to be some growing pains this year. There is also a question if his slender body can hold up to the punishment of the NFL when he takes off running. And run he will, as this offensive line is still not very good. There are also a lot of holes on defense, but that’s OK as the new regime has plenty of time to rebuild the roster. Don’t back a team full of placeholders.

Front Office Sports

Pro Football Focus’s Dysfunction Comes at the Worst Possible Time

  • New technologies are threatening PFF’s vaunted player evaluation system.
  • The company has been beset by turmoil and mismanagement in recent years, sources say.

On the surface, Pro Football Focus has it good. The Cincinnati-based football analytics company, under celebrity owner Cris Collinsworth, counts every NFL team as a customer. It charges each of them $150,000 annually for its services, including its golden ticket: a proprietary, labor-intensive player-grading system.

More than 150 college and minor league teams are PFF clients, bringing in millions more in annual revenue.

Riding high from its ubiquitous grading system and respect for its products inside the football industry, PFF sold a $50 million stake to private equity titan Silver Lake in 2021. The deal valued Collinsworth’s company at $160 million, and the broadcaster tapped George Chahrouri to build out a consumer product to match its vaunted business-to-business, well, business.

Instead, Chahrouri’s two-year tenure was a complete disaster. The years since 2022 have seen an exodus of talent, and the private equity war chest is nearly spent with little but a new iPhone app to show for it. Chahrouri was quietly fired earlier this year, a move that seemingly came out of the blue but one that was a relief to many of those who worked under him.

“It was long overdue,” one former PFF staffer told Front Office Sports on condition of anonymity.

“George was incredible at convincing people like Cris Collinsworth that he could help make them a billion-dollar company,” one former employee says. “He was next-level terrible at managing people below him.”

The loss of top-level talent under Chahrouri is only one threat to the football giant’s current chokehold on the player evaluation business. Outside PFF’s walls, automated player tracking and machine learning are creating cheaper alternatives, or even opening the door to teams developing better systems in-house. (Think of how rapid advances in video cameras and ball-tracking technology led to a new era of baseball analysis.)

“Some [NFL] teams are already looking for an alternative,” one source told FOS. “PFF doesn’t seem to realize that there are competitors out there. At first blush, PFF seems to be in a good position. As the incumbent company, they have good relationships with teams and are responsive to their needs. But PFF has lost so much talent that they may not be able to outcompete.”

The NFL’s Next Gen Stats, available to teams and the league’s broadcast partners, lack the granular grading data provided by PFF—for now. But every NFL player has two sensors embedded in their shoulder pads tracking their movements, and there are sensors in the balls as well. The league is implementing optical tracking for first downs this preseason with the strong possibility the system could be used in the regular season. Amazon’s “Prime Vision” on its Thursday night broadcasts have shown a tantalizing future for football analytics. Broadcasts last year correctly predicted when non-linemen would blitz and highlighted open receivers much faster than a typical broadcast, for example.

Each NFL team has access to the raw data from Next Gen Stats, which include precise player positioning, speed, and other information. Teams can get the NFL’s approval to share that data with third-party firms that can input that data into their AI models; how that compares to PFF’s very analog process is still an open question. AI models have to be trained on how to tell, for example, if a team is in a certain formation based on the player sensor data. Then comes a bigger hurdle to match what PFF does best: evaluating players individually, which still has a margin of error even for PFF.

All a’Twitter