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Daily Slop – 17 May 25 – Feature video focuses on Frankie Luvu, his Samoan culture, his family and the NFL

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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, the NFL and sports in general, and a sprinkling of other stuff

Commanders links

Articles

Sports Illustrated

Trading for Deebo Samuel was just step one for the Commanders

The Commanders packaged three picks to acquire All-Pro wide receiver Deebo Samuel and elite left tackle Laremy Tunsil—two additions expected to immediately impact the offense unit.

But for Quinn, the offseason wasn’t just about landing top talent—it was about reinforcing the team’s identity of brotherhood.

“Adding those guys into the team—what does that look like? How are they connecting with teammates? That’s what the offseason is about,” he said. “We’ve been off to a good start putting this crew together. It’s a very, very competitive group.”

As for how Samuel will be used, fans can expect offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury to find creative ways to showcase his versatility—but not necessarily in the same role he played in San Francisco.

“Similar, but I wouldn’t say the same,” Quinn said when asked if Samuel would line up in the backfield. “That’s kind of what’s fun about it. You find these unique things that a player has—and man, does he have them.”

Riggo’s Rag

NFL may have handed Dan Quinn a golden runway to Coach of the Year

Let’s suppose that in Washington’s first 13 games, the team goes 8-5 or 9-4, or perhaps even 10-3. If the Commanders won out from there, they would enter the playoffs as arguably the NFL’s most dangerous team. They would have beaten the Eagles twice, including on their home turf, and would almost certainly be NFC East champions.

For Quinn, who missed out on winning NFL Coach of the Year honors in 2024 despite his team’s improbable playoff surge, it would be a shot at redemption.

Taking a team from the basement to contention is hard enough. Taking that next step forward into being a legitimate Super Bowl favorite is arguably even harder, especially when the team with the target on its back is in your division.

If the Commanders can make a statement down the stretch by sweeping their rivals up north and entering the 2025 playoffs as the class of the NFC East — perhaps even the conference’s No. 1 seed — there’s no doubt that Quinn would be considered a heavy favorite to win the award.

The 51st

D.C. pole vaulters and skateboarders hope they aren’t forgotten in push for new Commanders stadium

A world-class pole vaulting facility and skate park could be replaced by new bars and restaurants.

But RFK isn’t completely empty: A world-class pole vaulting facility and community skate park are still used every day.

This active community of athletes is now facing an uncertain future, as the parcel of land they sit on could soon be replaced by what would become the stadium’s Plaza District.

Neither are yet in panic mode about any impending evictions, but they are fighting to make sure they’re not left out of the conversation on the future of RFK.

“This is prime real estate. It’s a no-brainer: there’s no way they’re going to let us stay here,” says Edward Luthy, who developed the pole vaulting facility. “But we want to continue saying, ‘Hey, don’t forget, we want a toehold somewhere if we can have it.’”

A pole vaulting paradise

You can be forgiven for not knowing there is a pole vaulting training and competition facility in D.C.; I certainly didn’t until recently. But to simply say it exists is to undersell Luthy’s single-minded effort to create it – and the long list of records, championships, and elite athletes it has produced.

[Edward Luthy built] his dream pole vaulting facility in the shadow of RFK, investing more than $100,000 of his own money to buy top-shelf equipment (each pole, and there are dozens, can cost close to $1,000) to create what he says is one of the only stand-alone pole vaulting centers in the country that is certified by World Athletics for national and international competition. (On June 27-28, it is hosting a Pole Vault Championships.)

“I basically designed the facility to handle everything from six-year-olds through Olympic-level athletes,” he says. “We try to make it really engaging for all of them.”

Podcasts & videos

Frankie Luvu’s Journey: From American Samoa to NFL Stardom

Panthers.com
published March 2021

Signing with a heavy heart

Signing an NFL contract should be a time of great celebration for any player.

But for new Panthers linebacker Frankie Luvu, the only thing he could muster was that his news offered a brief moment of happiness for his parents, a small glimmer of joy in a time of deep sadness for their entire family.

Luvu came into the Panthers’ facility Tuesday dressed casually but wearing a reminder of the man he could never forget. The 24-year-old linebacker had a large button pinned to his shirt which read: “Rest in Jesus — Till We Meet Again. Frazier Luvu. Sunrise July 9, 1986, Sunset March 6, 2021.”

Frazier was the oldest of Veresa and Faaloiloia Luvu’s eight children. Frankie is the youngest.

Frankie recalled being with his brother the week before his death, speaking slowly but plainly about the grief.

“I’ve lost teammates, I’ve lost an uncle, but losing a brother that I looked up to and molded myself to be like, everything he did I wanted to imitate, . . . It was hard, it was really hard,” Luvu said. “I was in Arizona when it happened, I was by myself, I didn’t have any family around me, I was out there for training.

“It was really hard, I didn’t work out, I didn’t feel like eating, I felt stuck.”

Luvu explained that his brother took his own life, a shattering bit of news he was still processing, and which made his joining a new team more difficult to enjoy.

“Yeah, it’s hard talking about it now,” he said. “Just knowing he’s not going to be here is hard. At the end of the day, I want to make him proud.”

Photos

NFC East links

Bleeding Green Nation

5 Eagles games I’m most looking forward to in 2025

Eagles @ Washington Commanders, Northwest Stadium – TBD, Week 16

Yep, the NFC Championship Game rematch is No. 4 on my list. Before I discuss this game, a quick word about the schedule makers.

They’re sniffing glue.

Why on earth are these two teams playing twice in three weeks, and in the final three weeks of the season to boot? I know the NFL wants to have as many key intra-divisional games in Week 18 as possible, but the vast majority of the time at least one of the teams playing has nothing to play for in the final week of the season, so it’s more likely than not that the second of these two games will be without consequence. What a waste.

That said, the Week 16 game in DC will almost certainly have tremendous importance. It could decide the division. I’m not convinced the Commanders will be as good as they were last season, there’s a non-zero chance their 2024 run was just a Robert Griffin-like, one-season blitz, but I don’t think so. Daniels is for real, and if he’s healthy, the Commanders will be a force to be reckoned with.

Big Blue View

New York Giants projected to go 5-12 by pair of statistical models

That is better than 3-14, but not by a lot

Whether you look at it by opponents’ 2025 winning percentage or by opponents’ expected 2025 win totals, the New York Giants face the most punishing schedule in the NFL during the upcoming season.

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” GM Joe Schoen said on the ‘Up & Adams’ Show.

So, how many games can the Giants, with a revamped defense and an overhauled quarterback room, be expected to win after going just 3-14 a season ago?

Our post-schedule release prediction was a generous 7-10. A majority of voters in our poll are expecting a six-to-eight-win season.

The FanDuel over/under of 5.5 victories has not budged since the schedule release.

Now, NFL Network analytics expert Cynthia Frelund is out with her simulated projection of the 2025 season. After running every game one million times, Frelund came up with a projected 5.4 victories for the Giants. She writes:

Trying to win at Washington (in Week 1) and hosting Kansas City (on Sunday Night Football in Week 3) in the first three weeks of the season is tough in itself. That becomes a much tougher ask if rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart ends up being the team’s starter. The Giants’ schedule is punishing overall and especially so midway through the campaign, with back-to-back road games in Denver (Week 7) and Philadelphia (Week 8) and home games against San Francisco (Week 9) and Green Bay (Week 11) sandwiched around a trip to Chicago. The difficult sequence finally ends in Detroit in Week 12.

The Athletic came up with 5.5 victories for the Giants in their season simulation. The Athletic gives the Giants a 4.7% chance of reaching the playoffs. The Browns (3.6%) are the only team with worse odds.

If I had to do it over again, I might revise my season prediction down to 6-11.

NFL league links

Articles

Card Player

Matthew Judon Exclusive: Pro Bowler Talks Sack Luck, NFL Future

Pass-Rusher Ready For Big Season Wherever He Plays

While it was the four-time Pro Bowler’s lowest per-game sack production since his rookie year, Judon is adamant the fall-off didn’t have to do with luck or age.

Judon said his role was different with the Falcons compared to previous years.

“Hell naw, (it wasn’t bad luck),” Judon said in an exclusive interview with Card Player. “If you go look at the film, I dropped (into coverage) on 60 percent of the plays. It’s hard to get a pick and a sack on the same play.”

Judon is one of the biggest names still available in free agency.

While he may not be a Defensive Player of the Year candidate like at his peak, the 32-year-old believes there is still gas left in the tank.

“I think I can still [play],” Judon said. “But that’s not up to me. I’m not a GM making that decision. I just have to be ready if and when my name is called.”

Judon said “a couple” teams have expressed interest, but he’s in no hurry to sign.

“I really haven’t gone to OTAs or minicamps since year 2 in the league,” Judon said. “Right now I’m just weighing the options, chilling and enjoying my family.”

Pro Football Talk

Brock Purdy’s contract has a true average from signing of $45 million per year

For 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, his new contract — leaked at 5:00 p.m. ET on a Friday, where bad news usually goes to die — has a best-case number of $265 million over five years. That’s a new-money average of $53 million per year, tying him for seventh with Lions quarterback Jared Goff.

But it’s not a five-year extension that kicks in come 2026. His remaining contract, with $5.346 million in salary for 2025, gets torn up and replaced with a six-year, $279.346 million contract. That’s a per-year average from signing of $45.057 million.

Which seems more than fair for a middle-of-the-pack quarterback. And it’s OK to call him that. He’s not among the top five. It’s a stretch to put him in the top 10. For the last pick in the 2022 draft, there’s no shame in being roughly the 16th best quarterback in the entire NFL.

In time, we’ll know much more about the true value of the deal. The key factors are these: (1) signing bonus; (2) full guarantee at signing; and (3) cash flow over the first three years.

The structure of the deal also will show whether the 49ers are tied to the contract for one, two, or three years. (Teams rarely commit fully to more than three years of any non-rookie contract — except for the Browns.)

Discussion topics

There are two organizations that — to me — look exhausted: Kansas City and Detroit.

The Chiefs just put their heart and soul into the three-peat and failed brutally on the biggest stage. And while I think there’s a big-brother complex where Andy Reid lords over both Sean McDermott and John Harbaugh, I don’t think that’s true of Sean Payton, who will bump a fatigued Reid, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce out of the offseason.

For the Lions, they just seem to be on a downward trend. Their two 2024 coordinators are now head coaches (Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn). It seems as if they’ll never fix their secondary issues. And now, without Johnson, I wonder if the super-powered offense might experience some vulnerability, particularly as teams league-wide bulk up to stop the trendy, run-heavy offenses.

J.J. McCarthy’s season might look like a poor man’s version of what Jayden Daniels did last year. McCarthy will be coming back from an ACL injury, which can slow a player down in the early days. But Minnesota has the supporting cast to lift its young QB. By the postseason, I think this offense will be humming. But … not at the level of the Commanders, whose offseason additions will help prevent a sophomore slump for Daniels. He’ll return to the NFC Championship Game.

All aTwitter