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Daily Slop – 19 Jun 24: One-on-one with 2nd round rookie corner Mikey Sainristil

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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

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Sports Illustrated

Washington Commanders Announce Training Camp Dates and Fan Attendance Details

We now know when fans will be able to see the Washington Commanders in person during training camp.

On Tuesday, the Commanders announced seven total dates that fans will be in attendance during training camp with five of those being open to the general public and two set aside specifically for season ticket groups.

Three dates are in July including ‘Back Together Weekend’ which Washington will host with fans on Sunday July 28th. ‘Salute Day’ is July 29th, and the first season ticket exclusive date takes place on July 30th.

In August, fans can attend practices on the 2nd, 4th, and 6th of the month, and season ticket holders will have another exclusive opportunity on the 1st.

August 6th will be the final practice any fans are able to attend this season.

With the NFC having an extra home game this season compared to the AFC those teams will have to travel twice during the preseason. The Commanders drew road games against the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets, and will also participate in joint practice with each team cutting into the amount of training camp days the group will spend in Ashburn, Virginia at the team facility.

Washington Post (paywall)

Commanders reach $1.3 million settlement with Virginia attorney general

The deal resolves allegations that the team improperly withheld deposits from season ticket holders under Daniel Snyder, who is responsible for paying the fines.

The office of Virginia Attorney General Jason S. Miyares (R) reached a $1.3 million settlement with the Washington Commanders over allegations that the team improperly withheld deposits from season ticket holders under the ownership of Daniel Snyder, Miyares announced Tuesday.

The Commanders previously reached settlements with the consumer protection division of the Maryland attorney general’s office and with the D.C. attorney general’s office over similar allegations.

“I am pleased that we were able to reach a fair and reasonable agreement with the Washington Commanders that requires restitution of unlawfully retained security deposits to consumers,” Miyares said in a statement. “Our investigation found that the Commanders’ prior ownership unlawfully retained security deposits for years after they should have been returned to consumers. I thank the team’s current ownership for cooperating with this investigation, and for working towards rectifying the consumer harm we identified.”

According to Miyares’s office, the Commanders have returned more than $600,000 in deposits to approximately 475 season ticket holders. The team agreed to pay $600,000 in civil penalties and $100,000 in costs to resolve the investigation, Miyares’s office said.

Snyder is responsible for paying the fines associated with the settlement, according to a person familiar with the matter.

ESPN

Commanders to pay $1.3M to settle Va. season-ticket deposit probe

“This was a problem the current ownership did not create, they inherited it, but I appreciate the fact that they were willing to talk and get it resolved rather than going through what would’ve been probably several years of litigation,” Miyares said. “It was clear from our perspective that so many of the season-ticket holders were just treated as a commodity. Nothing surprises us anymore, but this was a pretty blatant act for sure.”

A team spokesperson said, “We are pleased that this settlement has been reached resolving issues that occurred under prior ownership.”

According to a release, the investigation found that Washington “unlawfully retained significant sums of security deposits, often imposing additional conditions on consumers seeking refunds.” It also found that in 2014 the team sent approximately 650 form letters to former season-ticket holders who had unrefunded security deposits. But, according to the report, Washington failed to “remit a single unclaimed security deposit to a state unclaimed property office, including to the Virginia Department of the Treasury, until at least 2023.”

The Commanders must try to refund all remaining security deposits on dormant accounts or remit them to state unclaimed property departments in accordance with state law. The Commanders must refund security deposits on file within 30 days of when the contract expires.

Commanders Wire

Breer believes Commanders’ free-agent class already paying dividends

Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated thinks the Commanders’ offseason spending was money well spent.

The Washington Commanders’ massive free-agent haul paid dividends in the spring. One thing a new coach can see over his first few months is how players are buying in and carrying the flag for the program he’s trying to put in.

And having been in that position before with the Atlanta Falcons, new Commanders coach Dan Quinn arrived in D.C. knowing that he’d need some flag-bearers for what he was trying to build. It’s a big reason why Washington went for volume in free agency—bringing in a massive number of players from across the NFL whom he and new GM Adam Peters saw as fits for what they’ll be trying to build over the next few years.

So far, so good.

Quinn saw it in the spring in the details on tape—in how players were finishing plays downfield, how they were going after the ball on defense and how the three new phases were being installed (the coaches tried to take their time and be deliberate with that).

The two guys in particular who really showed up in that regard were Bobby Wagner and Zach Ertz, who have a combined 23 years of NFL experience and have both won a Super Bowl. Quinn had Wagner in Seattle a decade ago, so he knew exactly what he was getting from the six-time All-Pro. And Quinn’s offensive coordinator, Kliff Kingsbury, had Ertz for a season and a half in Arizona, so Washington wasn’t guessing about him, either. Both helped to set a standard and install the coaches’ systems.

Quinn was pleased with Washington’s offseason work. He praised the players and coaches and feels the Commanders are in a good spot heading into training camp next month.

Commanders.com

Inside Luke McCaffrey’s switch to wide receiver

Luke McCaffrey was about halfway through his college career when he began having a moment of self-reflection.

McCaffrey, who played for Nebraska during his freshman and sophomore seasons, was on a fine path as a quarterback. He played eight games during the 2020 season, including two starts under center, completing 48-of-76 passes for 466 yards with 364 rushing yards and four total touchdowns. He transferred to Rice in 2021, and had he stayed at quarterback, there was a chance he could have been the Owls’ starter in due time.

But McCaffrey wanted to do things on the field that weren’t always feasible for his position. He wanted to hit people and make plays all over, not just from the pocket. Having that kind of impact required a position change, and since Rice had a need at wide receiver, McCaffrey’s coaches decided to give him a shot.

it would have been hard to predict that Luke would end up being an instant fit in his new position. He caught 58 passes for 723 yards and six touchdowns in 2022, leading the team in all-purpose yards. The next season, he improved on his stats even further, ranking fourth in the AAC in catches and fifth in yards. He grabbed 13 touchdowns, which ranks fifth all-time at Rice and is tied for eighth most in conference history.

Podcasts & videos

Mike Sainristil: “I Am Who I Say I Am” | Raising Hail with the Rookies | Washington Commanders

NFC East links

Blogging the Boys

Cowboys sign former 1st-round pick, cornerback Gareon Conley

The Dallas Cowboys signed a cornerback in free agency, but it wasn’t the one most fans have been wanting. The franchise signed Gareon Conley, not Stephon Gilmore, to bolster their defensive back room. Obviously Conley is not on the level of Gilmore, but the team bringing in another veteran at this time is a smart move,

With Trevon Diggs coming back from an ACL, Dallas may need some help early in the year. They drafted Caelen Carson who is a promising rookie, and they return starters DaRon Bland and Jourdan Lewis. Conley gives them another option of a guy who has experience starting in the NFL. He was once a first-round pick, but his days in Oakland didn’t work out. and he then played for the Texans. Bobby Belt noted that the Cowboys had interest in Conley during the draft but took Taco Charlton instead. Most recently he spent a season in the UFL.

Big Blue View

Giants add depth to their RB position with top UFL rusher

Jacob Saylors signed after productive season with St. Louis Battlehawks

The New York Giants signed running back Jacob Saylors to their roster. Saylors was undrafted in 2023 out of East Tennessee State and spent the 2023 offseason with the Cincinnati Bengals. He received nine carries last preseason and turned that into 27 yards (3.0 yards per carry).

After failing to earn regular-season snaps in the NFL, Saylors went to the UFL, where he started for the St. Louis Battlehawks. He rushed for 458 yards (4.8 yards per carry) and five touchdowns in nine games this season. He also caught 23 of 33 passes for 152 yards with three touchdowns.

Saylors earned All-UFL honors in 2024 and leveraged that success into an NFL opportunity. He visited and worked out for the Giants last week and will now have an outside chance to compete for a role with the team.

NFL league links

Articles

Pro Football Talk

Presiding judge threatens to dismiss Sunday Ticket case, again

The Sunday Ticket class action was dismissed after it was filed. It might be dismissed again.

As explained by Joe Reedy of the Associated Press, Tuesday’s proceedings included an open-court exchange (without the jury present) between the judge and the lawyers regarding the manner in which the case has been tried.

And Judge Phillip Gutierrez isn’t a fan of the way the plaintiffs’ lawyers are going about their business.

“The way you have tried this case is far from simple,” Gutierrez told the lawyer representing the plaintiffs. “This case has turned into 25 hours of depositions and gobbledygook. . . . This case has gone in a direction it shouldn’t have gone.”

“I’m struggling with the plaintiffs’ case,” Judge Gutierrez said.

That said, judges rarely scrap the efforts of a jury this deep into the trial. Judge Gutierrez might have been simply trying to get the lawyers representing the plaintiffs to move things along more quickly than they have.

Front Office Sports

Roger Goodell Rips ‘Below Standard’ NFL Network Broadcasts in Trial Testimony

Goodell said one of the reasons the league sold its Thursday night games that were previously exclusive to NFL Network was because of the broadcast quality.

NFL Network exclusively had the Thursday night games from 2006 to ’13 before splitting time between CBS and NBC for the following three years. Fox had the rights for the next five seasons starting in ’17 before Amazon Prime Video took over in ’22.

“I had my own opinion that our production was below standards that the networks had set,” he testified Monday, referring to CBS and Fox. “We had not met that standard.”

The NFL Network’s inaugural broadcast crew in 2006 of Bryant Gumbel, Cris Collinsworth, and Dick Vermeil never made magic from the booth, and Gumbel was subjected to heavy criticism for his play-by-play skills. He lasted on the job for only two seasons. Collinsworth has since become a staple on NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcasts as the color analyst alongside Mike Tirico.

Michael McCarthy, Front Office Sports’ media columnist, shared Goodell’s analysis. “Goodell has a point,” he said. “Despite being a sports TV legend, Bryant Gumbel was disappointing as TNF’s first play-by-play announcer. Over subsequent seasons, NFLN employed a hodgepodge of rotating announcers and analysts. But NFLN games never matched the crisp quality of games produced by broadcast networks like CBS, Fox, and NBC, which have televised NFL games for decades.”

Goodell might be rid of the NFL Network for good in the coming months. In May, it was reported that the NFL could invest a minority stake in ESPN in exchange for the broadcast giant taking over NFL Network.

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