Daily Slop – 2 Sep 24: The ‘24 season features a special Friday game in Brazil with the Eagles hosting the Packers

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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Articles

Riggo’s Rag

Noah Brown wants to help the Commanders in various ways

Quinn should have a good indication of how to keep Brown engaged. The former Ohio State star wasted no time in making his intentions clear, outlining his willingness to help in the passing game and anything else that might be required when speaking to the media following his arrival.

“I’m familiar with some faces in the building. Faces are familiar with me. They know what I’m about and what I can bring to this team. I feel like it’s a good opportunity for me to come help the program and I’m excited to be here. I think I bring a little bit of everything when it comes to the offensive mindset. I’m a very viable pass option. I can block in the blocking game. I’ve got experience in the special teams game and I’m willing to do all of it. So I’m just ready to go.”

– Noah Brown

Brown’s got the physical stature and proven production in flashes to become impactful in Kliff Kingsbury’s schematic concepts. It might take time to learn the system’s intricacies, but he’s an experienced figure who should take another different environment in his stride.

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The Athletic (paywall)

Northwest Stadium guide: What to know about the Washington Commanders’ home field

In 2024, signs are pointing to a revival at the newly renamed Northwest Stadium.

Not because of the generic aesthetics, mind you, though the organization announced in February a $75 million investment to upgrade the 28-year-old building after years of neglect by the previous regime. With rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and the first-year combination of general manager Adam Peters and head coach Dan Quinn overseeing a rebuild, sincere excitement is back on the menu after two decades of mostly dark clouds.

That trio won’t patch over flaws with the aging stadium or convince large swaths of the fan base to quiet their advocating for a new rebrand (though the stadium gets one with an eight-year naming rights deal with Northwest Federal Credit Union). But they should help bring back the ticket-buying burgundy and gold masses. After seeing visiting fans invade for years, an atmospheric upgrade is welcome.

Northwest Stadium, formerly FedExField/Commanders Field, ranked last in the NFL in our 2023 rankings. “It’s old but not revered,” Standig wrote. “The basic amenities are outdated for this 21st-century world. With the locals choosing to stay away in recent years amid the losing/non-contending and ownership embarrassment, cheers from hordes of visiting fans often dominate the atmosphere.”

Changes to the food and drinking options — the fare and the in/out time — are among the biggest upgrades for 2024. Expect the usual stadium offerings with hamburgers and hot dogs, but also shrimp and crab egg rolls, BBQ and an array of desserts on the suite and club level. There are also new markets throughout the main concourse with frictionless exit points as fans can walk in, flash a credit card, grab what they want and get charged without waiting in lines.

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Commanders Wire

Charles Leno’s wife roasts Eric Bieniemy

That pretty much sums up Washington’s 2023 offense. So much of the Commanders’ lack of offensive success was unfairly blamed on quarterback Sam Howell or the offensive line. While the entire offense struggled, the structural issues, namely refusing to run the ball, fell at the feet of Bieniemy.

After the season, several veteran Washington players, including Leno, right guard Sam Cosmi and tight end Sam Cosmi, shared their frustrations.

In case you were wondering, the Bruins passed the ball 38 times, with quarterback Ethan Garbers completing just 50% of his passing attempts and ran the ball only 20 times — in the three-point win over Hawaii.

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Podcasts & videos

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NFC East links

NFL.com

Mike Zimmer on one motivation for return as Cowboys DC: ‘Don’t want people thinking I was a lousy coach’

“Part of the reason for coming back is I have to do this for me because I don’t want people thinking I was a lousy coach,” Zimmer told Mark Craig of the Minnesota Star Tribune. “Somebody told me, ‘You don’t have anything to prove after Minnesota,’ but I felt like I did.”

[T]hings ended there for a reason, namely a defense that plummeted to the bottom third of the league in Zimmer’s final two sub-.500 seasons and an authoritative approach with diminishing returns.

Zimmer, who said he didn’t address the team after his dismissal because they got him fired, also hasn’t watched a Minnesota game since.

Under Dan Quinn, now the Commanders’ head coach, the [Cowboys defense] ranked ranked fifth in points allowed for two consecutive campaigns after placing seventh the first year he came on board.

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Pro Football Talk

Nick Sirianni tries to get all Eagles to embrace Brazil game

Sirianni told reporters. “You can control the things that you can control. Like, we’re going to Brazil to play. That’s what it is. We’re excited about that.”

Are they, though?

“We’re excited about the opportunity to play in a neutral site and have a slightly different schedule of things that happen.” Sirianni said.

Are they, though?

“Like you have a big bye, like a mini bye, coming off of it. So, there are a lot of positives in it. It’s also to spread the game to a new country, which is exciting,” Sirianni said.

Is it, though? I mean, it’s exciting for the owners to export the NFL to other countries. But are his players truly excited about starting their season by being the ambassadors of American football in South America? Especially with a nationwide ban on Twitter/X?

It’s going to be good for us to go play in a neutral site and handle the different things that pop up in the NFL. You play on a short week. Oh, this game got changed to that game. These are things you can’t control. What we can control is our effort, we can control our attitude, we can control our core values, and we’re going to focus on that this week.”

It sounds good, but it might be a hard sell to the locker room. No one else is starting the season so far from home. And their reward for returning from Brazil with a win (or a loss) will be simple and clear — get back to work.

[T]he Eagles get an extra day until their next game. Green Bay plays on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET; the Eagles face the Falcons on Monday night.

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Bleeding Green Nation

Vic Fangio Defense 101: Part 4 – Runs Fits and Pressure Looks

this defense is known for being complex. In particular, Fangio’s defense is known for using confusing terminology that can make things sound more complicated than they are. I wanted to study Fangio’s defense again and write a series of posts where I will attempt to simplify the Vic Fangio style defense, breaking it down into easy-to-understand parts.

Numerous writers have already written incredibly in-depth articles on Fangio’s defense. I have learned the most from Honest NFL, Shawn Syed, and Cody Alexander (Match Quarters). I will frequently use their work in these articles, and I can’t thank them enough for their work and for teaching me the intricacies of Fangio’s defense.

However, while these accounts do a brilliant job explaining the intricacies of the Fangio defense, I think some of it can be too complicated or necessary for the fan who wants to understand the basics when watching the game on Sunday. Not everyone needs to analyze football, but understanding the schemes can make watching the game more enjoyable. So, my goal for this series is to simplify the Vic Fangio-style defense and break it down into easy-to-understand parts. Please read the articles in order so they make sense.

Previously: Previously: Part 1: The Basics / Part 2: MFO Coverages / Part 3: MFC Coverages

This will be the final one, so I hope you have enjoyed and found this study on Fangio interesting!

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Big Blue View

Are the Giants better in 2024? They’d better be

What Schoen and Daboll have to do is not crash and burn in 2024, not have another season dependent upon something as random as DeVito-mania to keep it from going completely off the rails, to prevent Mara and Tisch from entertaining the idea that they don’t have the right people making the football decisions.

“I have a lot of confidence in this particular team,” Mara said of Schoen and Daboll. “The communication is great, and I think we’ve added some good pieces. Now, it’s time to show.”

Maybe it isn’t about the playoffs, or a specific number of wins. Maybe it is about what it looks — and feels — like. It can’t look like it did in 2023.

• It can’t feature a 40-0 loss in Week 1. Especially not when the Giants will be going all-out to celebrate their 100th season, including throwback uniforms and honoring the top 100 players in franchise history, as voted by a panel of those familiar with the team.
• It can’t feature a 1-5 start in which they are outscored 167-71.
• It can’t feature a 2-8 record in the first 10 games that officially made it a miserable year, with only an unexpected few weeks of sunshine from Tommy DeVito salvaging a dark season.
• It can’t feature 85 sacks of their quarterback and a -141 point differential that was third-worst in the league.
• It can’t feature internal coaching staff discord and disrespectful disgusted tablet flips in the direction of the quarterback on national television.

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NFL league links

Articles

Front Office Sports

Disney Channels Including ESPN Yanked From DirecTV During US Open

DirecTV subscribers suddenly lost their Disney-owned channels Sunday evening just after 7pm EST, including ABC and ESPN, during the fourth round of US Open tennis on ESPN and just before the start of a USC-LSU college football game on ABC.

But it wasn’t sudden if they had been paying attention to the current carriage dispute between DirecTV and Disney. The distribution deal between the two was set to expire Sunday, and the two did not come to terms on a new deal in time for the deadline.

DirecTV customers in many markets are still able to watch ABC since those affiliates are owned by Sinclair, TEGNA, Scripps or other companies. But several of the largest TV markets—including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Houston—are out of luck since Disney owns those ABC affiliates.

Much of the enmity at the heart of the dispute between DirecTV and Disney comes from Disney’s participation in Venu, the joint-venture pay TV streaming bundle from Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery. DirecTV is no fan of Venu; Thun wrote in a recent blog post, “We disagree with Venu’s anti-competitive strategy.” FuboTV won a temporary injunction against Venu last month.

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