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Daily Slop – 23 Apr 25 – Ninety-minute deep-dive interview with Washington QB Marcus Mariota

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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

YardBarker

Commanders GM on draft: ‘We’re open to everything’

Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters readies for Thursday’s NFL Draft with a long-term path paved by short-term deals.

Peters has again used short free-agent deals for stopgap players to once more contend before giving way later to a youth movement. Peters is getting the best of both ends by winning while rebuilding.

Washington filled holes with offseason trades for Houston left tackle Laremy Tunsil and San Francisco receiver Deebo Samuel. Along with re-signing veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner and tight end Zach Ertz, Washington can choose those who help more in 2026 and 2027.

Peters’ view lets him draft the best player available rather than press up for players like predecessor Ron Rivera, who reached for linebacker Jamin Davis, receiver Jahan Dotson and cornerback Emmanuel Forbes in consecutive first rounds. All were busts and cut or traded last year.

Looking ahead has Peters getting ahead.

Washington Post (paywall)

Commanders ready for anything in a draft with ‘very little certainty’

The Commanders have five picks in this week’s draft, but GM Adam Peters said decision-makers ‘put ourselves in a really good position to not force something.’

“There’s guys that we know aren’t going to be there,” Peters said. “If they’re there, yeah, we’ll take them. But we’re fairly certain they’re not going to be there. This draft is interesting because there’s very little certainty after the first 10 picks or so — who’s going to go where and why, and what’s going to happen and all that. So we have to be ready for a lot of guys to fall to us or not fall to us.”

“I don’t think we have a philosophy of going premium positions in any round,” he said. “It’s really just trying to pick the best Commander that’s going to mean the most.”

“I don’t believe in being scared about trading with teams in your division,” Peters said. “If you feel the trade is a good value for you and you can get some good picks to help you get better, then we definitely consider it.”

ESPN

Looking at all the Commanders’ possibilities in 2025 NFL draft

Washington hasn’t made its first pick in Round 1 this low since 2002, when it traded down and ended up with the 32nd selection. But picking 29th with a quarterback in place provides comfort.

The Commanders’ improved depth means they don’t need a rookie end to be a three-down starter, but they have shown interest in multiple pass rushers such as Marshall’s Mike Green, Boston College’s Donovan Ezeiruaku, Texas A&M’s Nic Scourton and Shemar Stewart, Georgia’s Mykel Williams and UCLA’s Oluwafemi Oladejo. Some would be options at 29 — if available — while others could be potential choices later.

At the combine, Quinn said of qualities he wants in a pass rusher: “You have to have initial quickness; not a certain 40 speed but … how quickly can you get going?”

The Commanders drafted Mike Sainristil in the second round last spring, traded for Marshon Lattimore during the season and signed Jonathan Jones this offseason. Washington also re-signed Noah Igbinoghene.

But the Commanders need more — and they could use another cornerback with length whose best spot is outside.

If Washington goes [offensive line], it could improve its run blocking, which was a weakness all season, as well as protect Daniels. In the last seven games, including three in the postseason, Washington’s running backs ranked 29th in yards before first contact (1.76).

It also would provide the Commanders a potential starting five that could play together for perhaps the next four years, with center Tyler Biadasz and right guard Sam Cosmi.

The team only needs to look at divisional foe Philadelphia to see what a strong line can do for long-term success.

The Commanders have shown a lot of interest in various running backs throughout the draft process, from multi-down backs with speed, to power backs, to change-of-pace runners — and players available anywhere from the end of Round 1 and into possibly the late fourth, which is the more likely area for them to draft one.

Washington’s run game faltered down the stretch in 2024, with their running backs averaging just 3.1 yards per carry over the last four regular-season games.

Commanders.com

5 takeaways from Adam Peters, Lance Newmark’s pre-draft press conference

Character issues are a concern that gets brought up every year with draft prospects, and it’s something every team needs to address. And like everything else with the draft, figuring out whether the reports are real involves a lot of research.

“It really starts with the scouts,” Peters said. “They dig up anything they can to find out what makes each of these guys tick.”

“Character concerns” is a broad term that could mean several things. Most connect it with off-field issues, but there are football and learning aspects that go with it as well. That’s why the scouts search for any bit of information they can, whether it’s at prospects’ colleges or hometowns, to determine how much of it is real.

Everything, Peters said, is a case-by-case scenario, and reports of character concern might not always be accurate or dictate a player’s future. Peters gave an example of a time when he was part of San Francisco’s front office when they drafted a player with “character concerns.” That player turned out to be “one of the best players at his position, one of the best teammates I’ve ever seen, one of the best locker room guys, and just an outstanding human being.”

So, regardless of whether the Commanders end up drafting a player with such concerns, fans should feel confident the team has done its research to ensure that that player is the best option for them and fits their culture.

Logan Paulsen’s 2025 NFL Draft Big Board

The opinions expressed in this article are based solely on Logan Paulsen’s opinions and expertise as a draft analyst and do not reflect those of the Commanders’ front office.

We’re just a few days away from the start of the NFL Draft, and draft boards across the league are getting finalized to rank the best players available in this year’s crop of prospects.

So, in preparation for the three-day event, we asked Command Center analyst Logan Paulsen to give us his top 100 players based on his expertise. Let’s dive into Paulsen’s thoughts on the 2025 class.

Sports Illustrated

Commanders GM Adam Peters says draft day calls are ‘emotional’ and ‘powerful’

For Washington Commanders GM Adam Peters, the real magic of draft day isn’t just the pick—it’s hearing the joy in a player’s voice when their dream comes true.

Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters has been around for his fair share of NFL Drafts, and for him, that magic isn’t just in the draft pick itself but the phone calls.

“It’s actually really cool to hear the joy in the players’ voices,” Peters said in a pre-draft press conference. According to Peters, it’s the personal moments, the tears, and the family in the background that stick with him long after the draft pick.

“It’s really cool to hear the joy in the background of their family,” said Peters. “It gets you emotional, they’re emotional. It kind of gets you and makes you really happy.” “You realize what a big moment it is for them and they’ve worked their whole lives to get there and they have their loved ones around and to celebrate with them.”

Podcasts & videos

NFL Draft Preview + Marcus Mariota Tells All: Oregon Glory, NFL Journey & Titans Days | Bussin’ with the Boys

This is an interesting interview with Mariota that offers some new insight into DQ and the 2024 Commanders

This podcast runs for over 2.5 hours and has a roughly 90-minute interview with Marcus Mariota. I have queued it to open up at the spot where Mariota is asked about his transition to Washington last season (roughly at the 2-hour mark), but you may enjoy watching the interview from the start. The entire podcast is bookmarked for convenience.

Commanders Film Room: Prepping for the Draft feat. @MarkBullockNFL & @PFF_NickAkridge

Washington Commanders NFL Draft Preview | Jay Gruden’s Breakdown

NFC East links

Pro Football Talk

Micah Parsons indicates he won’t do on-field work until he has a contract extension

Parsons has participated in most of the voluntary work thus far, because he said he needs to learn new coordinator Matt Eberflus’ defense. But he does not expect to do on-field work until he has a contract extension.

“‘Yeah, I think I’ll still be around,” Parsons said Tuesday night at a team charity event, via Jon Machota of TheAthletic.com. “For me, I’ve still go to learn the playbook. I’m not so much of an iPad person, where I can just keep learning. I’ve got to walk through it.

“Maybe so much I might not be on the field part of it, but I’ll be there learning it, so that way, at the least, I’ll be ready for Week 1.”

Parsons, though, intimated he will not participate in training camp until a contract is signed.

“I mean, it’s extremely important [to complete a deal by camp],” Parsons said. “You really see a lot of players struggle when guys aren’t participating in camp and they get off to slow starts. I don’t want to get off to a slow start.”

Blogging the Boys

Jerry Jones: Dallas Cowboys are working on ‘two pretty substantial trades’

Jerry threw some chum in the rumor waters and noted that the Cowboys are currently working on two different trades. He even called them substantial ones.

That Jerry noted the trades could occur after the draft suggests that they are related to other veterans as it is obviously known who is on what team at the moment, but perhaps it is a matter of waiting to see if certain teams end up fuller at certain positions through the draft.

Big Blue View

New York Giants ‘fielding calls’ for No. 3 overall pick, per report

Could moving down and collecting assets be the right play for Schoen and the Giants. Maybe. Perhaps they would be more comfortable selecting Shedeur Sanders or Jaxson Dart in the bottom part of the top 10 than at No. 3. Maybe adding those Day 2 picks would make the early move for a quarterback more palatable.

Then again, the last time the Giants moved down in the draft and left a clear blue chip player — Micah Parsons — on the board to collect assets that didn’t work out so well. The Giants, of course, ended up with the enigmatic and underproductive Kadarius Toney.

ESPN annual 32-team mock draft

2025 NFL Nation mock draft: First-round predictions

3. New York Giants

Jordan Raanan’s pick: Abdul Carter, OLB, Penn State

The Giants don’t seem to view Shedeur Sanders as a top 3 talent, even with their needs at quarterback. High-level executives around the league agree that Hunter and Carter are the clear-cut top prospects in this draft — of the blue chip or generational variety. “You don’t pass on that type of player,” general manager Joe Schoen said last week. So the Giants don’t pass on Carter, even if edge rushers Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux are on the roster.

12. Dallas Cowboys

Todd Archer’s pick: Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Arizona

The Cowboys need playmakers for Dak Prescott and McMillan fills that role. He might not have the desirable speed, but he can make plays in traffic and has a big catch radius. If the Cowboys want speed then the pick would be Texas wide receiver Matthew Golden, who had the fastest 40-yard dash at the combine (4.29 seconds). The Cowboys can still help Prescott in the second round with a running back.

29. Washington Commanders

John Keim’s pick: Maxwell Hairston, CB, Kentucky

Washington would love to build a strong offensive line and find an edge rusher and running back but can address those needs later in the draft. With Hairston, the Commanders get another young corner who can play outside with ball skills (six interceptions in two years), short-area quickness and competitiveness. He provides them with a player who can help in sub packages and become a starter at some point.

32. Philadelphia Eagles

Tim McManus’ pick: Walter Nolen, DT, Ole Miss

A big key to the Eagles’ success is investing in the trenches. They’ve selected a lineman in the first round nine times since Howie Roseman took over as general manager in 2010. And they need to beef up their defensive tackle rotation after losing Super Bowl standout Milton Williams in free agency. Nolen would bolster a group headlined by Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis.

NFL league links

Articles

Deadspin

NFL Draft 2025: What Playoff Teams Might Do at the Bottom of Round 1

32. Philadelphia Eagles: Philadelphia owns the 32nd and final first-round pick, so the Eagles might not get to make their pick until after midnight. But when their turn comes, we’re saying they’ll jump on Boston College edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku. Not only is the 6-foot-3, 248-pounder prolific — he led the nation with 16.5 sacks — he grew up in Williamstown, New Jersey. That’s just 21 miles from Lincoln Financial Field.

30. Buffalo Bills: Josh Allen earned his huge payday, but his bigger slice of the salary-cap pie means the Bills really need to click on their first pick. We say the Bills need to look at their secondary. The Bills traded cornerback Kaiir Elam to Dallas. While they have brought back Dane Johnson (who played last year in Carolina), they traded CB Kaiir Elam to Dallas. If you noticed, Kentucky cornerback Maxwell Hairston was a late add to the list of draftees who’ll be in Green Bay. We take that as a sign he’s going to the Bills.

29. Washington Commanders: This is where Shedeur Sanders will go. Just kidding. Making sure you’re comprehending the words and not merely mouthing them as you go. In reality, the Commanders need to boost their defensive line. Remember, two-time Pro Bowler Jonathan Allen moved to the Vikings — and he’s not the only departee on the D-line. Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen, a consensus All-American, will be the man here.

Discussion topics

Intelligencer

The NFL Draft Is Actually Boring As Hell

The NFL Draft isn’t just a committee meeting: It’s a long, slow reading of an Excel document. It is more than 12 hours of people walking up to a podium and saying a name of a person you do not know, a person you will almost certainly forget about in a matter of minutes. The players whose names are read will not suit up immediately; you will not see them in uniform for five months, if you ever see them at all. Most of these players are not even at the draft. They are just lines on a spreadsheet. And this will go on for days. It is not just not football; it is not even an actual activity.

And yet this thing dominates the calendar for sports fans every spring. There are draft parties; there are countdown clocks; there are, yes, 250,000 people hanging out in a parking lot in Green Bay.

I ask again: Why? What is wrong with you people?

Part of the draft’s ubiquity is about just the ubiquity of the NFL itself. The draft is the first official league event after the Super Bowl, and the final one until training camp starts. It’s the single offseason event in which the league infiltrates public consciousness. In many ways, the draft is like an old house ad in a newspaper or a self-promotional commercial pointing toward future programming: a way to remind viewers that, someday, not long from now, there will be something you actually want to watch.

To my eyes, there have been three actual interesting things to ever happen at the NFL Draft. The first was in 2014, when SEC Defensive Player of the Year Michael Sam kissed his boyfriend on-camera after the then–St. Louis Rams selected him in the seventh round. (It speaks poorly to the devolution of American culture that we’d probably handle this scene less maturely now than we did 11 years ago.) The second was in 2016, when a video of offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil smoking weed out of a gas mask was posted to his Twitter account on draft night, making it onto telecast and causing him to drop nearly all the way out of the first round. (Tunsil turned out to be a great player who used the incident as motivation; the whole thing is a reminder how jumpy NFL executives really are.) The third was the entire 2020 draft, which was held during the first wave of COVID, when it looked like sports could be years from returning. That draft gave us rare insight into the lives (and homes) of powerful NFL figures (including Bill Belichick’s dog) and may have served as the moment that Goodell turned public opinion back in his favor, against all odds at the time.

And … that’s it. Otherwise, it’s really just the listing of a bunch of names: the ultimate “this could have been an email” event.

There are three NBA playoff games on Thursday night — including game three of the Knicks-Pistons series — as well as the Stanley Cup playoffs, baseball games, Adolescence,Andor, and the promise of a lovely spring night. The center of the sports world will be guys in overstuffed suits reading names off a note card for 12 hours. I know people watch. I should finally just admit I will never understand why.

Washington Post (paywall)

Sportsbooks ‘cringe’ at the NFL draft — but take bets anyway

The draft is a nightmare for some sportsbooks because team employees and others can know the outcome of a pick before it happens. But it’s too popular to ignore.

At noon sharp Tuesday, the sportsbook at the Westgate casino in Las Vegas will start allowing bettors, for the first time this offseason, to place wagers on where prospects such as Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward will get picked in the NFL draft, which begins Thursday.

Bets will fly in. And throughout the afternoon, the bookmakers who set the betting lines, for Westgate and other sportsbooks, will refresh the social media feeds of prominent NFL reporters to see whether any new information, usually a leak from an agent or a GM, requires updating the odds.

Then, at 7 p.m., the bets will come off the board at Westgate — and the bookmakers will exhale.

“It’s the most difficult thing we book,” said Jeff Sherman, the vice president of risk management at Westgate.

[F]or sportsbooks and bettors alike, the intel that moves the betting lines is essentially all public, delivered constantly on TV and online by NFL reporters. There are no proprietary algorithms or spreadsheets at play here; the house and the players know just about the same things.

“Anytime we book something where the bettors know more than we do, I cringe,” said Jay Kornegay, a retired oddsmaker. “For the draft, we’re just trying to break even.”

All aTwitter

“It ain’t the first day back; it’s just the first day y’all get to see us.”