Daily Slop – 23 Aug 24: Links to articles, podcasts & tweets to keep you in touch with the Commanders

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

The Athletic (paywall)

Trading Jahan Dotson shows rebuilding Commanders aren’t waiting for a miracle

Early in the 2004 movie “Miracle,” actor Kurt Russell, playing the role of 1980 U.S. Olympic head coach Herb Brooks, hands a piece of paper to his assistant coach, Craig Patrick.

On the page were 26 names Brooks chose to compete in the team’s training camp. The twist is this moment occurs shortly into the first day of a weeklong tryout with dozens of players.

Studying the list, the puzzled assistant tells Brooks, “You’re missing some of the best players.” The future gold medal-winning Brooks responds, “I’m not looking for the best players, Craig. I’m looking for the right ones.”

That sentence explains why the Washington Commanders traded wide receiver Jahan Dotson on Thursday.

There are players the Commanders could have retained or acquired this offseason who would bolster the team’s 2024 potential. That wasn’t what the former San Francisco 49ers executive and managing partner Josh Harris envisioned. Sustainability comes with consistency, effort and talent. That’s the sweet spot during an overhaul that removed over half of last season’s uncompelling roster while maintaining future salary-cap space and draft picks.

“(Adam and I) want to do things from the ground up, one person at a time,” Harris said in January at the ex-49ers executive’s introductory news conference. “But both of us want to take more of a long-term perspective to build sustainable and elite winning.”

Acquiring three 2025 draft picks plays into that plan.

Trading Dotson began feeling inevitable after the first preseason game. Starters typically play sparingly in the opener. McLaurin played 11 snaps at the New York Jets, while Dotson played 32, more than any receiver on the roster.

The trade timing wasn’t about thrusting Zaccheaus or Brown into the lineup (or, unlikely, sending future assets to Peters’ old team for a player he drafted, disgruntled wideout Brandon Aiyuk). Neither Zaccheaus nor Brown is a trademark second receiver, which would help a rookie quarterback. There is no burgeoning talent Washington sought to clear room for, though third-round pick Luke McCaffrey could eventually crack the rotation this season.

If Dotson’s dip continued or the staff kept him on the sideline, the future trade return would plummet.

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Washington Post (paywall)

Commanders acquire kicker Cade York in trade with Browns

Washington’s kickers have struggled throughout training camp and the preseason.

York needs to be on the Commanders’ roster for at least two games to meet the condition for the pick, a person with knowledge of the terms said. If he’s not, the Commanders keep their pick.

The Browns selected York in the fourth round of the 2022 draft after he started three years at LSU, setting the record for the longest field goal in program history (57 yards against sixth-ranked Florida in 2020) and making 54 of 66 attempts. He also connected on 164 of 168 extra points at LSU.

York earned AFC special teams player of the week honors after a pro debut in which he nailed a game-winning 58-yard field goal against the Carolina Panthers. He converted 24 of 32 field goal attempts and 35 of 37 extra-point attempts during his rookie season in 2022.

But after early struggles for York the following summer, Cleveland acquired former Commanders kicker Dustin Hopkins in a trade with the Los Angeles Chargers, and York was waived.

After a brief stint on the Tennessee Titans’ practice squad, York signed with the New York Giants. He was then waived, added to the practice squad and added to injured reserve after he suffered a quadriceps injury in practice.

York re-signed with Cleveland as a free agent in March, but he has not kicked in a regular season game since his rookie season. He connected on both field goal attempts, including one from 55 yards, in two preseason games this month.

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Washington Post (paywall)

Commanders send wideout Jahan Dotson to Eagles in rare in-division trade

Washington also sent Philadelphia a fifth-round pick in exchange for a 2025 third-rounder and two seventh-round picks.

The deal closes an underwhelming 18 months for Dotson after he impressed as a rookie and ends his run in Washington only two years after the team selected him in the first round of the 2022 draft.

Regarded as one of the more polished route-runners coming out of college, Dotson flashed that big-play ability early as a rookie despite missing five games because of a hamstring injury. But he struggled to replicate that success in 2023, when Washington’s offense as a whole lacked production and cohesiveness.

Dotson had four dropped passes last season, an issue that persisted in training camp, raising questions about his hands and strength at the catch point.

Dotson played the majority of his snaps in the slot, where the Commanders now have multiple candidates, including third-round rookie Luke McCaffrey, free agent addition Olamide Zaccheaus and veteran Jamison Crowder.

“We honestly didn’t even know,” said Kazmeir Allen, who was with Dotson in the wide receivers room the past two seasons but is now working with the running backs. “… We just went out to walk-through [this morning], and I didn’t see him. I don’t think anybody did or knew the news. We just didn’t see him. It obviously circulated, and I just wish him the best.”

That Washington only upgraded a mid-round pick and received two sevenths in return reflects both the team’s eagerness to move on and Dotson’s depreciated value at a time when some of the league’s top wideouts are earning more than $25 million a year.

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Commanders.com

Practice notebook | Kingsbury ‘very confident’ in Commanders WR room

The Commanders have 12 receivers currently on the 90-man roster, and while Terry McLaurin’s status as the top option has never been in doubt, how the rest of the group — and where the players will land on the depth chart — is unclear.

There are some players who have certainly earned a roster spot, though. Olamide Zaccheaus, who signed with the team in April, has developed solid chemistry with quarterback Jayden Daniels partially because of how much he knows about the offense. Aside from also catching punts in the preseason games, Zaccheaus has a knack for getting yards after the catch and navigating blockers on screens.

“He answers the ball on every snap,” Kingsbury said. “Whether he’s running routes or asked to block or dig out safeties. That’s really jumped out on film.”

Perhaps the player with the most impressive jump has been 2021 third-round pick Dyami Brown. There were many who questioned his role in the new system, based partly on his struggles to consistently replicate his ability to make the contested and explosive catches that he had in college. Those questions seem to be nonexistent now, as he has regularly been a reliable target for Daniels and backup Marcus Mariota.

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Podcasts & videos

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Locked on Commanders – Jahan Dotson to Eagles: What It Means for Washington Commanders

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BONUS! Bungee Jumping, The Popcorn Assault & Other Training Camp Shenanigans | Hail Tales: Storie…

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NFC East links

ESPN

2024 NFL preseason trade grades: Jahan Dotson to Eagles

Eagles get: WR Jahan Dotson, 2025 fifth-round pick

Commanders get: 2025 third-round pick, two 2025 seventh-round picks

• Eagles’ grade: B-
• Commanders’ grade: A-

This is a nice trade for the Commanders. It’s soured a bit by a wasted first-round pick — it’s never good when the No. 16 overall pick gets traded away two seasons later for a middle-round selection — but Washington was clearly moving on from Dotson, who was losing snaps in its wide receiver rotation. To get a third-round selection from Philadelphia for a player who was not a big part of your future plans is, objectively, a win.

Washington’s failure to develop Dotson is a tale as old as time: changing coaching staffs, bad quarterbacks and poor organizational direction. In 2022, Dotson was used as an outside receiver running deep-to-intermediate routes in the Scott Turner offense. His volume was low and his catch rate was even lower but, hey — his quarterbacks were Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke. He flashed separation and ripped off explosives when the ball actually came his way. There seemed to be something there.

But in 2023, new offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy stuck Dotson in the slot, and it went terribly. Dotson lacked the consistent hands and after-the-catch creation of an NFL slot — his YAC over expectation of minus-29 was worse than every receiver in the league save one. New quarterback Sam Howell quickly moved away from targeting Dotson, and he began to fall down the depth chart.

That fall continued this summer under Kliff Kingsbury, Dotson’s third offensive coordinator in three years. Kingsbury’s Air Raid-inspired offense needs slot receivers who can break tackles on screens (not Dotson) and strong outside receivers who can beat press and win against the sideline (still not Dotson). Head coach Dan Quinn openly said the team was still looking for its WR2 last week, and Dotson himself acknowledged, “DQ didn’t draft me … Each and every year … in your profession, you got to prove yourself. You got to prove what you’re worth and what you’re capable of doing. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

Keep in mind that additional Dotson targets means fewer targets for Brown, Smith and Goedert — players who have been incredibly efficient and explosive when compared to their peers in recent seasons. Dotson can’t just be the shaky third option he was as a rookie for the Commanders. He must be worthy of the slice of target pie he takes away from the top options.

This is an unsurprising gamble from the shrewd Roseman. As ESPN’s Bill Barnwell noted, we’ve seen a few middle-round picks sent for fliers on highly drafted wide receivers who have, to this point in their careers, disappointed. In fact, I’m surprised it took Roseman this long to get on the train — his protégé, Browns GM Andrew Berry, has already done this twice with trades for Elijah Moore and Jerry Jeudy. In a league exploding with wide receiver talent, the smart teams are piling up with options at WR3, WR4, WR5 — it’s probably the deepest position in the league.

That said, it’s a gamble. Dotson must improve, and the Eagles’ offense must prove it can incorporate a third wide receiver as a viable target. If both Dotson and the Eagles’ offense remain what they’ve been the past two seasons, then it’s unlikely this trade will be worth the price Philadelphia paid.

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NFL league links

Articles

Sportico

NFL’s Virtual Chain Gangs Not Yet Ready for Primetime

The league recently announced an expansive partnership with Sony that includes using the company’s Hawk-Eye technology to determine whether a ball achieved the yard-to-gain necessary for a first down. The setup is similar to automated line call tools in tennis, although the increased scale of NFL fields and operations brings additional complexity.

But so far in the 2024 preseason, Hawk-Eye tests have also consistently pointed toward the system’s remaining room for improvement.

Primarily, onlookers have critiqued the time needed for virtual measurements. On Sunday, for intance, one distance check took more than 60 seconds from the end of a play during a preseason game between the New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers.

Fields expressed confidence that the system will ultimately be both faster and more accurate than the existing analogue method. In tennis, Hawk-Eye cameras are accurate within four millimeters, but the NFL system was closer to 12 millimeters of expected potential error heading into this season.

the iconic plastic posts and chains aren’t going anywhere soon. Even if the virtual measurement system is instituted on a full-time basis, the markers will likely stay to help players and in-stadium fans who can’t see the TV’s yellow line keep track of their relative position.

Notably, the current tests do not include digitally identifying where the ball should be placed, but only determining whether that spot is sufficient to achieve a first down. However, Fields added, the league sees a world where it can sync camera tracking with ball location data to accomplish that goal. “We have to do this in steps,” she said.

Not every NFL stadium has the required hardware for Hawk-Eye testing, though the league plans to change that by the end of this season. (Six 8K cameras are reportedly required.)

At the same time, the league is expanding its testing of smartwatches on ref wrists that notify them when the play clock runs out. Previously, officials have had to bounce between watching the clock and the ball.

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Tweets

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