Daily Slop – 23 Jun 25

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

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Articles

ESPN

Five Commanders who could strike it rich in 2026

The Commanders have 37 players entering the final year of their contracts, with 20 who would be considered either starters or key backups. Not all of those 37 will make the roster. Some, though, have a chance for multiyear deals if they produce, whether in Washington or elsewhere.

Here are five players whose next contract will be greatly impacted by this season:

WR Deebo Samuel Sr.

The Commanders did not negotiate an extension with Samuel after trading a fifth-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers for him this offseason. They converted $15.43 million of his existing base salary into a signing bonus and added four voidable years to spread the cap hit. He’ll count only $5,151,105 on the cap this season.

RB Brian Robinson Jr.

He, too, is in the final year of his rookie contract. In his first three seasons Robinson has rushed for 2,329 yards and 15 touchdowns, averaging 4.1 yards per carry. The Commanders drafted running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt in the seventh round. It’s way too soon to consider him Robinson’s eventual replacement, but regardless, the fourth-year back needs a strong season. He has yet to rush for more than 800 yards in a season.

He should have a stronger offensive line to open holes; in the last nine games last season, including the postseason, Robinson had six games when he averaged 1.48 yards or less before first contact. The league average was 2.67 yards.

Nagging injury issues have hindered his play the past two years.

“The biggest thing for me is being available,” he said. “I’m hell when I’m well.”

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The Athletic (paywall)

Commanders owner Josh Harris buys $500,000 Jayden Daniels card in record sale

A new record sale for a Jayden Daniels trading card was set when Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris agreed to pay $500,000 for one of Daniels’ most sought-after rookie cards while standing next to the young quarterback on stage at Topps Trade Night on Saturday.

Harris and Daniels were special guests at the event, which followed Day 2 of Fanatics Fest at the Javits Center.

The original unearthing of the Daniels Black Finite card bears its own improbable story.

A collector with the username “Dr. Moist Muffins” acquired the card from a pack through a box break (where collectors pay for a select portion of the cards opened by a third party) on a Fanatics Live stream around midday New Year’s Day. Dr. Ojash Raval, as he’s known outside of trading card livestreams, only spent $36 for the rights to all the Commanders cards in the break. The monster Daniels card then emerged from a pack, spurring immediate offers from interested buyers. Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and husband to tennis legend Serena Williams, had previously offered a $200,000 public bounty to whoever pulled the card.

Roth wouldn’t give an exact amount of how much was spent in buying the card from “Dr. Moist Muffins,” but said it was in the mid-$300,000 range. So Roth and Ramos will share in a profit of about $150,000 on the card.

And as much as the original discovery of the card came by chance, the card’s sale to Harris felt just as improbable.

Roth said he walked into Fanatics Fest before the doors opened early Saturday since his business had purchased a table to sell cards at the show. He found Rubin “just chilling, kicking a soccer ball” in the Dick’s Sporting Goods set-up near one of the Fest’s entrances. Ramos called the encounter with Rubin “just random.”

“I walked up to him and said, ‘Yo, we’ve got to show Jayden this card. It’s the best (Daniels) card in existence,’” Roth said. “Now granted, it’s not a Topps product. So Rubin was kind of (hesitant).”

Roth said his table had a great day at the show and he and his business partner Ramos then walked into the Topps trade night, which is essentially a swap meet for card collectors, on the top floor of Javits Center after the Fest closed up shop for the day.

Rubin introduced Daniels and Harris to the crowd and shortly after asked, “Who has the biggest Jayden Daniels card?” The duo, with the help of a bulky lead blocker, broke through the crowd to the stage holding up the one-of-a-kind card.

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Riggo’s Rag

5 Commanders who silently took over the offseason without anyone noticing

Chris Moore – Commanders WR

Terry McLaurin, Noah Brown, and Michael Gallup all missed time for different reasons over the Washington Commanders’ off-season program. That provided a chance for other wide receivers to get more involved, and some grasped the opportunity with both hands.

Chris Moore shone more than most. The veteran pass-catcher is looking to shake the dynamic in a crowded room. He’s caught the eye with consistent route running and assured hands. It’ll take much more to make the squad, but he’s off to a good start.

The former fourth-round pick out of Cincinnati arrived late last season. Moore was an emergency option, but nothing else, which is understandable in the circumstances. This experience around the set-up has served him well, so he’s a player to watch as the summer unfolds.

McLaurin, Brown, Deebo Samuel Sr., Luke McCaffrey, and rookie Jaylin Lane will make the 53-man roster. That leaves potentially one more available spot if the Commanders take six receivers through. Others will fancy their chances, but Moore might be in the driver’s seat right now, given his outstanding start to preparations.

Jonathan Jones – Commanders CB

There is plenty of hype around the Commanders’ cornerback room entering 2025. This once-problematic area could become one of strength if everyone meets expectations. That’ll be needed considering the concerns around the team’s lack of legitimate pass-rushing options.

Marshon Lattimore looks healthy and explosive. Mike Sainristil is a franchise cornerstone in waiting after his phenomenal rookie campaign. Noah Igbinoghene will be looking to kick on after an encouraging season. Second-round pick Trey Amos is a potential steal who could help immediately.

Less has been said about free-agent signing Jonathan Jones. The two-time Super Bowl winner signed a one-year deal this offseason, ending his prolific nine-year stint with the New England Patriots. He’s punched well above his weight throughout his career. Based on the former Auburn star’s early integration into the Commanders, hopes are high that this trend can continue.

Jones often goes under the radar. Nobody gave him a shot initially. He went undrafted and was deemed too undersized to make any sort of impression. He’s silenced those doubters and so much more, and he’s ready to help Washington get over the hump.

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Podcasts & videos

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NFC East links

Big Blue View

Odell Beckham Jr. hints being open to Giants reunion, is his return really on the table?

It’s the kind of moment that sets Giants fans into a frenzy. And it’s not just the comment, it’s the timing.

the idea of adding Beckham to the mix brings more than nostalgia. It brings leadership, playoff experience, and the kind of spark that can’t be taught.

Since leaving New York, Beckham’s journey has been a mixed bag. He won a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams in 2021, had a short stint in Baltimore, and finished last season with the Miami Dolphins catching just nine passes before being released.

MetLife Stadium would erupt if No. 13 returned even in a limited role and it’s a storyline that would bring a full-circle moment to one of the most electric players in franchise history.

Beckham may no longer be the same superstar, but his connection to the Giants fanbase runs deep. And in a season where the team is looking to find both identity and momentum, could this door stay cracked open just a little longer?

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NFL league links

Articles

Deadspin

Why Saquon Barkley Is Unlikely to Reach 2,000 Rushing Yards Again This Season

Saquon Barkley will not rush for 2,000 yards in 2025, and it has nothing to do with a Super Bowl hangover or a Madden curse.

More than a century of history stands in the way of the Philadelphia Eagles star, who became the ninth member of the 2K club in 2024. It’s a club with zero two-time members.

The first eight players to reach the milestone missed a combined 28 games in their follow-up campaigns and averaged just under 1,080 rushing yards that season — a fine total, for sure, but barely halfway to NFL immortality.

Barkley is only 28 and still in his prime, but he would have to survive another heavy workload after leading the league with a career-high 345 carries in 16 games last season. He will undoubtedly encounter more stacked boxes and other run-targeting game plans, plus Philadelphia will face the NFL’s fourth-toughest schedule (.561 opponents’ winning percentage in 2024).

Those are a few of the factual, physical barriers in his path, to say nothing of the aforementioned mythical roadblocks as both a reigning Super Bowl LIX champion and “Madden NFL 26” cover model.

Not even Barkley can hurdle that many obstacles.

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The Athletic (paywall)

The board decision that sent the MLB, NFL unions into controversy

Last June, eight members of the board of directors for a licensing group called OneTeam Partners, which is co-owned by the players unions for five major sports leagues, signed a resolution that would have included the member unions in a plan to receive “profits units.” Those units, like traditional equity, could be turned into cash if the company did well.

It was a move that raised alarms within at least one of the unions.

The resolution, which was obtained by The Athletic, called for any eventual payouts — made through what is known as a senior employee incentive plan (SEIP) — to go to the unions the board members hail from. The resolution also directly acknowledged the possibility that the unions could then grant that money to their board members.

“The explicit goal throughout the process was to financially enrich the individuals who serve on the OTP Board as labor organization representatives,” the NFLPA official wrote to lawyers in a communication criticizing the plan, which was reviewed by The Athletic. “… the idea was to pay the money into the unions, then the individuals.”

In a statement to The Athletic, OneTeam said that though the plan was considered, it was ultimately abandoned.

The NFLPA official who voiced concern about the incentive plan wrote that they were concerned about the potential for various conflicts of interest. The official argued internally that the change to the plan could dilute the players’ existing stakes, which they held via their unions. The official also questioned whether the players were informed of how their financial interests might be affected.

Plans like SEIP are common in the business world. Companies use them to reward and lure top leaders, and the programs often grant traditional shares in a company. Private companies in particular will often grant something that operates similarly to shares but is not traditional equity, according to Chris Crawford, managing director for the executive compensation practice at the firm Gallagher.

“It’s not a publicly traded, readily tradable environment,” Crawford said. “It gets into these third-party transactions that get a little bit messy. The most common is by a generic term called ‘phantom stock.’”

Hence OneTeam’s use of “profits units.”

But ultimately, OneTeam is not a common business because it is largely owned by unions. Union officials have legal obligations to their members and their members’ interests, and most unions don’t have for-profit arms with the overlay of those governance concerns.

“The labor organizations’ representatives on the OTP Board are there as FIDUCIARIES representing their union members’ direct ownership interests in the Company — their legal duties are not to the Company generally, but rather their union members’ ownership in the company,” the NFLPA official wrote in the email to lawyers.

The union officials have their positions on OneTeam’s board because of their union roles, positions for which they are already compensated.

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All aTwitter

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