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Daily Slop – 23 May 25 – Jayden Daniels and the Commanders are the NFL’s best in short yardage success

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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

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Commanders’ president says new stadium will be ‘crown jewel’ of Washington, D.C.

On Monday, we finally heard from Clouse publicly for the first time since arriving in Washington at the Economic Club luncheon. Clouse conveyed that the Commanders have big plans for the new stadium that go beyond football.

“Much more than just simply building a stadium,” Clouse said via Mark Segraves of NBC 4 in Washington, D.C. “This is an opportunity to take 180 acres that should be the crown jewel of the District and turn it into both an economic and community engine that is going to be absolutely part of the roadmap for the future, and living into that, but in a contemporary, relevant way that feels like you are at the absolutely premiere facility in all of sports.”

“There is a roof on the stadium, and I think that’s gonna enable us to bring, you know, 30-to-40 world-class events,” Clouse said. “I mean, we will be the only roofed facility of this size in the Mid-Atlantic, and so, you know, whether that’s Taylor Swift or the Final Four or — any WWE wrestling fans out there? — WrestleMania could come, but we are going to be able to host everything that’s in the city on a national stage. And because of that roof, it gives us a chance to actually create a pipeline of jobs and development.”

Commanders Wire

D.C. Councilman explains why current stadium deal is bad for the city

It’s important to know that this deal is not official. D.C. and the Commanders need seven members of the city council to vote to approve it. Several members have gone on record saying they will approve the deal. Some members, though, including Council Chair Phil Mendelson, have opposed it. Mendelson, however, is in favor of making a deal work for both sides.

Another D.C. Councilman, Robert White, joined “Grant & Danny” of 106.7 The Fan on Tuesday and explained why he’s against the move.

Commanders schedule 2025: Study the Washington Commanders week-by-week schedule with times, TV and more.

“Most people don’t want to be the face or the voice of somebody raining on the parade, and I don’t either, but I have a responsibility to look at this deal,” White said, via Lou DiPietro of Audacy.

White noted that he wants a deal to happen and he’s also a fan of the Commanders, but it’s about doing what’s best for the city and its residents above all else.

“That matters a lot, but residents are counting on me to have a full picture, and so when they say they’re comfortable investing $850 million, they’re counting on me to know whether or not the actual cost is a lot more, and if we’re going to make more,” White said. “They’re assuming we’re not making an $850 million gift, but rather an investment, and right now as the deal is structured, it is not an investment, it’s a gift. So, they are counting on us to not get swept away in the excitement. which I’d love to do as a fan, but, but to rather dig into the details. I say put aside politics, because we don’t really need the politics here- a good investment is a good investment, a bad investment is a bad investment, and I think what residents are saying is the same thing I’m saying: yes, if the deal is good for DC, so let’s get there.”

ESPN

Commanders HC Dan Quinn delivers enthusiastic commencement speech

Quinn — who along with wife, Stacey, received an honorary doctorate degree — implored the graduates to be aggressive and seize opportunities. Quinn has long worked with a mental skills coach, which has helped him over the years to channel any negative thoughts into positive solutions.

He told the students to turn any nerves into positive energy.

“Embrace all of it,” Quinn told the crowd. “I want to be really clear about this: The entire world is open to you. My wish and my hope for every single one of you is to not let the world change you. You go and change the world.”

At times, Quinn’s speech resembled what he’d tell his players. He wished the students an “abundance of success” but also said he wished them “some really hard-ass fights because that’s where the growth is, where you will learn and teach from — and where your superpowers will absolutely fully reveal themselves.”

Quinn told them about how after he graduated from Salisbury, where he played on the defensive line, he applied for 115 Division-I football jobs. He received no interviews.

Commanders.com

Trey Amos eager to learn from Lattimore, Sainristil

[T]here are a few similarities between [Amos] and Lattimore. They both excel as perimeter corners — Amos was one of the most successful defensive backs in the SEC with 13 pass breakups in 2024. Like Lattimore, Amos is at his best in man coverage, although general manager Adam Peters believes he is an all-around player. They even have similar body types; Amos is listed at 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, while Lattimore is 6-foot and 192 pounds.

Amos is looking forward to getting some pointers from Sainristil, too.

“It’s gonna be real exciting,” Amos said. “I’m gonna be able to learn from his footsteps and learn his tools, learn how to communicate and just be a sponge. Just soaking up all types of information. Really looking forward to it.”

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FOX Sports

Breaking down the tush push: Who can stop the Eagles, and who does short yardage best

Last season, there were nearly 1,200 plays in the NFL on third or fourth down where teams needed exactly one yard to move the chains — the exact scenario where tush is commonly pushed.

In this situation, NFL teams ran the ball 78% of the time, though there’s a wide discrepancy from one extreme to the other.

It makes sense that NFL teams mostly run the ball when needing only one yard, because the numbers show it’s more effective than passing. Last year, teams running on third/fourth-and-1 got first downs 74% of the time, while teams throwing on those plays converted just 57%.

The Eagles actually aren’t the NFL’s best in short-yardage situations

The tush push is arguably the NFL’s most well-branded play, its reputation built over the past three seasons, but the Eagles are not the best team in the league when it comes to short yardage, nor is Hurts the best short-yardage QB.

Give him credit for high volume: Hurts led the NFL with 22 conversions on third/fourth-and-1, but he went 22-for-27, which is a solid 81% conversion rate. Among NFL quarterbacks last year, however, Buffalo’s Josh Allen went 17-for-18 (94%) and Denver rookie Bo Nix went 12-for-14 (86%). Washington QB Jayden Daniels, the Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2024, went a perfect 12-for-12 in the same situation.

If you’re looking for the NFL’s best short-yardage team last year, it wasn’t the Eagles (76.7% on third/fourth-and-1 runs) or even the Bills (77.3%). The Commanders went 38-for-43 for an 88% clip, giving them the confidence to go for it often on fourth down.

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Ben Johnson loves opportunity to change narrative on Bears QB issues: ‘That’s where great stories are written’

Regardless of rookie hiccups, though, Williams still accomplished the fifth-best passing season in Bears history in terms of yards. He threw for 3,541.

His quick trip up the single-season leaderboard despite a rookie year in which he was overshadowed by multiple signal-callers from his class is representative of the history stacked against Williams and Johnson: The Bears, in existence since 1920, are the only NFL franchise that has never had a QB throw for 30 touchdowns or 4,000 yards in a season.

Whether it’s over a century of statistics to peruse or simply what took place in Chicago last year, Johnson’s only concerned with working in the present to secure a better future. Thus far, he’s gotten every indication Williams is capable of being a key contributor in that objective.

“I wasn’t here last year, so I can’t speak too much in terms of what it was like before he got here and when he got here last year,” Johnson said, “but from my four months on the job, he’s been outstanding to work with, and we just are focusing on getting a little better every day.”

Johnson was perhaps uniquely qualified among candidates in the most recent head-coaching cycle to help kickstart Williams’ growth and snap Chicago’s streak of quarterbacking woe. As Detroit’s offensive coordinator from 2022-24, he helped rewrite Jared Goff’s NFL story from Rams castoff to Lions hero, delivering three consecutive top-four scoring units while Goff averaged 4,547 yards and 32 touchdowns per season under his tutelage.

Could he achieve something similar with Williams?

If he does, any consternation over the QB’s supposed pre-draft desires will soon fade, a footnote in a new Bears era like Williams hopes to make the team’s TD-passing yards plateau.

“Have we talked about it?” Johnson said when asked if he felt obligated to speak to Williams about the recent story. “Yeah, we talked about it last week after it came out. But he’s his own man. He’s going to be treated as such. I think we’re both really looking forward to turning the page on years prior and focusing on the here and now.”

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