Daily Slop – 26 Jul 25 – Josh Conerly, Luke McCaffrey, Ben Sinnott, Bobby Wagner & Laremy Tunsil

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

2025 Washington Commanders training camp: Latest intel, updates

Friday, July 25

It’s been evident early in camp how much Washington wants to move its defensive pieces around this camp, notably along the line.

The Commanders will provide a variety of looks — at times lining up pass-rushing linebackers Frankie Luvu and Jacob Martin next to each other with Von Miller on the other side. They’ve used end Dorance Armstrong inside in pass rush sets. They’ve used tackle Javon Kinlaw as an end in their three-tackle alignments.

They lack a dominant lineman but, coach Dan Quinn said, “I just like having a deep crew of guys that can be versatile and do things.”

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The Athletic (paywall)

Commanders rookie Josh Conerly Jr. impressing while learning the ropes at right tackle

Drafted 29th in April in hopes that he can help bolster an offensive line that struggled with consistency in run blocking and pass protection last season, Conerly is the youngest member of the team at just 21 years old. As a true junior, he also ranked among the youngest players in this year’s draft class. However, Washington coach Dan Quinn said Conerly has impressed coaches with how he’s carried himself in practices and meetings.

“He’s really got a more professional attitude, and you know, they said that about him at Oregon, talking to some of the people on the staff there,” Quinn said Friday. “They said, ‘This guy really handles his business.’ So, although he’s younger, I definitely feel that.”

Conerly opened camp as the second-string right tackle behind Andrew Wylie, who started 14 games at that position last season. On Thursday, with Washington’s other premier offensive line addition of the offseason, left tackle Laremy Tunsil, receiving a rest day, Wylie moved to left tackle, and Conerly worked with the first team as right tackle. On Friday, Tunsil returned to the lineup and Conerly returned to second-unit right tackle.

Quinn said not to read too much into the early camp player pairings, however. He envisions Conerly and Wylie rotating more as practices progress. For now, the focus involves continuing to ensure Conerly understands his assignments and faces multiple opponents.

“We’ll mix it around some,” Quinn explained. “It’s cool to see: All right, here he is going against Von (Miller), and then the next time against (Dorance Armstrong). How do we work different guys, and the training camp practices against other teams help as well.”

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Commanders.com

4 Commanders standouts from Week 1 of camp

CB Trey Amos

The Commanders are looking for a starting cornerback to pair with Marshon Lattimore, and it seems like the staff is allowing Amos to earn the job for himself.

Amos, the team’s second-round pick in this year’s draft, has spent most of his time with the starting defense and locked down several of the team’s receivers. He had an impressive pass breakup against Luke McCaffrey at the goal line on Thursday and grabbed an interception off Daniels, although the play was ruled dead because of a flag on the defense.

The Commanders had a first-round grade on Amos in the draft process, and it is easy to see why. He’s good in man coverage, knows how to use contact on wideouts without getting penalized and seems to already have a good grasp of the defense. There’s still a long way to go before the season opener, but as long as Amos keeps this up, it’s his job to lose.

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Riggo’s Rag

Luke McCaffrey quickly turning heads at Commanders camp as breakout hype soars

McCaffrey struggled to accumulate targets last season, bringing in only 18 passes for 168 receiving yards and no touchdowns. The Rice product was buried on the depth chart behind McLaurin, Brown, Dyami Brown, and Olamide Zaccheaus.

All four of those players are currently either unavailable or no longer on the team. As the Commanders’ depth chart stands, McCaffrey should be in play for the WR3 role, even with an active McLaurin.

He’ll likely be competing for that slot with Brown and a fellow youngster in speedy rookie Jaylin Lane. Undrafted free agent Ja’Corey Brooks has also become a story throughout camp to give himself a fighting chance of making the squad.

It’s McCaffrey who seems to have the highest upside, though. NFL stardom runs in his genes, and it’s worth noting he is still adjusting to the wide receiver position after playing mostly as a quarterback until his final two years of college. He has all of the tools to thrive in Kliff Kingsbury’s offensive system, and his skills can be utilized in a variety of different ways.

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Commanders Wire

Young Commanders TE believes 2025 will be a better year for him

[F]or Sinnott, the 2024 season meant very little playing time. He was constantly faced with the reality that Ertz, being healthy, was a much better route runner, and that John Bates was a much better blocker than Sinnott. Looking toward this season, Ertz wants to play again and has returned. Bates was resigned to a new contract by GM Adam Peters. So what about Sinnott now in 2025?

“I am really looking forward to growing and building that confidence going into year two. It’s physical and mental.” Sinnott told [Grant] Paulsen he needed to work on the top of his routes and his footwork, and for the mental he needs to keep learning the fronts, the adjustments made by the defense and needed to be made by the offense.

“There is always something to learn; this game is so complex. The game changes so much. Being able to improvise and adapt. There are new coverages, new fronts. Being able to learn is going to be a never-ending thing. I am up for it and it has been a blessing to have the guys I have.”

“Opportunities are everything; especially in this league, said Sinnott. “I am looking forward to this year. Hoping to show what I can do. I think a big part of my game is after the catch. So, it’s having opportunities and doing what you need to do to increase opportunities for your team.”

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Riggo’s Rag

Commanders defense brings the juice on Day 3 as camp energy surges

Quinn knows full well that if the Washington Commanders intend to dethrone the Philadelphia Eagles this season, the defense has to step up. To that end, Adam Peters brought in several players this offseason who figure to have prominent roles on the defensive side of the ball.

Early in training camp, the desired results are coming.

It isn’t all that unusual for defenses to begin training camp ahead of offenses. Kliff Kingsbury’s unit needs reps to develop its timing. Still, seeing so many big, fast defenders make so many plays early on has to put a smile on Quinn’s face, and should have fans excited for what is to come.

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CBS Sports

Top 30 players age 30 or older

A significant part of the Commanders’ success has been attributed to their veteran players, two of whom have just been named to the Top 30 players over the age of 30 list: Bobby Wagner and Laremy Tunsil.

16. Bobby Wagner Age: 35

The future Hall of Famer is still one of the best off-ball linebackers in the game in his mid 30s. A second-team All-Pro last season, Wagner finished with 132 tackles and 10.0 tackles for loss while starting all 17 games. He had 25 tackles and 0.5 sacks in three playoff games.

Wagner has garnered All-Pro honors for 11 straight years and made the first team six times. He’s on his way to Canton.

19. Laremy Tunsil Age: 30 Age: 30

Tunsil was a stalwart on the Texans offensive line for years, and will have an opportunity to shine with the Commanders. He allowed just two sacks and 17 pressures last season — a pressure rate allowed per dropback of 2.4%.

Making five Pro Bowls in the past six years, Tunsil has been one of the game’s underrated tackle

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CBS Sports

Predicting NFL All-Pros at every offensive position: What they look like, where they’re picked and who’s next

NFL player who profiles as potential All-Pro

Jayden Daniels WAS • QB • #5

• CMP% – 69.0
• YDs – 3568
• TD – 25
• INT – 9
• YD/Att – 7.43

View Profile

A year ago, Houston’s C.J. Stroud was the quarterback representative in this story. He is still a candidate to elevate his play to that of an All-Pro, but the reality is that it is difficult to overcome the elite tier of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. For instance, Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow has yet to earn an All-Pro distinction.

Jayden Daniels is an intriguing player because he impacts the game not only with his arm, but also his feet. The rookie tossed for 3,568 yards, 25 touchdowns and just nine interceptions while adding 891 yards and six touchdowns on the ground — the second-most rushing yards and third-most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in 2024.

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Washington Post (paywall)

Remember QB Josh Johnson? At 39, he’s back in Washington, trying to stick.

Johnson, who played here in 2018 after Alex Smith and Colt McCoy got injured, is grinding at training camp and fighting for a roster spot with the Commanders.

Already he knows he won’t get many plays in practice to prove himself. This is the way it has been since he was a rookie way back in 2008, when he was a fifth-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and had his dreams of being a superstar crushed when he found his name fifth on the first depth chart. Nothing has been easy. Nothing has been given. Every training camp makes him feel lucky.

So he throws, certain that somehow it will all be worth the time. His lifetime record reads like a travelogue. Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Washington, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Houston, Oakland (his hometown), Detroit. He has played for both the New York Giants and the New York Jets. He has had four stints with the San Francisco 49ers and two with the Baltimore Ravens. He has spent time in the XFL, the first United Football League and Alliance of American Football.

[H]e has come to “want the trials and tribulations” of being cut and signed and cut again, knowing each opportunity is like his here in Washington, a chance at the bottom of the roster with the only hope to play being the second half of preseason games and if something has gone seriously wrong with the team’s other quarterbacks in the regular season.

As with much of his career, he knows this second opportunity with Washington is far from certain. He will need the team to keep three quarterbacks, a tough bet behind Jayden Daniels and Marcus Mariota. But coaches love players who have suffered in the NFL and still come back. His best chance is not the passes he throws after practice but the disappointment he has lived without giving up.

“You know,” he says, “life isn’t always about what you want. Life is about what you get.”

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WJLA

Commanders TE Zach Ertz is learning his limits with coach-sanctioned ‘veteran rest days’

The 34-year-old understands his remaining years in the league are limited. Now, he — with a necessary nudge from head coach Dan Quinn — is doing everything he can to extend his shelf-life by implementing ‘veteran rest days’ into his weekly practice schedule.

“I’ve always been a guy that kind of just wants to overwork himself. So, I need people like DQ to kind of keep me from myself or so I don’t go too far,” Ertz said. “We had a long season last year; we want to have another long season this year. So, oftentimes I need people to kind of keep me from myself, and DQ has just been amazing at that.”

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Podcasts & videos

Rookie Jacory Croskey-Merritt (AKA Bill) at Washington Commanders preseason training camp

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NFC East links

Blogging the Boys

Cowboys training camp: Stock watch after Day 3

DT Mazi Smith

With reports that Smith is again losing weight and working towards more of 3-tech role, it’s starting to feel like the beginning of the end for the former first-rounder. This is what they tried to do with him as a rookie, which didn’t bear fruit, and then last year they beefed him up to play 1-tech. Now we’re bouncing back the other way, and all of this indecision means a lack of continuity and a harder time developing.

Granted, this is a new defensive coaching staff. Maybe they have a better vision for what to do with Smith once he makes the transition. But with Osa Odighizuwa already your primary pass-rushing DT and Solomon Thomas now here as his backup, you have to wonder how many snaps Smith can even get in this role to prove his value.

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NFL league links

Articles

ESPN

Feds probing NFLPA actions that ‘may be criminal,’ doc says

A criminal investigation into finances of the NFL Players Association includes potential misuse of funds and self-enrichment by union officials, according to a confidential document obtained by ESPN.

The document, confirmed by multiple sources who had seen it, says that the union is “now on notice of financial actions that may be criminal” and that the union faces “immediate threats requiring prompt actions.”

The document, delivered just days after executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. and director of strategy JC Tretter resigned, details the biggest crisis in the union’s 68-year history. Under bulleted “immediate threats,” the memo cites potential action by the National Labor Relations Board over “unfair labor practices” and a “lapse of fiduciary duty oversight practices during Howell tenure.”

The document does not specify which individuals might be under criminal investigation.

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Washington Post (paywall)

NFL fines players and team employees for selling Super Bowl tickets

Roughly 100 players and two dozen team employees are being penalized for violating league rules prohibiting them from selling their tickets above face value.

The players are being fined 1½ times the face value of the tickets, and the team employees are being fined double the face value, according to that person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the NFL did not confirm the investigation or the penalties publicly.

Under league rules, players and employees of the league and teams are prohibited from selling tickets obtained from their employer for more than face value or more than what they paid for the tickets if that amount is below face value.

The NFL will be “enhancing the mandatory compliance training” around the policy ahead of this season’s Super Bowl and will “increase the penalties for future violations,” according to the memo.

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CBS Sports

Have Lions wasted best Super Bowl chance?

In the NFL, championship windows open very slowly but close in the blink of an eye. Campbell, never one to hide his emotions, had that exact same sentiment after the NFC Championship Game.

“I told those guys, this may have been our only shot,” Campbell said. “Do I think that? No. Do I believe that? No. However, I know how hard it is to get here. I’m well aware. And it’s gonna be twice as hard to get back to this point next year than it was this year. That’s the reality.”

He’s absolutely right. The 2024 season proved it as the Lions kept both coordinators despite significant outside interest and kept their core together … and still fell short due in part to the whims of the sport.

Now, the Lions don’t have those two coordinators, with Johnson the Bears’ head coach and Glenn the Jets’ head coach. They also don’t have some of their core pieces. Do they have enough to remain a true juggernaut and — if things break right — break through?

[New offensive coordinator John] Morton has just one season of play-calling under his belt: 2017 with the Jets, who were quarterbacked by Josh McCown and Bryce Petty. That team was 31st in play-action rate; the Lions were first last year. That’s not to say Morton can’t adjust — in fact, he can and likely will, or else Campbell wouldn’t have hired him — but it is an adjustment.

He’ll also have to deal with two major departures on the offensive line as stalwart center Frank Ragnow retired at 29 and Kevin Zeitler signed with the Titans.

Unlike at offensive coordinator, the Lions hired from within at defensive coordinator, promoting linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard. Last season, the Lions played a hyper-aggressive defense, ranking third in blitz rate, sixth in press coverage rate and first in man coverage rate. It worked to an extent — Detroit ranked sixth in defensive success rate — but it also backfired plenty, too. No one gave up more passes of 25-plus yards than the Lions’ 47, and a league-high 42 of them came through the air.

Regardless of Sheppard’s plans leave his cornerbacks on islands or not, Detroit will look for a big improvement from Terrion Arnold, their 2024 first-round pick who struggled in a demanding role. He graded out as PFF’s No. 109 cornerback (out of 116 qualifiers). His 10 defensive penalties tied for the league lead, and his 161 penalty yards led the league.

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