Daily Slop – 4 Mar 25 – Deebo counter-punches regarding weight issues in ‘24

A collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders

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Articles

Washington Post (paywall)

Landing Deebo Samuel is a shrewd bet for the relentless Commanders

Even if the game-breaking wide receiver doesn’t perform as he did during his impressive 2021 season, he’s still a useful addition to Washington’s offense.

He approaches the wide receiver position with a running back’s force. Even as his numbers shrink, his ability to manufacture yards after the catch — YAC, as it’s called — remains elite. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury created a top-10 offense despite a YAC deficiency last season. Samuel won’t be tackled easily. Kingsbury can line up Samuel anywhere he wishes, which includes putting him in the backfield because, at 6 feet and 215 pounds, he can take the occasional handoff or run a creative route from the tailback’s normal spot.

There are players who put up fancy statistics, and there are players who clobber the competition for every yard available to them. The Commanders should get used to using his nickname as a verb. When he’s on the field, opponents can get Deebo’d on any play.

Not long ago, it would have been reckless for a rising team — one still in the early stages of development despite a 12-5 record and an NFC championship game appearance this past season — to make an aggressive move for an aging wide receiver this soon. But that team-building bible now has a cracked spine and yellow pages. The Commanders merely took a mild risk Saturday when they traded a fifth-round draft pick to San Francisco to acquire Samuel and add his $17.55 million salary cap charge to their 2025 payroll.

Washington isn’t getting a superstar. But if Samuel does nothing more than replicate his 2024 numbers, he would be a valuable No. 2 wide receiver. The threat of his game-breaking ability would take some pressure off Terry McLaurin, who I believe has a 100-catch, 1,500-yard season in him. Let’s also not forget the Jayden Daniels factor: More weapons, especially when they have the versatility, football intelligence and big-game experience that Samuel has, are necessary to help the young quarterback stay ahead of a league adjusting to him.

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The Athletic (paywall)

One-time 49ers star Deebo Samuel comes to Washington with a weight on his shoulders

[In 2019], when their second-round draft pick showed up heftier than what the 49ers had seen in January, they weren’t happy and Welker went to work. He had Samuel arrive at the team facility at 6 a.m., an hour before his teammates came in. They then would then go on a two-mile run. When practice ended in the afternoon, Welker made Samuel run again — this time sprints — while everyone else headed for the showers. The 49ers wanted Samuel around 210 or 212 pounds.

To his credit, Samuel didn’t dodge the workouts and put in the toil with his position coach. Despite all the extra running, though, he never reached the 212-pound threshold. He and Welker eventually negotiated a different line he was not to cross: 220 pounds.

The 2021 season was Samuel’s contract year, and he was active and on point throughout the spring and summer that year. He was in excellent shape when the regular season began, and the result was one of the greatest individual efforts by a 49ers offensive player in the last quarter century:

• 2006 Frank Gore: 1,695 rushing yards, 485 receiving yards
• 2021 Samuel: 1,405 receiving yards, 365 rushing yards
• 2023 Christian McCaffrey: 1,495 rushing yards, 564 receiving yards.

A big issue [in 2024] was Samuel’s weight. He had pneumonia in Week 7, and an array of injuries — calf, ribs, oblique and wrist — throughout the year kept him out of practices. And when Samuel didn’t practice, he gained weight. A lot of weight.

Samuel can still be good. He finally looked and played like himself in the late-season game in Miami. And the situation he’ll be in this season — opposite McLaurin, with Kliff Kingsbury calling plays and Jayden Daniels throwing him the ball — is ideal.

But he has to be motivated. He was in 2019 when he was hounded by Welker and was trying to make a name for himself in the league. And he was in 2021 when a second contract was on the line. After that? Eh, it waxed and waned.

And that’s what makes the 2025 season so interesting. One team, the 49ers, is betting that the fire and ferocity that made Samuel so special — that made him Deebo — no longer can be sustained.

The other team, the Commanders, is betting that with McLaurin, Kingbury and Daniels on his side and — most important — Samuel intent on proving himself following a flabby season, he will return to his former glory.

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Riggo’s Rag

Conditioning criticism provokes response from new Commanders WR Deebo Samuel

Matt Barrows from The Athletic reported that Samuel came into last season 20 pounds overweight. There were mitigating circumstances attached, but the senior writer stated on Tim Kawakami of the San Francisco Standard’s podcast that it’s a concern those in power have had with the wide receiver from the moment he joined the franchise.

“I’m not going to say the number, but I asked what was Deebo’s high point weight wise last season and it meshes with what you said a couple of weeks ago. It got really high and there may have been reasons for that. Not able to work out because of pneumonia. Not able to work out because of injuries. But that’s a concern. I think the 49ers had that concern the minute he showed up in Santa Clara in 2019 and it never fully went away.”

Matt Barrows

This provoked a response from Samuel on social media. He revealed the weight as 225 pounds, which stemmed from a bout with pneumonia.

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Commanders Wire

This statistic should have Commanders’ fans excited about Deebo Samuel

ESPN’s Mina Kimes called Samuel a perfect fit for Washington, citing Washington’s use of 21 personnel as a reason why Samuel will excel with the Commanders.

You can say Samuel has lost a step. That’s fair. They said the same thing about Ekeler and Ertz last year. Did you see how they performed in Kingsbury’s offense?

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Commanders Wire

Former Commanders TE suffers another devastating setback

Armani Rogers looked like a potential undrafted steal for the Washington Commanders in 2022. A former college quarterback at UNLV and Ohio, Rogers moved to tight end and turned heads in Washington’s 2022 training camp. When fifth-round rookie Cole Turner suffered a hamstring injury, Rogers took advantage of his reps, earning a spot on the 53-man roster.

Rogers would play in six games as a rookie, catching five passes for 64 yards before being placed on season-ending injured reserve.

In 2023, the Commanders again had high hopes for athletic Rogers, but he suffered a torn Achilles in OTAs and missed the entire season. Unfortunately for Rogers, Washington had a new regime in 2024, and he was released early in training camp, allowing him the chance to catch on elsewhere.

Rogers was claimed by the Philadelphia Eagles and released three weeks later. In October, he signed with the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad. The Buffalo Bills signed Rogers to a reserve/future contract in January.

Sadly, Rogers’s 2025 season is likely already over, having suffered another torn Achilles during an offseason workout. According to Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2 in Houston, Rogers will have surgery. It’s unknown if it’s the same Achilles.

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Podcasts & videos

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NFC East links

Pro Football Talk

Giants have a difficult balance to strike this offseason

On one hand, the Giants made no major changes after sinking to 3-14 in 2024. On the other hand, co-owner John Mara declared after the season that he’s “just about run out of patience.”

The situation creates a strange dynamic for the Giants in 2025. Mara’s words will naturally make coach Brian Daboll and G.M. Joe Schoen believe they need to win in 2025, or else. Which could cause them to make moves aimed at maximizing the team’s success this year, at the potential expense of laying the foundation for longer-term success.

At the center of this difficult balance is the quarterback position. They were interested in adding Matthew Stafford. Now that he’s off the board, they’ve been linked to Aaron Rodgers. Both are the kind of quarterback who can provide, best-case scenario, a short-term boost. But then what?

A young quarterback could pay dividends, in time. But perhaps not in time to save the current regime.

The vibe has been that they’d like to emerge from the offseason with one of each. If they sign someone like Rodgers, do they still take a quarterback at No. 3? Parking a rookie on the bench won’t help produce the kind of results that will keep Mara’s patience tank from hitting E.

If the goal is to win now, they need to take the best available plug-and-play player when they’re on the clock.

It won’t be easy for the Giants to get to the playoffs in 2025. If they do whatever they think they need to do to get there, it could compromise 2026.

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NFL league links

Articles

ESPN

Bengals put franchise tag on Tee Higgins again; now what?

This is the third year the Bengals and Higgins have battled over a long-term extension. After Higgins was tagged last year, he requested a trade in the hopes of landing a new deal. He ended up signing the tag, playing 12 games and, perhaps most notably, switched agents ahead of this year’s big negotiation, from David Mulugheta to Rocky Arceneaux and Caitlin Aoki of Alliance Sports Management. Arceneaux also represents Higgins’ teammate, Ja’Marr Chase, who also is pursuing an extension.

Higgins announced the latest tag himself with a four-character post Monday: “tag.” Even if the team said it wants to work toward a long-term deal, it is worth monitoring whether being tagged again increases Higgins’ frustration about his situation in Cincinnati in the coming weeks.

The Bengals would like to sign Higgins to a long-term deal, so the franchise tag is a good placeholder for them — not to mention that the value of the tag, $26.1 million, is lower than his actual value in the wide receiver market.

People around the league are skeptical as to whether the Bengals can pay Chase, Higgins and Hendrickson, but they are going to try. Expect rival teams to try to entice Cincinnati with a potential trade package leading up to the draft, especially if a receiver-needy team such as New England doesn’t get what it needs in free agency.

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The Athletic (paywall)

Shedeur Sanders’ draft stock: Why not every NFL team gives the QB a first-round grade

Teams are looking for plus traits at the position. They’re looking for the next Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson or Justin Herbert because dynamic quarterbacks are the needle-movers. Yes, a classic pocket passer with a limited physical skill set certainly has a place in the league, and traits like reading defenses and accuracy will always be important, but they’d better be an ace in the pocket to excel. We haven’t seen that type of passer in a while.

Sanders is just average to good in most areas of his game. He is more pro-ready than most prospects and offers a relative floor, but is that worth a first-round investment?

It only takes one team to fall in love with him and quarterback desperation is a real phenomenon. Plus, this is a weak quarterback class at the top of the draft.

Sanders’ production is good (4,137 yards, 37 touchdown passes, 10 interceptions) but not spectacular. He had at least three draftable receivers to throw to, including Travis Hunter, who is one of the best receivers in the draft and the best defensive back. Sanders’ production is impressive considering how bad his offensive line was, but there have been quarterbacks who have produced at similar levels that aren’t being considered in the first round.

Scouts love Sanders’ toughness, confidence and calmness in clutch situations. He helped elevate a Colorado program that wasn’t relevant for a long time and got it into a bowl game. There is a lot to like about Sanders, but for me, it’s tough to look at the film and give him a first-round grade.

Since his father became a head coach, most assumed that Shedeur would be a top-10 pick, but the traits just don’t match the hype. Sanders has a relationship with Raiders minority owner Tom Brady, so being selected at No. 6 is possible, but if Las Vegas doesn’t take him, he could take a big fall relative to early expectations.

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Discussion topics

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Front Office Sports

Who Could Replace Jimmy Johnson on ‘Fox NFL Sunday’?

Mike McCarthy and Ron Rivera could be seen as quasi-bridge candidates ahead of active head coaches like Sean McVay and Mike Tomlin.

Will Shanks replace Johnson with another retired coach? Maybe. It’s typical for studio shows to have an ex-coach. Think Bill Cowher of CBS’ The NFL Today, Tony Dungy on NBC’s Football Night in America, and Rex Ryan on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown.

Every network emphasizes analysts who have won Super Bowl championships, and none more so than Fox. With Bill Belichick having won six Lombardi trophies as a head coach and having returned to coaching with his job at North Carolina, there aren’t a ton of bold-faced names out there to replace Johnson.

Jon Gruden would be the most vibrant long-term hire, but his candidacy is complicated by his fractious relationship with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and pending litigation against the league. Gruden, who won a Super Bowl with the Bucs, signed a multi-year contract with Barstool Sports last year.

Mike McCarthy (no relation) might be a darkhorse, one high-placed sports media insider speculated. McCarthy has coached at two cornerstone franchises in the NFC—Green Bay and Dallas—where Fox has a bulk of the games. Cowboys alumni get especially high-profile opportunities with NFL rights partners.

Other available coaches with Super Bowl rings include Doug Pederson (who won in Philadelphia) and Ron Rivera (who reached a Super Bowl as coach of the Panthers and won one as a player on the fabled 1985 Bears). Rivera became an administrator for the football program at his alma mater, the University of California, last month.

McCarthy and Rivera could be seen as quasi-bridge candidates ahead of active head coaches like Sean McVay and Mike Tomlin. McVay appeared on Fox’s Super Bowl pregame coverage last month, and decision-makers at several networks believe Tomlin has high upside as a broadcaster.

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All aTwitter

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